Shuttle or meet & greet: which to choose

How a car park with a shuttle works

The short answer: a shuttle costs less and takes more of your time, meet & greet the other way round, and a walk only wins when the lot really does sit next to the terminal.

A shuttle lot works like this: you drive up to the gate, give the booking number or the entry code from your confirmation, leave the car in the bay you are shown and keep the key with you. From that moment the car simply stands there and you move across to the bus that runs to the terminal.

The bus is shared with everyone who has just arrived. Some lots send it off once a full load has gathered, others call it up from the gate when someone is waiting. Which of the two your lot does is written on the car park's page, and it is not something to guess at on the day, because it decides how much earlier you have to leave home.

You carry the luggage yourself, and you do it twice: from the boot into the bus, and from the bus onto the pavement at the terminal. With two suitcases that is nothing. With a pushchair, a child seat and four people it becomes an operation worth picturing before you book rather than at dawn on the lot.

Coming back, the order reverses. You call the number from the confirmation, ideally as soon as you have collected your bags, or wait at the agreed spot outside arrivals. The bus pulls up, takes you back to the lot, and there you get into your own car.

How meet & greet works

Meet & greet turns that around. You never look for the entrance to a lot; you drive to the terminal, to the point named in your confirmation. A member of the operator's staff is waiting, notes the condition of the car, takes the keys and drives it to the lot while you are already at the desk.

On the way back you phone the staff after landing and the car pulls up at the terminal as you come out with your bags. The whole drive to the lot and back happens without you, so neither waiting for a ride nor reloading suitcases is your problem.

The price of that convenience is the keys. Somebody you do not know drives your car twice, so walk around it with your phone before you hand it over and ask for a handover record if the operator does not offer one. What to do when you spot a scratch on your return is covered by a separate text about damage at the lot.

Meet & greet is sometimes an extra service bought on top of an ordinary booking rather than a separate kind of car park. On the car park's page it shows up either as the transfer type or as an extra service, and you pick either of them before you pay.

A lot within walking distance

The third option has no transfer at all. The lot sits close enough to the terminal that you walk, wheeling your case along the pavement. You wait for nobody and depend on nobody's schedule.

It is the simplest variant and at the same time the one that depends most on what you are carrying. A backpack and a small wheeled case make the walk effortless. A pushchair, two heavy bags and a child by the hand turn it into hard work, especially in the rain.

Lots like these can cost more than sites further out, because part of what you pay for is the location itself. If you fly alone or as a couple with light luggage, that difference often buys you calm: you get out of the car and simply walk.

What actually decides it: time, luggage, children and keys

The first criterion is time, or rather how predictable it is. A shuttle adds one wait to your departure whose length you do not know in advance. Meet & greet swaps that for an agreed time outside the terminal, but it expects you to be there for it.

The second is luggage. Every reload costs a few minutes and some patience, and a shuttle asks for two of them. With meet & greet you open the boot once; on a walk you take the cases out and lock the car in the same spot.

The third is children. Your own child seat has to go into the bus and back out again, or stay in the car, and the pushchair has to be folded, all of it with a child in your arms. A family with a toddler usually picks meet & greet and is usually right, because it cuts the walk with full hands to a minimum.

The fourth is the keys, and here the line is personal. Some drivers do not mind staff shuffling the car around the site; others would rather keep the key and know that nobody sits behind their wheel. Before choosing meet & greet, read the reviews of that particular operator, because the handover is exactly what they describe.

The three ways side by side

If you now have a picture of all three, the rows below show where they really part company. Read them as a list of questions to yourself rather than a ranking: no option wins on its own, only against what you are carrying and when you fly.

Spotting the transfer type in an offer

The transfer type is a feature of the offer, not something you have to infer. On the car park's page it appears as a short label: shuttle bus, meet & greet or a walk to the terminal. It is worth checking straight after the price and the availability of your dates.

The details, meaning how to call the bus and where exactly the meeting happens with meet & greet, sit in the car park's description, and once you have paid they come back in the confirmation together with the contact for the site staff. That is the same document you open the gate with, so keep it to hand on your phone.

If one offer lists both a shuttle and meet & greet, the second is usually an extra you pay for. You choose it while booking, so it pays to have made up your mind earlier rather than in the payment window, when all you want is to be done.

In practice it comes down to one question: would you rather pay less and build in a margin for the bus, or pay more and have the car outside the terminal at an agreed time. Flying light and alone, take the shuttle or a lot within walking distance. Travelling with a family, leaving very early or coming back off a night flight, meet & greet is usually worth the difference.