Re: Airport Drop off and pick up charges.
Yep in total agreement. Airport parking is a huge scam and getting worse. It's such a lucrative business that they even have enforcement officers in cars who patrol the campus and side roads to make sure that people don't temporarily park on the grass verges and side roads to try and avoid paying the extortionate fees. It's a classic rip off situation.
It is NO COINCIDENCE that baggage handling and the end-to-end process is hampered and takes longer than it should. It's all an integral part of the scam. The airline/airport states the "expected" arrival time of flights and that's the time people use to determine when they need to be at the airport to pick up their friends and family. Now whilst they can't slow the aeroplane down in flight, when it lands, then the airport is in control.
So they control how long it is before the passengers can get off the plane, they control how long it is before the baggage handlers even begin offloading the baggage, they control how long it takes before the off-loaded baggage is made available to the carousel and passengers and so on.
It is thus very easy for the airports to ensure that the passengers don't emerge in to the Arrivals lobby until 20-45 mins LATER than the public were expecting. That generates a great deal of parking money for them.
It's a blatant scam all round.
What I do, is go and park in the car park of a nearby hotel (there are always plenty to choose from). Typically I choose one with a public coffee bar/lounge so I can arrive early and sit and have a coffee. There are no parking charges for such customers. I then wait until my passenger has actually emerged in the Arrivals terminal and is sat, with their baggage ready to go. I insist they text or phone when that has happened. That is then the point where I then drive from the hotel to the pick-up point. Straight in, straight out. Even so they clobber you for £2-£3 which is a total scam and needs to be outlawed, but at least it stops you paying £10-30 waiting around.