Heathrow parking FAQs: every cross-cutting question, across all six products

Use the booking widget at heathrow.com/transport-and-directions/heathrow-parking. Enter your arrival date and time, departure date and time, and the terminal you are flying from, then select a product and pay. The booking is linked to your number plate so the entry and exit barriers read it automatically. You receive a confirmation email with the booking reference and the product details.

Yes, free of charge up to 2 hours before the booked arrival time on Heathrow's own parking products (Park & Ride, Terminal Parking, Meet & Greet, Valet, Priority Park & Ride, Pod Parking). Cancellations after that point may forfeit the booking. Third-party operators booked through Holiday Extras, Purple Parking, APH and similar comparison sites set their own cancellation terms; check the booking confirmation.

Yes, free up to 24 hours before the booked arrival time. Amendments cover dates, times, terminal, and product where the same supplier offers an alternative. Within 24 hours of arrival, amendments may not be possible; contact Heathrow parking customer service to ask. Third-party operators have their own amendment windows, usually similar but worth checking.

Heathrow allows a tolerance window around the booked arrival time. Arriving early may not be a problem if the car park has space, but a substantially earlier arrival can be charged as a separate stay. Arriving late is fine for entry; the booking is linked to your plate and the system applies your booked rate. Substantial overruns on the return side are charged at the drive-up gate rate for the extra time.

No. The booking is linked to your vehicle registration; the entry and exit barriers read the plate automatically via ANPR. Keeping a copy of the confirmation email on your phone is useful if a barrier fails to read the plate or if you need to query the booking, but a printed copy is not required for entry.

No. The pre-book system does not accept Terminal Parking durations below 9 hours; the slot is reserved for spontaneous drive-up use. For stays of less than 9 hours, drive up to the barrier, take a ticket on entry, and pay the drive-up rate at the exit machine. Park & Ride has no such threshold; any duration can be pre-booked.

99 days for Terminal Parking. Park & Ride has no maximum; daily rates continue beyond 21 days at the standard rate. Meet & Greet, Valet, Priority Park & Ride, and Pod Parking have their own per-booking limits set during the booking process. For stays beyond a typical maximum, contact Heathrow parking customer service.

Pre-booked rates are dynamic and use yield-management pricing; the car park can be filled at a lower price when the supplier knows demand in advance. Drive-up rates are fixed and apply to anyone arriving without a booking. The drive-up rate compounds the convenience of just turning up.

For Park & Ride drive-up, the first 24 hours is £46.80, then £37.40 for each additional 24-hour period. For Terminal Parking drive-up, £98 for the first 24 hours then the same £98 for each additional 24-hour block, with no taper. Pre-booked rates are quoted per stay rather than per day, with the per-day cost typically lower the longer the stay.

Park & Ride. From £12.50 a day pre-booked off-peak, £46.80 first 24 hours drive-up. The trade-off is the free courtesy bus to the terminal (every 15 minutes, 15-minute transfer) rather than walking straight into the building. For trips of more than a day, Park & Ride beats every other official Heathrow parking product on price.

Drive-up rates are flat regardless of season. Pre-booked rates are dynamic and rise on peak dates (school holidays, bank holidays, summer weekends, late December). The cheapest pre-booked rates are off-peak weekdays with a long lead time; the most expensive are last-minute peak-summer bookings.

Both. Pre-paid bookings are charged at booking and the exit barrier opens automatically when the ANPR reads your plate. Drive-up arrivals pay at the exit machine or barrier on the way out; the rate is calculated by the time between entry and exit ticket reads. For stays longer than 24 hours, the machine will run the rolling daily total.

Contactless and chip-and-PIN card, plus Apple Pay and Google Pay. Cash is not accepted at the standard exit machines; if your card fails, call the help point on the machine for assistance. American Express and most debit cards work; some pre-paid travel cards do not.

