Gatwick tip to avoid the £5 drop off

[Pondrew]

Heathrow Airports Holdings Ltd who run all the big UK airports, have lost millions in revenue from airlines in the last few years thanks to covid. Charging punters through the nose for everything is a quick and easy way to start to recoup those losses.
Stansted is a good one. Every time I go there (quite often and going again next Tuesday) there are cars strewn all over the verges just outside the drop-off area to avoid the charges with people pulling their luggage across the grass to get to the terminal. Yet they have every road covered by ANPR cameras and signs warning of fines. They police this well so I heard.
The last three times I have gone through the drop-off road the barriers have been up and no fees payables. If you go at a busy time, the queue at the barriers backs up so quickly that it gridlocks the drop-off area, so they open the barriers to free it up.
So invariably it's cheaper to go to the right place; and a lot easier for travellers!

Badly designed and poorly executed; imagine that in the UK?

[pvr]

Why do they have barriers? At Gatwick there is just the camera and if you drive through, payment is due.

[Pondrew]

Why do they have barriers?

Possibly something to do with location. Stansted is in Essex, if they had cameras all the local girls would be taking selfies with them!

[Nanu]

Or drop off in the Premier inn car park. Should be not that much of a walk into the terminal ?

Aren’t they patrolled by those parking eye scum bags?

Not that i noticed last time i stayed there
A quick drive through should'nt be a problem.

Be careful with that idea. I dropped the wife off at our local eye infirmary and drove straight out again and received a parking charge notice from Parking Eye. Fought them and won thanks to a website called Peppipoo. (Yes that is the name) which I recall Carol put me onto. Useful for most parking issues. 2 out of 2 wins in my case

[N4LLY]

Be careful with that idea. I dropped the wife off at our local eye infirmary and drove straight out again and received a parking charge notice from Parking Eye. Fought them and won thanks to a website called Peppipoo. (Yes that is the name) which I recall Carol put me onto. Useful for most parking issues. 2 out of 2 wins in my case

I use the Yellow zone car park.
Premier inn have used couple of time as flight times to Wroclaw are 0725 Hrs (Have an office there)

Last June ithought i would try and early hours start from Home. Frigging Dartford Tunnel was closed.
Had to divert Blackwall tunnel and through london to M11

Going again in March, am booked into Premier Inn

[MikeyH]

Yes I stayed at a hotel in Lancaster when I took my daughter back to Uni a couple of years ago and was told to put my car reg into their desk computer. Something went wrong and I received a letter with photos showing the car arriving and leaving but not registering. They required a payment, my wife dealt with it, could not get through to a human and finally sorted it out somehow. No apologies. Bunch of faceless barstools who don’t seen accountable to anyone and can do what they like.

[MikeyH]

This country is not how I remember it 20 years ago and it ain’t gonna get any better