How to choose the cheapest Terminal 3 Heathrow Airport Parking?

How to choose the cheapest Terminal 3 Heathrow Airport Parking?

Used to just rocking up to official Heathrow parking on the day and paying as you enter? Perfectly understandable as you just want to relax and enjoy your holiday; however, by using Airport Parking Shop and a tiny bit of planning, you can save money and perhaps find an option better suited to you.

A comparison: Turning up at the official Terminal 3 Short Stay costs £94.50 per 24 hours (and £94.50 for each additional day). Our lowest price last week was £52.21 for a 7-day stay. Heathrow

Tempted? Then, whether it is the nearest car park or the cheapest, we give you the answers below in just five bite-sized chunks.

1 – Understand Your Parking Type Options (and what’s usually cheapest)

Quick Insights

Park & Ride is usually the cheapest (you park further away and take a bus), while Short Stay, right by the terminal, is the most expensive.

A Deeper Dive

(but don’t worry you will be back to the surface in no time)

The four main types of parking are Short Stay, Long Stay, Meet & Greet and Valet Parking:

• Short Stay (or Multi-Storey) — usually very near to the terminal and just a few minutes’ walk to departures. (T3 Short Stay has a published 12–24h rate of £94.50; height limit generally 2.2 m, with an over-height area up to approximately 2.75 m on the ground floor.)
• Long Stay (or Park & Ride) — these two names exist because Long Stay is more often used for official airport car parks, while Park & Ride is used by third-party providers. What they have in common is that they usually require a shuttle bus or a longish walk of 10+ minutes. (Heathrow Long Stay T2&3 runs free shuttles, typically around 10 minutes.)
• Meet & Greet — you leave your car and keys near the terminal; it’s parked for you in a secure compound. (Official and third-party options operate at T3; many meet you inside T3 Short Stay.)
• Valet Parking — like Meet & Greet but with a premium handover at the terminal and set reception hours (official typically 05:00–22:30 for final collection).

If you’re travelling with the family, you may find the Meet & Greet service is best suited to you; if you’re not carrying huge amounts of luggage then a cheaper Park & Ride may be the best option for you.

Heathrow Terminal 3 Car Park Specifics

A quickie: Only Heathrow Airport sells its official on-airport car parks, so if you are interested in any of the official options below, head over to their website.

Walkable (Official)

• Short Stay T3 (Car Park 3) — This is the only car park in walking distance — approximately 2 to 5 minutes.

Park & Ride (Official & third-party)

• Long Stay T2&3 (Official) — Shuttle takes about 10 minutes with frequent buses.
• Purple Parking Park & Ride (T2/3) — Shuttle typically 12 to 30 minutes, about every 20 minutes between 04:00 and 23:40 (taxi outside those hours); leave keys at reception.
• Maple Parking Express Park & Ride (T2 & T3) — Shuttles are every 10 to 20 minutes and typically take 4 to 10 minutes to T3; leave keys.
• Terminals Parking — Park & Ride — Off-airport Park & Ride serving all terminals (T3 pickups and returns from specified Short Stay levels and rows per instructions); on-demand frequency; leave keys.
• Blue Circle Park & Ride — Shuttle takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes and departs every 15 to 20 minutes; leave keys.

Meet & Greet (Official & third-party)

• Official Meet & Greet T3 — Handover at the Terminal Short Stay car park.
• Official Valet T3 — Here you get to hand over at the terminal, saving a minute or so of walking compared to standard meet & greet.
• Third Party — There are a host of third-party meet & greet providers – more than twenty. We have covered many of them in the table in section 4, but for the purposes of comparing clearly do a search and then filter by Meet & Greet. Most of them meet you at Short Stay or the terminal, so you only have a quick walk.

Which parking type is cheapest?

Expect to pay more for convenience. Short Stay/Multi-Storey is usually the most expensive since you’re closest to the terminal and you keep your keys. Whereas Park & Ride is the cheapest.

Even though you’ll drop your car very close to the airport and have a short walk, Meet & Greet can sometimes rival Long Stay/Park & Ride on price: your car is usually parked offsite where storage is cheaper — and you have to leave your keys and arrange drop-off and pick-up times. Heathrow is also incredibly competitive with lots of providers.

Using Airport Parking Shop

Tip: By default, Airport Parking Shop lists prices from low to high irrespective of the parking type, which you can see in the blue box. If you are sure what kind of parking type you want, simply hit the Filter Results option above the results and then select for just what you want under Parking Options on the left.

2 – Plan to Book in Advance

Quick Insight

Start looking at least two weeks in advance.

(The Quick Dive-Down Part)

Turning up and paying at the barrier is the most expensive way to park (and you might find limited space). Not only will it cost more but they might not have spaces, leaving you with a lot more stress than having to remember to book!

Short Stay T3 lists £94.50 for 12–24 hours and £94.50 per additional day. Long Stay is £40.80 per day with additional 24-hour periods at £32.90. Our lowest price last week was £52.21 for a 7-day stay. Heathrow

You can save substantially by booking in advance, with the amount you save depending on how far in advance you book: aim for at least two weeks ahead.

