Never driven to an airport before - how does it work? (e.g. driving to Luton?)

[Borelis]

Say I follow the google maps driving instructions to Luton airport to pick someone up at the airport who has just flown in. How do I navigate to the appropriate place to pick them up? Do I have to pay to park to collect someone?

I literally have zero idea about how driving to an airport to pick someone up would work so any advice/tips would be very helpful.

Luton is quite straightforward as it’s a fairly small airport with just one terminal. Follow signs from the m1 (or your sat nav, if you have one!) to the airport complex. From there there is signage. There are drop off places you can pull in but only for a short while. You might be best off finding the short stay car park and then walking over to the Arrivals lounge.

When you get there there are signs that say 'pick up / drop off point' if it's a quick one and the person is outside go there. If not you'll need to use the parking. Bear in mind Luton is £4 for up to (I believe 7 mins) and £7 after that to just drive in pick up and drive out without stopping. If you properly park it is a lot more.

And you’ll have to pay for short stay parking - for less than an hour should only be a few quid. Drop off / set down is usually free but you really can’t linger for any more than a couple of mins and would need to stay in your car.

@stanski I will stand corrected then - I wasn’t aware Luton charged for drop off! I’ve only ever parked in the Long Stay

First of all, get their return flight details so you can see if it is due in on time or is delayed. Aim to get to the airport when the flight is due to land. I usually park in the short stay arrivals car park then go into arrivals. There will be a place where the passengers exit into arrivals once they have got their luggage and gone through customs.

Luton has a few options for pick up/drop off.

The queue to drive into the pick up/drop off closest to the terminal at Luton can be VERY slow moving (a good twenty minutes from the road to getting to the entrance to the pick up area) and then once you're in that area it is very costly £4 for 13 minutes according to this link, then £1 per minute .

It's more relaxing for both the air traveler and the driver collecting them to meet at the long term car park. The traveler can get the free (frequent) shuttle bus and you can wait there free of charge for up to an hour.

www.london-luton.co.uk/to-and-from-lla/want-to-pick-up-for-free

Longstay works out cheaper ha! I go to pick my mum up often and stop just outside the airport until she's at the pick up point ready to be collected - then I go in, virtually load her luggage and she gets in and we go, and it's always at least £4!

I wouldn't rely on google maps directing you to the right place unless you programme it very carefully.

You might be best asking the person you are meeting to walk/get the bus out to one of the car parks and meeting them there as you won't be able to hang around for them in your car for any length of time very near to the terminal.

Have you looked on the airport website to see what it says about free short stay car parks or collecting someone ?

It might be worth waiting at a supermarket/garage/shopping centre/pub etc etc further out, until you know the person you are picking up has cleared security and has their hold luggage if relevant rather than getting right to the airport, as it is often expensive or impossible to wait there for more than a few minutes.

Dh waits st luton retail park - I call him when I’ve landed or after I have picked up luggage if I have any - he then drives to Airport pick up/drop off point and we only pay min charge. Alternatively short stay is around £14/hour.

Thanks everyone :) so I could potentially type in "Luton long stay car park" onto google maps and follow the instructions to there?

Thanks

It really depends if money is an object. If you’re precious about saving a few quid by all means faff with the long stay car park (noting you’d have to pay for that and whoever you’re picking up would then have to get on a shuttle bus, some are chargeable, most not). Just follow signs to the airport, short stay car parking. Within the airport concourse the different types of parking are very well signposted. As long as you time it right and are not there longer than an hour it’s by far the most convenient and you can be waiting in arrivals to greet your friend!

I've never paid for an airport shuttle bus, it's always been free.

If you turn up and use a short stay car park at Manchester for between 30 and 60 mins it costs £7, same at Leeds. It's easy enough to avoid with minimal faffing.

The sort of people who are happy to drop that type of money are either the very wealthy, or the terminally skint because they just waste money left right and centre and few people are the former and it's really worth trying to avoid being the latter.

The sort of people who are happy to drop that type of money are either the very wealthy, or the terminally skint Or the disabled - you have no choice at Luton Airport but to park in the short stay to drop someone off to help them get into the terminal building to connect them with Special Assistance...the charge was £14.

I take your point, but the OP was anxious and looking to make the trip as simple as possible, hence the advice I gave. I fear that faffing with long stay car parks and retail parks etc complicate matters just to save a few quid.

At least OP now has choices. And for clarify, I’m neither very rich nor very skint, but will often make a cost/benefit analysis and sometimes its worth spending a few quid for an easy life - life is complicated enough!

I went there once and the long stay car park was easiest to get to anyway so that might be the best option.

The long stay car park option is less stressful than sitting in traffic queuing to get into the drop off or short stay! I say that from both the perspective of the driver and of the person who's just got off a plane. Infinitely easier all round to meet at the long stay car park.

I recommend the flightradar app too so you can see when the flight is going to land. Much more accurate than any of the airport’s own live arrivals webpages. I spend much of my life collecting dh from flights at various airports.

I would park at Asda (Wigmore) and check out the flight status from there. Retails park also good but sometimes try tricky to park.