LONDON to LHR TRANSFER

[Putterdude]

In mid-September Dudette and I need a car transfer from the Waterloo-County Hall area to LHR T-2 for a flight back to Vancouver, BC early on a Sunday morning. I have looked at all the reviews on CC and on TripAdvisor and find them dated. I have got quotes from:

 

Just Airports

Airports 24/7

Smiths Airports

Blackberry Cars

Totally Driven

 

We need at least an estate car as Dudette travels with a folding wheelchair. Smiths, as John Bull has said, are not competitive for this type of transfer. Simply Airports has not responded to my email request for a quote and the other 4 services are within a GPB or two of one another. So my question is, who has used any of these companies recently? Except for Blackberry all the reviews I can find are more than a year old and would appreciate some more current experiences.

[Bob++]

The whole business of transferring passengers between London and Heathrow is highly competitive. In these days of instant reviews, any company that doesn't consistently provide a good service will soon go out of business.

 

To a large extent they are only as good as the driver, who is often an independent contractor rather than an employee. I have seen few genuinely bad reviews for any of the companies you have looked at.

[Putterdude]

Bob, thanks for sharing your thoughts, it is much appreciated. I guess it is still early in the season to have many people having actually done such a transfer. As of the moment I am leaning toward Blackberry Cars the have very good reviews and responded quickly to my questions.

[pkamison]

I just used totally driven last week . I asked for estate sized car both times - both times they sent a very comfortable van type car with lots of space - always on time- was a very good experience - I think the drivers were independent contractors to Totally driven. I booked using the Internet and the rate was very fair. Good luck

[Putterdude]

Thank you very much for sharing your experience with Totally Driven.:)

[retiring soon]

HI all!

 

I just returned from Prague & London where I used Viator for the 1st time.

I was pleased with their service (shared transfer), wonder if it'd work for you.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[Putterdude]

Thank you, it is certainly something I'll look into.

[SusieKay]

Your hotel could do this for you with advance notice. They all have their preferred car service vendors and I

cannot imagine they would not use anyone who was unreliable. We were in London last month and had no problem getting from Belgravia to LHR. They made the arrangements the day prior to our departure.

[orchestrapal]

Your hotel could do this for you with advance notice. They all have their preferred car service vendors and I

cannot imagine they would not use anyone who was unreliable. We were in London last month and had no problem getting from Belgravia to LHR. They made the arrangements the day prior to our departure.

 

Absolutely love our London hotel but would never use their car service because the cost is about 50% more than using one of the above mentioned services.

So easy to book Totallydriven on line.

[Bob++]

Agreed - the concierge's b̶a̶c̶k̶h̶a̶n̶d̶ commission has to come from somewhere.

[Iluvcruising2]

Yes, the industry is very competitive.

[FritzG]

Absolutely love our London hotel but would never use their car service because the cost is about 50% more than using one of the above mentioned services.

So easy to book Totallydriven on line.

 

Very true! Last summer we needed to get from our hotel to a cousin's house south of London. The hotel offered to book us a cab, and we were shocked at the price. We almost cancelled the visit, but then we called Simply Airports who we had used to get from LHR to our hotel. They took us to the cousin's house and returned us for half the price that our hotel's cab was going to charge.

[paddingtonbear]

HI all!

 

I just returned from Prague & London where I used Viator for the 1st time.

I was pleased with their service (shared transfer), wonder if it'd work for you.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

 

Viator is a tour consolidator. They just on sell other people's tours/services. If you look on line you should be able to deduce the actual provider and book direct at a lower price.

[retiring soon]

HI all!

 

paddingtonbear ~ thanks for that info re Viator. Their voucher actually names the firm who'll be doing the transfer & that's who one confirms with. I found the service great & the price to be reasonable so would use them again.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Bob, thanks for sharing your thoughts, it is much appreciated. I guess it is still early in the season to have many people having actually done such a transfer. As of the moment I am leaning toward Blackberry Cars the have very good reviews and responded quickly to my questions.