Tip: Prices go up due to availability (or lack of) so at busier times of the year, like school and national holidays, you may want to start looking at prices even earlier.

3 – Don’t Rely Just on Heathrow Official Car Parks

Comparing like-for-like, third-party car parks are generally cheaper; however, as we can’t sell official ones go to the Heathrow Airport website to compare their Terminal 3 prices to our third-party ones.

A Deeper Dive

(It is only snorkelling)

Heathrow, like most airports, has its own car parks — and, like most airports, it has third-party operators providing parking options. You may have read about rogue parking operators at airports and understandably that can be off-putting, but the reality is that lots of trusted, established providers run car parks all across the UK.

Heathrow official car parks are Short Stay (each terminal), Park & Ride (paired for T2&3), Meet & Greet and Valet. As we don’t sell official, everything in a search on our site will be third-party.

Why no third-party Short Stay? – By virtue of short stay needing to offer a short walk and therefore be near the terminal and on the airport grounds, it is usually the preserve of the official airport parking – with third-party operators focused on park & ride and meet & greet.

Is official or third-party the cheapest?

Comparing like-for-like (e.g., meet & greet vs meet & greet; park & ride vs park & ride), official is more often than not pricier.

For most airports, Airport Parking Shop lets you compare official and third-party side-by-side by parking type. Unfortunately, as only Heathrow Airport sells its official parking (we have tried), we can’t show you that comparison in our search results, you will have to go to the Heathrow Airport website to check. We know going manual and checking multiple browser windows isn’t fun (That is why we created Airport Parking Shop) but you will have to go old school for this one. Anyway, so do a search for your dates here – you can still rest assured you are getting third-party results from just about everyone – and then go to Heathrow Airport’s site to compare against official ones.

4 – Compare Parking Features to Find the Best Value

There is very likely to be more than one provider of your chosen parking option – There are more than 20 meet & greet providers servicing Heathrow Terminal 3. Once you’ve decided on a parking type, compare what they offer to get the right balance of price and convenience:

• Transfer time & frequency (walk minutes or shuttle interval)
• Distance from terminal (handy if walking is preferred)
• Keys (keep vs. leave)
• Opening hours (look for 24/7 if you have late/early flights)
• Security & reviews (Park Mark, recent ratings)
• Height limits / vehicle rules (Short Stay limits; over-height bays)
• Total price, not headline (watch any terminal forecourt/drop-off fees and out-of-hours charges)

Car Parks Comparison

Using Airport Parking Shop

Tip: After doing a search the features above will be displayed in the tabs, or by hitting the More Info button.

5 – Compare Sites to Find the Cheapest and Save More

Quick insight

Not every site sells every car park, and the same space can be a different price elsewhere. Check more than one site — or save time by using Airport Parking Shop.

The Detail

(I ran out of deep dive riffs)

So, you are ready to save money – you’ve even planned out how many more drinks you can get at the pool bar. But then you google for Heathrow Terminal 3 parking, you see so many sites to choose from, and your head starts to hurt. Which one is best?

The world of airport parking is made up of lots of businesses:

• The official airport car parks usually run by the airport.
• National third-party car park brands who resell official spaces or operate Meet & Greet.
• Small regional operators.
• Meet & Greet providers who take your car to a secure compound that you won’t visit.

Use a comparison site to cut through the noise

This definitely helps but not every car park works with every comparison site and sometimes, different sites charge different prices for the same space. Ever been searching for car insurance and found a provider available on one comparison site and not another, or at a different price? Airport parking is no different with the added complication that some comparison sites are selling their own spaces too.

Search more than one

The key therefore in finding the cheapest price is to check as many different sites as possible. As with anything else, there is a cost-benefit ratio so you might set yourself a target of the top 3 or 4. Or you might just give up!

All the comparison sites have a lowest price guarantee – isn’t that great?

Checking multiple sites for lowest prices is a time-consuming exercise so why not just rely on the cheapest price guarantee of the first one? Cheapest price guarantees are fantastic, but it is down to you to go find a lower price elsewhere, often within a tight window, and then contact the original provider, send them the link, and wait for their refund. Something most of us don’t have time for.

How Airport Parking Shop Can Help

That is why Airport Parking Shop is here. We compare the car parks for you, and we even compare the comparison sites. We are independent, we don’t have any car parks of our own. Check the logos for our partners above and then look down the search results for airport parking and you can see we work with almost everyone (find one we don’t, let us know and we’ll get on it).

How we save time and money:

• See more options: both independent car parks and comparison sites.
• Compare providers: see prices for the same space, all next to each other in one search.
• See like-for-like: compare Park & Ride with Park & Ride, Meet & Greet with Meet & Greet.
• Quickly narrow down: filter by parking type, customer reviews, providers and even distance to the terminal.
• Switch dates in a click to see the cheapest.
• Understand feature differences: check summary cards or tap through for full details.