Heathrow Meet and Greet parking: drop the keys, walk straight in

Heathrow Meet and Greet parking is the convenience product offered at Terminals 2, 3, and 5. It ran at all four terminals until 23 June 2026, when the Terminal 4 multi-storey car park closed for redevelopment and took the T4 service with it. The shape is the same at each terminal that has it: drive to the Terminal Parking car park at your departure terminal, follow the Meet & Greet signs to the reception level inside the car park, hand the keys to the team at the marked bay, take the receipt, walk to check-in. On return, collect the car from the same reception. The drop happens in the car park itself rather than on the forecourt, which is the structural difference versus Valet (covered in its own section below).

Reception hours for final collection 05:00 to 22:30; out-of-hours collection arranged via the on-call team on the booking confirmation. The £7 forecourt drop-off charge does not apply to Meet & Greet because the car never enters the forecourt. Heathrow is inside the expanded ULEZ; a non-compliant vehicle pays £12.50 a day to drive to the airport on top of any parking charge.

The Meet & Greet workflow has three steps on the outbound side and two on the inbound.

Outbound (drop-off)

1. Book online on Heathrow's own site, up to 12 months in advance. The booking captures the date, time, vehicle registration, and departure terminal. You can also drive up without a booking subject to availability, paying the drive-up rate at the reception.
2. Drive to the Terminal Parking car park at your departure terminal, using the postcode for that car park (TW6 1EW for T2, TW6 1QG for T3, TW6 2GA for T5). Follow the signs for Official Heathrow Meet & Greet from the car park entrance to the reception level for that terminal.
3. Hand the keys at the marked bay. The Meet & Greet team photographs the car with the fixed 360-degree cameras, takes the keys, gives you a receipt, and parks the car at a secure on-airport compound. You walk straight to check-in.

Inbound (collection)

1. Return to the same reception at the Terminal Parking car park after you clear immigration and baggage. The team retrieves the car and brings it to the marked collection bay.
2. Take the keys and drive out. The exit barrier reads the registration plate automatically; no further payment is needed unless the stay exceeded the booked window (in which case the overrun is charged at the drive-up rate).

The total time from arriving at the car park to walking through the check-in hall is typically under 10 minutes at off-peak times, longer when the reception is busy in the morning long-haul peak. On the way back, the wait at the reception ranges from a few minutes to around 20 minutes depending on how many cars are being retrieved at the same time.

Heathrow Meet & Greet has two pricing tracks like the other parking products: a fixed drive-up rate at the reception and a dynamic pre-booked rate online.

Drive-up rate

From £138.60 a day, the same at all three terminals. The drive-up rate is taken on the day at the reception, with the daily figure applied to the actual time the car spends in the compound. A two-day stay at the drive-up rate is roughly £277. A 7-day stay drive-up is around £970, which is the price you would pay turning up without a booking.

Pre-booked rate

From a starting advance band of £143.40 a day on Heathrow's own site, with shorter stays sometimes priced lower per day and longer stays cheaper still with enough lead time. The pre-booked rate is dynamic and quoted per date through the booking widget at heathrow.com; the price you see at the time of booking is the price you pay. Free cancellation up to 2 hours before booked arrival; free amendment up to 24 hours before.

Third-party Park Mark accredited operators (Holiday Extras, Purple Parking, APH, SkyParkSecure, Maple Manor, and others) offer Meet & Greet at lower advance prices for the same car parks or comparable off-airport compounds. They are typically £20 to £50 a day cheaper for a week-long stay, with cancellation terms that vary; check the small print before booking on price alone.

Same product at each of the three terminals that have it, different reception level inside the Terminal Parking car park. Worth noting on the booking confirmation so you do not waste time looking at the wrong level on the day.

Terminal 2

Reception: Level 1 of the T2 Terminal Parking car park, postcode TW6 1EW. Enter the car park on Level 4 from the departures approach road and follow the signs down the spiral ramps to Level 1, where the marked Meet & Greet bays are in the centre section at the front. 360-degree damage cameras. See Terminal 2 parking for the broader picture.

Terminal 3

Reception: Level 1 of the T3 Terminal Parking car park, postcode TW6 1QG. Follow signs for Official Heathrow Meet & Greet from the car park entry. 360-degree damage cameras. See Terminal 3 parking.

Terminal 4

Withdrawn. Meet & Greet left Terminal 4 on 23 June 2026, when the multi-storey car park housing its Level 2 reception closed for the multi-year redevelopment of the T4 forecourts. There is no keys-handover product at T4 while the works run. The on-airport alternative is the T4 Park & Ride on Scylla Road, where Zone A next to the reception is free for up to 2 hours; or book Meet & Greet at another terminal and connect on the free inter-terminal transfer. See Terminal 4 parking.

Terminal 5

Reception: Level 4 of the T5 Terminal Parking car park, Row M, postcode TW6 2GA. Follow the T5 roundabout signs, take the ramp up to Level 4, keep left, follow signs for the Heathrow Meet & Greet reception. 360-degree damage cameras. See Terminal 5 parking.

The single most underweighted fact in any Meet & Greet booking is the damage limitation camera record, because it is the evidence base for any dispute later.

All three Meet & Greet terminals (T2, T3, and T5) use fixed 360-degree damage limitation cameras at the reception. The cameras capture the car from a standardised set of angles at drop-off and again at collection, and the images go into the booking record automatically. The angle, framing, and coverage are the same for every booking; the team does not choose what to photograph.

Why this matters. If the car comes back with a mark you did not put there and you dispute the cause, the camera record is what settles it. The standardised capture catches panels and angles a manual photo set might miss, which is precisely what you want for a leased car (you may pay for any damage at return), a new car, a car with an unusual finish, or after a previous dispute. Photograph any existing damage yourself at drop-off too; two records are better than one in any disagreement.