Yes, two separate discounts. First, 100% off the £7 forecourt drop-off charge via the Blue Badge Account registered through heathrow.com/dropoff or APCOA; the discount applies to the registered vehicle automatically. Second, the first 2 hours of parking are free for UK and EEA Blue Badge holders in any Heathrow Park & Ride car park, with no advance registration needed.

For the £7 drop-off discount, register the Blue Badge in advance at heathrow.com/dropoff or directly at heathrowdropoff.apcoa.com. Upload photographs of the front and back of the Blue Badge plus the expiry date; confirmation can take up to five working days, so register at least a week before travel. For the Park & Ride 2-hour free parking, use the call point at the entry barrier and state the Blue Badge number plus the vehicle registration; do the same on exit.

Yes. The Park & Ride courtesy buses are low-floor with a wheelchair space and a fold-down ramp. The Priority Park & Ride business-class shuttles at T5 are wheelchair accessible on request. The Pod Parking vehicles at T5 are step-free from the platform. Bus stops in the car parks and on the terminal forecourts are step-free with kerb access.

Yes. Each Heathrow car park (Terminal Parking, Park & Ride, Priority Park & Ride at T5, Pod Parking at T5) has dedicated Blue Badge bays close to the bus stops or lifts. The Meet & Greet and Valet products bypass the bay question because staff park the car.

+44 (0)20 8757 2700 reaches the Heathrow accessibility team. Use this number to request assistance from your vehicle on arrival, to arrange assistance through the terminal, or to ask any other accessibility question about parking and ground transport.

Yes. Heathrow recommends arranging assistance through your airline at least 48 hours before departure; the airline coordinates with the airport assistance team. For parking assistance specifically (Blue Badge bay arrival, assisted transfer), call 020 8757 2700 in advance to brief the team on your needs and timing.

No. Heathrow ended its on-site EV charging trial (E-GAP) in April 2024 and has not replaced it. No general EV charging is provided in any Heathrow car park at any terminal, in any product (Terminal Parking, Park & Ride, Priority Park & Ride, Meet & Greet, Pod Parking). This is unusual for a major international airport and worth planning around.

The Tesla Public Supercharger site in the Terminal 2 and 3 area has around 15 CCS-equipped devices at up to 250 kW, open to any electric vehicle with a CCS connector, not Tesla-only. Outside the airport boundary, charging is available at hotels and service stations along the Bath Road and the Northern Perimeter Road. Several Meet & Greet operators offer charging while your car is in their care; book through the operator.

Yes. Heathrow has no rule against parking an EV; the issue is only the absence of charging. Arrive with enough range to leave again. For a long trip where the car will sit for two-plus weeks, plan to leave with a partial charge to avoid battery degradation and to have enough range for the drive home plus any onward stop.

The Terminal Drop-Off Charge applies to any vehicle entering the kerbside drop-off forecourt at any of the four terminals. It is £7 per visit from 1 January 2026, with a maximum stay of 10 minutes. The charge applies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year including Christmas. ANPR cameras read the plate on entry; the bill is paid online before, during, or by midnight on the third day after the visit.

Three ways. First, use Park & Ride: the first 29 minutes is free at every Heathrow Park & Ride car park (and at Terminal 4, Zone A next to the reception is free for up to 2 hours), enough for a kerbside drop plus the courtesy bus. Second, book Meet & Greet at T2, T3, or T5: the drop is in the Terminal Parking car park reception, not on the forecourt, so the charge does not apply. Third, book Valet at T2/T3/T5: the drop is on the forecourt but the £7 is waived for Valet bookings.

Yes. The ULEZ £12.50 daily charge applies to non-compliant vehicles for any drive within the ULEZ zone, regardless of duration or purpose. Heathrow has been inside the expanded ULEZ since 29 August 2023. A non-compliant vehicle pays £12.50 to drive to the airport whether it parks for a week or drops a passenger for 5 minutes.

