08/09/2011So here's the deal... I travel ~ 25 times per year for work and most often fly SouthWest. As work pays for parking during business trips, I most often park @ ParkNFly www.pnf.com as it is walking distance to the terminal....
When I travel for pleasure, I often use this facility. On my last personal trip, I was excited to see this facility listed on CheapAirportParking.org -- and quickly purchased a reservation.
Everything worked perfectly... except the parking garage did not directly honor the reservation as I would have expected (I am sure this is called out somewhere in the fine print.)
The key issue is that the garage directly abides by the times selected on the reservation. When using the garage, without a cheapairportparking.org reservation, all costs are based on a 24 hour day. For example, if the garage was to charge $10/day - and I enter @ 12:00pm, exiting the following day - the cost would be $10 (plus tax) independent on if I exited @ 8am, 9am, or 12pm...
Based on my understanding of how the garages charges - I selected an exit time at the same time my flight was scheduled to arrive (6pm.) In this case, my flight was 3 hours late getting in.... and as such I arrived at the garage at 9pm, 3 hours past my 'reservation time.' I was thus charged an extra day at full price.
In summary - when making your reservation - use the same time as the check-in time, for your checkout time to make sure you truly get what you pay for.
For example -- If you are planning to park Monday 9am thru Friday at 5pm -- instead of using Friday @ 5pm as your check out time, use Saturday @ 8am. Your costs will be the exact same... and you'll be protected should your flight get in late.
Jonathan Z. - Los Angeles, CA