A historical footnote: Terminal 4 ran a handheld-camera version of the service, with the angles and coverage at the team's discretion, until Meet & Greet was withdrawn from T4 on 23 June 2026. Every current Heathrow Meet & Greet booking now gets the fixed-camera record.

The Meet & Greet reception team operates 05:00 to 22:30 at each of the three terminals for routine drop-offs and final collections. Most flights land and depart within those hours and most bookings sit cleanly inside the window.

Outside the window, late arrivals are handled by the on-call team. The booking confirmation includes the phone number to call when you land; the car is brought back to the same reception bay, typically within 15 to 30 minutes of the call. The out-of-hours service is part of the same booking, with no extra charge for the late return on Heathrow's own service; third-party operators may charge an out-of-hours fee, so check the booking terms if you are flying back after 22:30.

Booking advice for late landings: if your scheduled arrival is between 22:30 and 04:59, the standard recommendation is to phone the on-call number as soon as the aircraft is on stand (or just after baggage if the cabin signal is poor) so the team has a head start on retrieving the car. The 15 to 30-minute wait runs from the call, not from your arrival at the reception, so an early call shortens the wait at the bay.

The decision rule for picking Meet & Greet, expressed as three questions.

Is the daily rate acceptable? Meet & Greet starts at £143.40 a day pre-booked. A 5-day trip is around £717. The same trip at pre-booked Park & Ride is around £62 off-peak; at drive-up Park & Ride around £196. The Meet & Greet rate buys around 25 to 35 days of off-peak Park & Ride. If the budget makes the £600-plus daily gap on a week's trip uncomfortable, Meet & Greet is the wrong product; Park & Ride or Priority Park & Ride at T5 is the right call.

Do you want to deal with parking yourself? If no, Meet & Greet is the cleanest answer. You drive to the door, hand the keys, walk to check-in. You do not park the car, you do not walk to a shuttle, you do not wait at a stop, you do not hunt for the row in the multi-storey on the way back. For travellers with awkward luggage, small children, mobility limitations, or simply tight timing, the £143 a day pays for the friction removed. Terminal Parking at the door is cheaper per day but you park your own car; the work is yours.

Do you want to avoid the forecourt? If yes, Meet & Greet drops in the car park rather than on the forecourt. The car never enters the forecourt drop-off zone, so the £7 charge does not apply. This makes Meet & Greet cleaner than Valet for travellers who specifically do not want to deal with the forecourt; against that, Valet has the £7 charge waived anyway and the drop happens on the kerb itself for a slight time saving. The Valet versus Meet & Greet decision gets its own section below.

Are you flying from T4? If yes, neither Meet & Greet nor Valet is available there. Terminal 4 lost its Meet & Greet on 23 June 2026 with the multi-storey closure, and Valet has never run at T4. The practical T4 answer is the Park & Ride on Scylla Road, with a shuttle every 5 minutes; booking Meet & Greet at T2, T3, or T5 and connecting on the free inter-terminal transfer is possible but rarely worth the time.

Heathrow Valet parking is the sister product to Meet & Greet, and the difference is where you hand over the car. With Valet you drive straight to a dedicated lane on the terminal forecourt, hand the keys to a valet, and walk a few steps into the terminal. Staff park the car at the airport's official secure parking, and on return they bring it back to a dedicated area of the Terminal Parking car park. It is the quickest keys-to-check-in product Heathrow runs.

Where it runs. Valet parking is available at Terminals 2, 3 and 5 only. There has never been Valet at Terminal 4, and since 23 June 2026 there is no Meet & Greet there either: the T4 multi-storey closure removed the only keys-handover product the terminal had. For a Terminal 4 flight, the practical option is the Park & Ride.

What it costs. Heathrow does not advertise a flat from-price for Valet the way it does for Meet & Greet. The rate is an online quote that varies by date and length of stay, and it is usually a little above the equivalent Meet & Greet booking because of the forecourt access. The one clear financial advantage is the forecourt charge: a Valet booking has the £7 Terminal Drop-Off Charge waived in full, where an ordinary forecourt drop pays it. Meet & Greet avoids the same £7 a different way, by never entering the forecourt, so the charge does not separate the two products on price.

Who it suits. Valet is the pick when the couple of minutes saved by dropping at the kerb itself are worth a small premium over Meet & Greet, usually on a tight schedule or a very early start. For most trips from T2, T3 or T5 the two products are close enough that Meet & Greet, normally a touch cheaper, is the practical choice. The full side-by-side is in the next section.

The two products are positioned closely in price and intent, with two structural differences that pick the winner depending on what matters to the reader.

The honest summary. For an average trip from T2, T3, or T5 where you are not in a particular hurry, Meet & Greet at a few pounds cheaper is the practical choice; the forecourt drop saves you a minute or two of walking, which rarely matters. For a tight schedule where the few extra minutes of forecourt drop are valuable, Valet wins. A T4 trip gets neither product since the multi-storey closed in June 2026; the choice there is the Park & Ride or a different terminal. The £7 forecourt charge does not affect the Meet & Greet versus Valet pick because neither product pays it.

Three other products on the side-by-side, with the conditions under which each beats Meet & Greet.

For a one-off trip where saving a few hundred pounds is meaningful and convenience is not critical, Park & Ride beats every other product including Meet & Greet by a wide margin. For a trip where convenience matters and budget is not the bottleneck, Meet & Greet is the right answer most of the time; Valet at the forecourt is the only narrow alternative. The full cross-product picture lives on the Heathrow parking overview; the park and stay packages page covers the related case where you book a nearby hotel plus parking together. The parking FAQs page covers recurring quick-lookup questions across all the products. For the forecourt rules themselves (which use a separate £7 charge structure), see Heathrow drop-off charges.