Yes. They are two separate charges with two different operators. ULEZ is TfL (Transport for London) at £12.50 a day for non-compliant vehicles. The Terminal Drop-Off Charge is Heathrow at £7 per forecourt visit. A non-compliant vehicle making a forecourt drop-off pays both: £12.50 ULEZ + £7 drop-off = £19.50 in regulatory and forecourt charges before any parking cost.

Per visit. Each entry to a drop-off forecourt is billed separately. A driver doing two drop-offs in one day pays £7 twice. The 10-minute maximum stay per visit applies; staying past 10 minutes risks an enforcement notice in addition to the £7.

Park & Ride, on 16 September 2024. Same product, same car parks, same shuttle, same pricing structure. The rename was branding only.

Terminal Parking, on 29 September 2025. Same car parks, same hourly tariff bands, same per-terminal arrangements. Renamed alongside Business Parking on the same day.

Priority Park & Ride, on 29 September 2025. Same car parks (where they are open; the T2/T3 site is currently closed for operational reasons), same business-class shuttle, same pricing. The rename aligned the upscale variant with the Park & Ride family naming.

Heathrow is replacing signage gradually. The cost and disruption of full signage replacement on the same day as a brand change would be substantial, so the old names persist in places. Both names point to the same car parks; sat nav postcodes are unchanged. Follow the airport signs as if the old name read the new name.

Yes. Bookings made under the old names (Long Stay, Short Stay, Business Parking) remain fully valid in the renamed car parks. The booking is tied to the dates and the number plate, not to the product name. The entry and exit barriers read the plate; no action is needed from you to convert an old booking to the new name.

Phone 020 8745 6261 from the arrivals hall. The operator dispatches a courtesy bus on demand; the service is free at the point of use, same as the scheduled shuttle. Allow an extra 15 to 25 minutes versus the in-hours wait. The on-demand transfer runs through the night until the 04:00 scheduled service restart.

Meet & Greet reception operates 05:00 to 22:30 for routine final collections. If you arrive outside those hours, phone the on-call number on your booking confirmation as soon as the aircraft is on stand. The car is brought back to the same reception bay 15 to 30 minutes from the call. No extra charge on Heathrow's own service for the late collection; third-party operators may add a small out-of-hours fee, so check the booking terms.

Yes at most partner hotels, with reception desks staffed overnight or via an on-call procedure. Each hotel has its own late-check-in policy; check the booking confirmation for any cut-off. The airport parking side of the bundle uses the same out-of-hours process as standalone parking, so a midnight arrival at the hotel followed by a 04:30 drive to the airport car park works without special arrangement.

The driverless pods operate from 04:00 to 00:30 daily, seven days a week. Outside those hours, a courtesy shuttle bus replaces the pod service between the Pod Parking car park and the T5 terminal; the schedule pattern is similar to the Park & Ride out-of-hours service. The shuttle is free at the point of use.

The standard barrier height across Terminal Parking car parks is 2.2 metres (about 7 feet 2 inches), which fits most cars and small vans. Anything taller needs the overheight or Fast Track lanes, with different rules at each of the three terminals that have the car parks: T2 Short Stay Car Park 2 ground floor takes vehicles up to 3 metres; T3 has an overheight area up to 2.75 metres; T5 has a Fast Track / Overheight entrance on the ground floor with no height restriction in that lane.

The Fast Track / Overheight entrances exist at T2, T3, and T5 (see above). Terminal 4 has had no Terminal Parking car park since 23 June 2026, when its multi-storey closed for redevelopment; T4 parking is the Park & Ride on Scylla Road. Park & Ride car parks are open-air and accept any height, so if your vehicle does not fit Terminal Parking, Park & Ride is the practical fallback at any terminal.

Yes at T5 in particular: the Fast Track / Overheight entrance on the ground floor of Terminal Parking Car Park 5 has no height restriction in that lane. T2 has a 3-metre lane on the ground floor of Short Stay Car Park 2 with a minimum charge of £21 for up to two hours; T3 has a 2.75-metre overheight area. The 24-hour rate in the T5 Fast Track / Overheight lane is £107.80 versus £98 standard.