 

We used Blackberry Cars for our pickup at LHR on June 16. Communication about the booking was good and we pre-paid before we left for London. We came out of Customs/Immigration and went to WH Smith...where we were told the driver would be waiting for us at 12:55 with our name on a sign. No one was there. We waited and waited and at 1:15 I went to the Information desk to see if they could call someone for us....leaving my husband to wait at WH Smith. Phone # was busy for 3 tries. At 1:25 I tried to call again and a driver suddenly appeared where I was. He said he'd been there. I don't think so as we looked all around the whole area and never saw him. He had a Prius and was dressed very casually....not like the drivers we've had in the past. More like a UBER driver. I didn't have a cell phone or internet to contact the company but when I did it took them several days to respond to my email.

 

For our return we used Smiths for Airports for a transfer from Southampton cruise port to LHR. I can highly recommend their services. Driver was there when we came out of the terminal, was professionally dressed and had a nice, clean car.

Edited July 8, 2015 by suzyluvs2cruise

[suzyluvs2cruise]

We used Blackberry Cars for our pickup at LHR on June 16. Communication about the booking was good and we pre-paid before we left for London. We came out of Customs/Immigration and went to WH Smith...where we were told the driver would be waiting for us at 12:55 with our name on a sign. No one was there. We waited and waited and at 1:15 I went to the Information desk to see if they could call someone for us....leaving my husband to wait at WH Smith. Phone # was busy for 3 tries. At 1:25 I tried to call again and a driver suddenly appeared where I was. He said he'd been there. I don't think so as we looked all around the whole area and never saw him. He had a Prius and was dressed very casually....not like the drivers we've had in the past. More like a UBER driver. I didn't have a cell phone or internet to contact the company but when I did it took them several days to respond to my email.

 

For our return we used Smiths for Airports for a transfer from Southampton cruise port to LHR. I can highly recommend their services. Driver was there when we came out of the terminal, was professionally dressed and had a nice, clean car.

 

Update to my post above. I received another email yesterday from Blackberry Cars with a partial refund and apology for the poor service.

[Putterdude]

Thanks for your review and update Sue.

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Thanks for your review and update Sue.

 

You're welcome! I wanted to let you, and others, know that Blackberry Cars did offer some compensation.

[Putterdude]

You're welcome! I wanted to let you, and others, know that Blackberry Cars did offer some compensation.

 

Saw your review on one of the review sites. It all seems to be a crapshoot but given the fact that these car services transport thousands of people a year there is always going to be mispuffs. I had occasion to contact Blackberry Cars again today and I must say their response is excellent. So based on the reviews and Blackberry's responses I have rolled the dice and booked with them. We are going from the Waterloo area to LHR at 0600 so I am hopping that a transfer at that hour on a Sunday morning will not be a problem.

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Saw your review on one of the review sites. It all seems to be a crapshoot but given the fact that these car services transport thousands of people a year there is always going to be mispuffs. I had occasion to contact Blackberry Cars again today and I must say their response is excellent. So based on the reviews and Blackberry's responses I have rolled the dice and booked with them. We are going from the Waterloo area to LHR at 0600 so I am hopping that a transfer at that hour on a Sunday morning will not be a problem.

 

Agree that it can be a crapshoot and hope everything goes well for you.

 

After a long flight from LAX to LHR it was a bit disconcerting to walk out of Customs/Immigration to a sea of drivers with names on tablets/paper and not see anyone for us. Especially when all our pre-arrival communication had been good, we had been assured that a driver would be waiting for us and most importantly we had pre-paid for the service. Not having any means of communication with Blackberry Cars made it even harder. In the end it worked out but should have been a stress free experience....which it wasn't.

 

For our transfer from Southampton to LHR we booked with Smiths for Airports. Great communication and no pre-payment required. Imagine our delight when we walked out of the terminal and saw a well dressed driver with our name on a tablet waiting for us. A smooth end to a great cruise. :)

[Putterdude]

Just a quick follow up. We are just back from London and used Blackberry Cars for the hotel to LHR transfer. I reconfirmed the reservation 24 hrs ahead and they sent us an email on the morning of the departure advising that the driver was waiting for us in front of the hotel...about 15 mins early. The estate wagon was clean, The driver was dressed in a white shirt, tie and jacket and couldn't have been more friendly. We were extremely pleased with Blackberry and would not hesitate to use them again.