As this was our first time flying from Heathrow Terminal 5 we had the option to park in the POD Parking area.
We could have stayed in normal Long Stay Parking and caught the bus from the carpark to the terminal, it would have saved us about £50 compared to using the PODs but I was curious, I really wanted to jump into a self driving POD just for the experience.
Surprisingly easy to find, they have written directions which make it sound as though you’re hunting for some special secret hidden facility but actually it was a simple case of leave the M4, join the M25, leave the M25 at the first junction and then follow the very clearly marked signs!!
All we needed to do was drive up to the barrier and watch it open, I always get nervous with these as I’ve had experiences where pre-booking and driving up to a barrier simply didn’t work, but it did here.
It did take a few minutes to find a parking space and I will say they are tight – I don’t own a massive car, in fact it’s a B segment car and there wasn’t a huge amount of door opening room when positioned in the bay – it does feel like they wanted to squeeze as many parking spaces into the area as they could.
Once we’d unloaded the car it was a quick walk to the POD station where there were already 2 waiting PODs.
It’s a simple thing, so it’ll probably confuse someone – touch the screen and pick 1 of 2 locations – either the Terminal or The Thistle hotel. As we were flying and not sleeping it was of course the Terminal. The whole experience is voice prompted with confirmations and user input.
We were asked to confirm the destination, then HAL opened the POD bay doors. We stepped in and sat either end of the POD with our luggage between us (more on this in a second) – there are flashing lights for the door closure, then another huge button again flashing to start – you really can’t go wrong!
The POD then slowly pulled away from the station and started on it’s way to the Terminal – it was pretty slow…….initially.
The POD then does pick up speed and there are a couple of slight bends but when your luggage has wheels it’s enough to make them move around quite a bit – but luckily I have long legs so managed to wedge luggage and continue to film. The whole journey takes about 5 minutes from start to finish, then it’s a very short walk from the POD station to the departure area of T5.
Coming back was also pretty straight forward – we’d stayed the night in the Sofitel which was the floor above the POD station so in the morning it was straight back to the station, where again there were waiting PODs and once again selecting the location and confirming.
In we got and pressed the button to close the doors – except they wouldn’t close, they tried and then got stuck…..
Simple thing, we’d sat on the same side of the POD and with luggage it was enough to tilt the POD very slightly so it couldn’t close the doors – one of us moved and the doors closed – That’s some small tolerances there and no signs or such saying to spread the load! Once again, 5 minutes later and we were back to the carpark.
Is it really worth it? Depends if you want to be close to T5, are using the Thistle Hotel or like me just appreciate the driverless experience.
If you decide to use them, book in advance! We parked there for effectively 9 days and paid £201 – Pay on the day and it’s a huge £57.60 per day! Had we done that it would have cost us £518.40!!
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