Stansted Meet and Greet.

[ChesterGreySideboard]

Does anyone have any experience of meet and greet at

I’m thinking about it simply for speed and convenience but everything I read about it says that people have come back to damaged cars.
Of course the logical part of me thinks that there are a zillion people who didn’t bother to comment who found it was just fine.

Never had any problems with it.
Often I find it's as cheap as mid-day parking if booking a reasonable period on advance.

We've used it a few times and it was fine, easy peasy even.
No issues with damage or anything.

Mid-stay not mid-day

It’s only £10 more than mid stay.
I’m flying over the Easter Holidays so I just want to do anything to avoid getting stuck really.
But then with the mid stay the busses are every 10 minutes and it’s a 7 minute journey. I’m wondering if it would take just as long to queue up at the meet and greet.

I've never queued for more than a minute or two at most.

I would consider using a taxi instead.

Re your car I would also check the terms and conditions of your car insurance policy before handing keys over. You are basically entrusting your car to a stranger and you could well pick up the tab if your car is damaged.

We did it - it was fine and only marginally more expensive than doing long stay and faffing around with buses. Very quick and easy. We’re not that fussed about the car though.

A full set of photos of exterior condition before you hand over the keys might be a reassuring thing to do in case of later disputes.

Good experience here, no queues at all. We booked direct with the airport, it seems it’s the outside companies who are not looking after the cars and leaving them in unsecured places

Thank you for your replies.
I’m booking through Holiday Extras but as I understand it’s the proper official Meet and Greet.
It’s not a fancy or expensive car but it is in very good condition.

People would be fussed about their car if it got damaged or otherwise misused whilst in the supposed care of others. OP - would strongly urge you not to use meet and greet but either park the car yourself or get a taxi to and from the airport.

We use it every time and have never had a problem, my car battery died on pick up once and it took them 5 minutes to get someone round to jump start it. It's a couple of minutes walk into departures too which is great when you've got kids, pushchairs and bags 👍 always worth the extra few quid in our experience!

Take a lot of photos of the car's exterior and interior recording the date. Also note the mileage on the car when you drop it off and the position of both drivers and passenger seats. This may sound a bit OTT but you are entrusting your car to a stranger and if the car is damaged it may well be you who is going to pay out for same.

I did not think that the owners of the airports themselves officially endorse any meet and greet companies but I will stand corrected if told otherwise.

I would also check whether the car parks they use has a Park Mark award (such awards are given to the car park and not the company).

Yes, we've used meet and greet at Stanstead and at Heathrow. Works well for us. Our car has never been damaged and it's a lot easier than parking in the long stay. Also worked out cheaper.

It's fine! We always use it and travel a lot - never had an issue - very professional parking and IMO I would now always take the car to the airport having had one nicked from our home whilst on holiday

The OP is talking about the official Stansted Meet & Greet Attila, not one of the questionable independent ones, which I agree are worryingly risky.

I’d never use one of the unofficial ones to be fair. I’m sure some are fine but it seems questionable to me.

It’s this one.
Seems official.

"I did not think that the owners of the airports themselves officially endorse any meet and greet companies but I will stand corrected if told otherwise."

The meet and greets in the airports are definitely official?

Stansted one is fine I've used it about 4 or 5 times.

It's great if you've got smaller kids as it avoids the whole suitcases / holding small children with not enough hands / walking through car parks where cars are driving / getting extra buses and pissing around

I really don't understand the terror of it that it seems to inspire in some posters, IF it was that bad no-one would use it, it would have been shut down years ago. There would be watchdog type progs about it and all that sort of thing :D It's been going for years. It's completely fine.

Does anyone have experience of the security fast track?

We did the meet and Greet at Stansted 18 months ago on a Saturday morning. The queue on the access road was so long that people abandoned their cars (including us) on the dual carriageway, handed the keys to the harrassed woman with a clip board at the malfunctioning gate, and ran through the carpark with luggage. Our car was at least 20th in the queue out on the main road. We had been there for well over 40 minutes. There was no greet on return - we had to go to a shed in the car park out front of the terminal to collect our keys, and then locate our car in the car park (which was massive). Nothing like the meet and greet at heathrow or gatwick. Chaos.

Thanks.
I booked the mid stay in the end. I worried that it might get busy like that mid day on on the first day of the holidays.

Have a great holiday!