Private hire vehicles operating commercially must use the Authorised Vehicle Area (AVA) on the Northern Perimeter Road, not the public car parks. Restrictions apply on commercial pickup and drop-off. Private hire used for personal travel (an Uber to drop you off and leave) follows the standard rules and pays any applicable charges. Black cab use is restricted to the licensed taxi ranks at each terminal.

Motorhomes and campervans exceeding the 2.2-metre standard barrier height need to use the overheight lanes at T2, T3, or T5, or use Park & Ride at any terminal. Heathrow has no separate motorhome or campervan tariff; the standard Park & Ride and Fast Track / Overheight rates apply. For a campervan over 3 metres, contact Heathrow Customer Services in advance to confirm dimensions.

Most drive-up Terminal Parking exits use ANPR plate recognition rather than physical tickets; the system calculates the charge from your plate and the entry time. If the lane uses a paper ticket and you have lost it, call the help point at the exit barrier; the team can match the plate to the entry record. A lost-ticket administration fee may apply.

Report the damage at the car park exit (call the help point at the barrier) before leaving, so the team can take an initial record. Then call Heathrow parking customer service to start a formal claim, with the booking reference, photographs, and the damage details. Liability depends on the car park CCTV record and any operator inspection; the process can take several weeks. Heathrow's standard car park conditions apply.

Yes. T2, T3, and T5, the three terminals where Meet & Greet operates, use fixed 360-degree damage limitation cameras that photograph the car from a standardised set of angles at drop-off and collection. The pictures go into the booking record automatically and are the first source of evidence in any damage dispute. Terminal 4 ran a handheld-camera version of the service until Meet & Greet was withdrawn there on 23 June 2026 with the multi-storey closure.

Yes. Every Heathrow car park has CCTV coverage in shared areas (entry, exit, bus stops, footpaths) and 24/7 monitoring at the operator's control room. CCTV is the secondary evidence source in any incident; the camera coverage does not record every space individually. For high-sensitivity cars (leased, new, unusual finish), Meet & Greet with its fixed 360-degree camera record is the safer option than self-parking in a public car park.

Park & Ride. From £12.50 a day pre-booked off-peak, £46.80 first 24 hours drive-up. The shuttle is 15 minutes door to door. For any stay over a day where the shuttle is acceptable, Park & Ride beats every other official Heathrow parking product on price.

Terminal Parking, at the three terminals that have it. The multi-storey is attached to the building at T2, T3, and T5 with a covered, step-free walk of 2 to 5 minutes to the check-in hall. Terminal 4 has had no attached car park since 23 June 2026; the closest T4 option is the Park & Ride with its 5-minute shuttle. The Terminal Parking trade-off is the price: from £8 for 29 minutes, £20 for 2 hours, £98 for 24 hours drive-up, the highest daily rate of any Heathrow parking product.

Valet. The car is dropped at a dedicated lane on the terminal forecourt and the valet takes the keys; you walk straight into the check-in hall. Available at T2, T3, and T5 only. The £7 forecourt drop-off charge is waived in full for Valet bookings, which is the meaningful financial advantage over Meet & Greet at a similar price.

Only Park & Ride, which operates at all four terminals (T2 and T3 share a site; T4 and T5 have their own). Terminal Parking and Meet & Greet run at T2, T3, and T5; both left Terminal 4 on 23 June 2026 when its multi-storey closed for redevelopment. Valet operates at T2, T3, and T5 (T4 has never had it). Priority Park & Ride is currently open at T5 only (T2/T3 closed for operational reasons; T4 has never offered it). Pod Parking is T5 only by design.

Pod Parking is unique to Terminal 5, operating on a dedicated guideway between the Pod Parking car park and the T5 building. The Heathrow Pod runs driverless electric four-seater pods every 30 seconds during operating hours (04:00 to 00:30), with a six-minute station-to-station journey. There is no equivalent product at any other Heathrow terminal.