Merry Christmas Everybody. Completely cooked out now and planning next years Christmas Lunch. Anna...
Merry Christmas Everybody. Completely cooked out now and planning next years Christmas Lunch. Anna
Member since:20.04.2007
Reviews:72
Members who trust:138
Our recent holiday to Turkey was unavailable from our local East Midlands Airport, so we ended up once again flying from Manchester. We have flown from Manchester a few times now so this is no problem,however it is about an hour and a quarter drive from our home in Derbyshire. With taking the car we then need to find somewhere to park for the duration of the holiday so we tend to use the BCP Airport Parking, car park name of Airparks Handforth Dean.
We booked our parking through the Travel Agent, however, I have in the past booked direct on-line, which saves about 50p. When booking through the travel agent you are handed a voucher which consists of a two page A4 document. This document contains your booking reference with your name and booking date on. Car park name, address and telephone number, the airport you are flying from, distance to airport and your arrival and departure dates and approximate times. Car details including your car registration number, colour, model and make of car and the number of passengers. Extra information includes check in time, which states to allow 50 minutes to check in at the car park and transfer to the airport terminal. Arrival and departure procedures and directions of how to get to the car park.
Airparks operate
car parking at all major airports in the United Kingdom. They offer secure parking which includes security fencing, CCTV, Flood Lighting and 24 hour patrols. The entrance and exit have stingers on them, not quite sure how it would work on the exit, but if you try to drive out through the entrance the stinger will get the car.
As stated above we parked at the Airparks Handford Dean, for Manchester Airport.
Long Marl Drive Handforth Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 3PH.
Telephone number 0161 486 6655
The distance of this car park is 4 miles from Manchester Airport and takes about 20 minutes on the bus depending on travel conditions.
On arrival at the Handforth Car Park the barrier automatically raises at the entrance and you drive through to the drop off bays. These consist of about five bays that take about four cars each. Once parked, you take your booking voucher to the reception, which is a Portacabin type building. Check in takes a few minutes, the receptionist checks your voucher, then asks you to confirm your vehicle details and then your flight details. They then offer you any extras you may be interested in i.e., a valet clean for your car, the meet and greet service or the Airport Lounge that the car park offers. With having a toddler and our flight arriving back in the early hours of the morning we tend to use the meet and greet service for £20.00. This means that on arrival back to the airport your car will be waiting for you outside the terminal. The car park have access to all flight information from Manchester Airport so they are able to check your arrival time and take your car direct to the airport in time for your arrival. They then give you a piece of paper containing a telephone number for you to ring once you are outside the airport. They also give you a tag for you to put on your car key.
Once booked in you can then unload your luggage, drop your key into the box and then wait for the bus to arrive. The Car park staff then move your car from the drop off bay and park it up somewhere in the car park.
Unfortunately if you arrive very early there is nowhere to get a drink but they do have toilets. Should you get there early, the car park is situated next to a shopping park, which has a Tesco's for the last minute things you have forgotten and a Marks and Spencer's which have a coffee shop. We left home at about 7.00 in the morning allowing ourselves 3 hours for the journey and intended to stop for some breakfast on the way, however, we couldn't find anywhere so we called into M&S and had a coffee and a toasted Sandwich each.
The Bus Journey.
When we arrived one bus was just leaving and one had just arrived back into the park. We waited about 5 minutes whilst this bus off loaded and then drove round to the pick up point. The bus sits about 25 people and there is some standing room. On boarding you place your luggage at the front of the bus and then take a seat at the rear. You do have to load your own luggage due to Health and Safety Regulations, and the drivers are not allowed to help. Seat belts are required to be worn. The bus then waits about 10 minutes for people to board before setting off. There are two disabled seats at the front of the seating area. The journey between the car park and airport takes about 20 minutes, we went on a Saturday morning so there was no rush hour traffic, however I would have thought the journey may take longer if you went on a week day during rush hour time.
Once you arrive at the Airport, there is one drop off stop for all terminals. We flew from Terminal 2 and it took a good 15 minutes to walk to the terminal. You off load your own luggage again and push your way through the people waiting to board the bus. Some people don't seem to realise that if they moved back a bit this would allow the people disembarking a little bit more room to off load their luggage. They can't get on the bus until it has been completely emptied!
Arrival back after your Holiday.
As stated we used the meet and greet service £20.00. Once you have collected your luggage and cleared the Airport, you telephone the number that was given to you when you booked in. So I duly called the number and they told us to cross the terminal road into the car park turn left and head towards the Budget Rental Car Shop. So off we went and 1 minute later we saw the Air parks staff who asked our name and checked the piece of paper we were given and then took us round to our waiting car. They helped us load the car, one gentleman took our trolley from us and the other used a token to let us out of the car park. So about 5 minutes after leaving the airport terminal we were on our journey home. With have a toddler this was well worth the £20.00 that we paid.
The alternative way is to wait for a bus to arrive load your luggage on and then take the 20 minute ride back to the car park. Once at the car park you go to reception where you are given your key and a token to get out of the car park, go off and find your car from the 1000's of spaces in the car park, drive to the load up area, load your car and then set off on your journey home. So you are looking at at least half an hour before you can start your home bound journey.
We have used this car park three times now, twice with the meet and greet service and once with the bus journey back and have been totally satisfied with them. I have seen some scams shown on Watchdog, so I have always recorded my mileage when we have arrived at the car park and then checked it when we have received the car back and there has never been any adverse mileage used and the car has always come back in the same condition as we have left it in.
Charges.
To Pre book the car park costs £3.93 per day however you can just arrive without booking and this costs £4.52 per day. So it is certainly better to pre book. The Meet and Greet service costs an extra £20.00 and is bookable/payable on your arrival and not available when placing your original booking. The valet service I think costs between £20.00 and £30.00 although I have never used this service so I an not quite sure. Should you wish to use the Car Park Airport Lounge this costs £13.50 per person and you receive a complimentary tea, coffee, soft or alcoholic drink, newspapers and magazines to read and the use of internet access, television and telephone. (It is not available to children under the age of 12), again I have never used this service.
Another great review - I live literally on the doorstep of Manchester airport so I've never had to use the parking facilities so useful to know about them from a consumer side of things! x
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Advantages: Very short bus journey to airport, first class service. Disadvantages: Fair trek to terminal from bus station but aware of this before we booked.
Jun 22nd, 2008
very helpful by (100%):
