Thread: Stansted Airport Pick Up & Drop Off NOT FREE!!!

I went to pick upa friend at Stansted last Friday and he was waiting for me just outside the airport, a bunch a parking staff with the usual antimidating look were telling off drivers to go to the lower area " 15mins FREE ". Don't be fooled, you will have to pay £1 at the barrier.

Its only £1 but the tactics of sending every car to this part which is signaled several times as free in not.

Want to complain but to who?? they are making thousands and noone will claim back £1.

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London Stansted airport is conveniently situated just off the M11 - from London use Junction 8a or from Cambridge use Junction 8 and simply follow the signs on the roundabout for Stansted.
Drop off/pick up

For security reasons, private cars may not stop on the terminal forecourt for any purpose other than to set down passengers. Cars left unattended are liable to be towed away and a retrieval charge levied.
For parking duration of less than 15 minutes, please use the pick up area located opposite the terminal at 15 Minute Pick Up Car Park when meeting or collecting passengers.
Please note: a minimum £1 charge applies for stays of up to 15 minutes in the 15 Minute Pick Up Car Park. Penalty charges apply after 15 Minutes. If you believe your stay may be longer, please use one of the other short stay car parks at Stansted

Stanstead was built and marketed as a convenient, cheaper 3rd airport for London because it was further away from the Capital. Land values were lower etc. etc.

Heathrow still allows free dropping off despite having a smaller landside public area to 'play with'. It also costs more to park longer term on what was fields at Stanstead than the far more metropolitan Heathrow.

And there is THAT speed camera on the M11.

Originally Posted by Tony P

Stanstead was built and marketed as a convenient, cheaper 3rd airport for London because it was further away from the Capital. Land values were lower etc. etc.

Heathrow still allows free dropping off despite having a smaller landside public area to 'play with'. It also costs more to park longer term on what was fields at Stanstead than the far more metropolitan Heathrow.

And there is THAT speed camera on the M11.

Stanstead offers free dropping off, it's waiting to pick up that is charged for.

I take the correction.

At my local airport, Heathrow, I usually collect friends in the drop off area. No waiting is involved as they phone when emerging from Customs. I am there in 10 minutes and they get straight into the car after loading bags in the boot.
Never had any hint of a problem about picking up like this at Terminals 1, 2 and 4 (Not used 3).

I am a taxi driver local to Stansted airport. There used to be a 15 minute free period but that disappeared with the car park revamp about a year ago. I spend about 800 Pounds a year in the car park at Stansted, never stay over an hour – it’s a tax on my business.

Twice I have been offered a ‘parking ticket’ from a red-faced, irate wardens and twice accepted the option of it being posted to me. Tickets were never received by me, and there has been no follow up. I recon that the forecourt is private land and the wardens are employed by the airport and cannot issue ‘real tickets’ only ‘McDonalds’ type invoices.

Furthermore, the airport owner routinely closes the forecourt late at night to all traffic other that Checker Cars (incumbent, monopoly holding private hire firm) and car park busses. There is never a notice published by the local authority warning of the same – which I think is required if any public road is to be closed or restricted.

Other observations. Checker Cars pick up their passengers from the forecourt, and I have yet to find an exemption for them in the highway code. Valet parking accept cars on the forecourt and sometimes leave them un-attended for ages; It is physically impossible to park in the pickup zone, walk to DOMESTIC arrivals to collect disoriented passengers, get back to the car and leave the car park within 15 minutes – so that cost 3 Pounds. Stay over 30 mins and that’ll cost you a fiver. Over 1 hour is 25 Pounds.

I found the same thing the other day - what an outrage! If you leave your wallet at home then basically your passenger in stranded at the airport? Where can you collect them for free? What does anyone get for their 'extra' £1 spent?!

If someone knows of who to write too (BAA?) then post the address here and we should all write/call and complain.

Looking at it from BAs point of view they do state on their website there is a charge. There is also the point of how long would they allow free to pick up? Airports are notorious for delays and if they allowed people to park free it would soon be jammed packed with cars. It would also be very unlikely you could arrive just as your passenger cleared baggage collection. Leaving your wallet at home is not really BAs problem, what would you do if you ran out of petrol or any other emmergency needing money?

Originally Posted by green_and_mean

Looking at it from BAs point of view they do state on their website there is a charge. There is also the point of how long would they allow free to pick up? Airports are notorious for delays and if they allowed people to park free it would soon be jammed packed with cars. It would also be very unlikely you could arrive just as your passenger cleared baggage collection. Leaving your wallet at home is not really BAs problem, what would you do if you ran out of petrol or any other emmergency needing money?

What's it go to do with BA?

Originally Posted by Bernie_the_Bolt

What's it go to do with BA?

I meant BAA forgot an A lol

Originally Posted by Bookworm

Stansted did it for years, and never seemed to find it a major problem before. You got in, you got a ticket with your time of arrival on it, if you were out before the 15 mns, free, if after 15 mns, pay.
Wrong. Checking with Teletext/Internet, you can find out the latest arrival information. Allow 1/2 hour from actual arrival time for disembarkment/luggage/customs etc and you'll usually be spot on, with very rare exceptions. People should NEVER make it for the actual flight arrival time, it's just a waste of time and money. ;-) And if by any chance, they have cleared faster, even better, they can meet you instead of you meeting them!

I would think the point is that the 15 min pick up area is close by the terminal, if you allowed people to overstay 15 mins and then just pay everyone would park there out of convenience and not use the short stay car park, making the point of it being a pick up area pointless.

Apart from dashing in to the drop-off ramp and bundling in your passengers before some "jobsworth parking Gestapo" see's you there is no other way but to pay the £1.

BAA is now owned by The Spanish Company Grupo Ferrovial which had a profit in 2007 of Euro 800 million. They are laughing at us. If they dared try and do this is Spain (or anywhere else in the world) they would be an outcry. Being passive law abiding UK citizens we are easy targets.

You can complain to their website :

BAA Stansted airport

Any ideas to get round this tax please let me know

Manchester also has a rip off GBP2 charge for 20 minutes and makes it extremely difficult to collect passengers. Write to the airport and complain, and also to your MP telling them you are being ripped off.

BAA seem to have a policy of fobbing passengers off - see this site for some examples listen to the people complaints and complaining get your voice heard

Yep, Manchester is a pain. They have barriers though, so you have no choice.

Guys just wanted to bring your attention to a company called
www.stanstedmeetandgreetp arking.co.uk
who offer 'meet and greet' at Stansted airport.

The meet and greet service was going well until I returned from holiday to find they had travelled 67 miles in my car.
When I asked them why this amount of mileage had been done they said it should have done 37 miles only but would not tell me where it had been parked for the weeks holiday.
37 miles is still an outrageous distance for someone to drive the car when's it supposed to be in a 'secure' storage facility.
Quite obvious that it had been used by the firm for the pleasure of driving the car.
They have offered no refund and the car only had a small amount of petrol when I got it back.
When I dug deeper into the company it's a 2 man operation and this behaviour is common practise by them.
Steer clear of this firm of cowboys.

Seems to be pa for the course with out of London Airports with Luton being one of the worst. Inadequate signposting at these air ports is also a problem.