Long Term Airport Parking?

[Panache]

Haven't seen this discussed...which is the best way to save on airport parking?

I have used book2park.com for parking at IAD and they contract with airport hotels in the vicinity to use their parking lots and shuttle services for $5.25-8.25 per day ,vs $10/day at the long term economy lot at the airport. Discount codes for can be found online.

However, more than once it has meant waiting for close to an hour upon return for the hotel shuttle to come (especially for the lower priced lots that only send the shuttle once an hour). After a longhaul that is pretty grueling, more so if the weather is not cooperating. Then even a 30 minute wait becomes an ordeal.

Any other parking consolidators worth mentioning? Any secret ways to get a discount for parking directly in the airport-run long term lot where shuttles run every few mins?

 

[heavenlyjane]

In Atlanta, we have a favorite private off-site lot that offers discount vouchers on Groupon. It's shuttles leave every 10 kjnured. The net cost is $5-6/day. I'd love to do better than that but prefer to settle into a routine, so that when I get off the plane, I know where my car is.

 

[Panache]

Good to know, I'll look at Groupon. Going to Australia in a month for 3 weeks so parking will end up being a chunk of change.

 

[heavenlyjane]

Good to know, I'll look at Groupon. Going to Australia in a month for 3 weeks so parking will end up being a chunk of change.

For a 3-week trip, would Uber be better?

 

[Bamaguy]

I have used www.airportparkinginc.com for extended parking in a hotel lot near ATL for a daily rate of $3.25 plus a $5 service fee. Just reserve and pay online and they send you an email receipt to show the hotel attendant. I've done this for 28-32 days with no problem at the ATL Renaissance hotel and used their shuttle that runs every 20 min from 4:20 am to midnight.
Their website lists many other major US airports, but I have no experience elsewhere.

 

[knick1959]

I used to believe I just couldn't beat the convenience of parking my own car at the CLE FastPark. It's covered parking and the shuttles are usually there before you are. For short weekend trips, this is still the preferred method. We used to even do this for longer trips (at one time ALL trips). But once the bill adds another $100+ to the travel total, you start thinking.

We used to live a wee bit far from CLE, but are currently 10-15 minutes away with adult children in the area. So we typically can get dropped at the airport. And if we can get a ride home, great. Otherwise we've discovered that the CLE taxis are pretty convenient ... $26 pre-quoted and we have yet to wait for a taxi to become available. 15 minutes later we are home. I trust the ride TO the airport would cost the same, but waiting for the taxi to arrive my be a bit anxious. I know, not a big help if you are some distance away from your airport. But as @heavenlyjane suggested, price Uber both ways.

Another scheme I have used: short term rental cars. We find a number of situations where this makes sense. We occasionally get access to a company house in FL that includes 2 cars for our use during the week we are there. Problem is we have to get from RSW to the Naples house to get to the cars! One of the ways we've done this is simply to rent a car at RSW and return it to a neighborhood office in Naples (with my wife following in the company car). Even keeping the car overnight this has been cheaper than what we've been told a taxi would cost. Same thing works going home. Do you have a car rental office near you? Price out a couple-hour rental dropping at the airport. Or rent the car the night before. Picking up AT the airport usually is more money due to surcharges and other fees. I've also used airport shuttles to stay first night at the hotel then taxi to an off-airport (cheaper) car rental office.

I need to get from DCA to IAD in Sept after a positioning flight lands and our international flight leaves. We've made this an overnight but didn't really have to. I have rented a car in DCA that will get us to the near-IAD hotel and then to the airport the next day. Let me see .... $60. Having recently discovered autoslash.com, I need to plug this reservation in and let it do its magic! NOTE that this option was inspired by suggestions from folks here. It pays to discuss these things. The shuttle service for 2 would cost more and be less convenient.

 

[italdesign]

My rule is to park at airport unless it costs 50% (or $25, whichever is greater) more than Uber. Basically that means weekend trip = airport parking, long trips = Uber.

With Amex Platinum $15 credits, it has tilted more towards Uber. After ~20 Ubers to the airport and back, I've only gotten surge pricing once, so the price has been very stable so far.

I park at work when taking Uber to airport.

 

[Panache]

I live out in the sticks 150 miles from a major airport (in my case the DC-area airports) so gotta suck up and drive to the airport. Or, for early flights, do the park-stay-go package at some hotel (seems those can't be had on points, to boot, but are usually reasonable) It's a major hassle.

Will look into one-way rentals, although doing that on the outbound and return I wonder if that will save much, especially to and from this rural area there is not much demand.

Thanks for the ideas posted thus far

 

[heavenlyjane]

I have used www.airportparkinginc.com for extended parking in a hotel lot near ATL for a daily rate of $3.25 plus a $5 service fee. Just reserve and pay online and they send you an email receipt to show the hotel attendant. I've done this for 28-32 days with no problem at the ATL Renaissance hotel and used their shuttle that runs every 20 min from 4:20 am to midnight.
Their website lists many other major US airports, but I have no experience elsewhere.

Well, that is definitely cheaper. But it feels like hotel parking is more unsupervised than a gated parking lot.

 

[currid7]

We use Park N Fly, you can do portals / Visa deals to lower the price and you'll end up with a free day for every 7 or so. Shuttle is kind of a pain though, and we've been doing Uber for all our trips recently. It's under $15 each way, so with my 2 Plats and the Dr Pepper promo, I haven't paid for an Uber in months. Before I knew about those promos I scored a $100 Uber GC for $90 + 5x UR so I'd have that in my pocket.

We're about 5 mins from MSY though, so we're in a unique situation.

 

[JakeFromStateFarm]

I live out in the sticks 150 miles from a major airport (in my case the DC-area airports) so gotta suck up and drive to the airport. Or, for early flights, do the park-stay-go package at some hotel (seems those can't be had on points, to boot, but are usually reasonable) It's a major hassle.

Will look into one-way rentals, although doing that on the outbound and return I wonder if that will save much, especially to and from this rural area there is not much demand.

Thanks for the ideas posted thus far

Depending on the hotel, you may be able to use points to book a regular room, then just pay a small additional fee for parking. On two separate occasions, I used my Marriott CC free night at the Residence Inn near PHL the night before my flight, then left my car parked at the hotel. Once, they charged me an additional $5 per day for parking. The other time, they didn't charge me anything at all. YMMV.

 

[kurt9769]

I wasn't aware that parking providers participated in portals, so thanks for the tip on that. I generally prefer the convenience of either on-site parking or taking an Uber, though I'm in a good position as DTW has on-site parking at North terminal for $12/day.

Two small hacks I've found:

1. Buy discount Uber gift cards from eBay from PayPal Digital Gifts with your Ink card when they go on sale. You can generally get a couple bucks off plus 5x. Another play is to buy them from Kroger during 4x fuel points with one of the Amex cards with bonused grocery spend.

2. I've noticed that there's some variation in how transactions from parking lots code. If you can find one that codes as travel, for instance, you can use your Arrival card to wipe out the transaction, or use another card that bonuses travel spend. Not a massive win, but could pair well with any of the strategies above.

 

[El Ingeniero]

I live just west of MSP, so close that the planes fly over my neighborhood when they are taking off to the north.

Value parking lot runs $15/day. The off-airport lots aren't less than $12/day.

Taxi costs $30 going to, $35 coming from (extra charge for departing MSP). Uber is less than 1/2 that.

So we Uber.

 

[italdesign]

I have considered free parking in a neighborhood near the subway if I ever need to fly out of a major city nearby. I would drive up and park there for 2 weeks, take the subway to airport.

Probably not a great idea in a high crime city.