Timeshare Traveler Episode 122... Stay 'n Fly Reduces Stress

[Clifbell]

This video is for everyone who is a worrier on the day of travel like I am. Will I wake up in time? Are there traffic Delays? Will my Uber / Lyft Driver be available or show up? Is long term parking filled? I could go on and on... But I think you get the point.

An option I have started to do is do a Stay and Fly hotel stay the night before so I am already at the airport.... I already know I have what I need to stay at a hotel (because I am staying at a hotel)... I don't worry about fixing food and cleaning up in the morning. I sleep better knowing there is a wake up call, breakfast paid for, etc.... And usually you can negotiate for a lower parking rate than the offsite parking locations. Plus you usually get 7 days free parking with each stay. So, there is some offset in costs. But it is more about stress reduction and peace for your family traveling with you. Enjoy!!!

Timeshare Traveler Episode 122... Stay 'n Fly Reduces Stress

Map of all my timeshare reviews

 

[slip]

I totally agree with a Park and Fly Hotel. We did that all the time when flying. We lived an hour from the airport so we always stayed in a Park and Fly Hotel the night before we left.

We didn't have to get up near as early. We had a nice hot breakfast and had a shuttle to and from the airport. We usually were always gone for 2 weeks so parking was free the first week and they only charged us $20 for the 2nd week.

 

[PigsDad]

One thing to watch out for is how early the hotel shuttle service starts. If you have a really early flight, the shuttle service may not work to get you to the airport on time.

Kurt

 

[dioxide45]

Another thing we have run into, some hotels have a limit on the number of additional nights you can park. So you get the seven night parking for free as part of the park and fly rate but they may only let you stay 10 nights total, or 14. Also verify the extra nightly cost if you can, the front desk doesn't always know the answer for some reason and can't always seem to confirm how long you can park for. We have often done some long trips and run into this issue.

Another thing we have done is just book the standard rate at the hotel then book one one of the hotel websites that contracts through various hotels to provide airport parking. Usually you can get rates of $6-$8 per night. When you arrive at the hotel you tell them you don't have a car and usually you checkin with the valet for the airport parking. We did this at the Renaissance at MCO as well as a hotel (near CVG).

 

[moonstone]

We have done the stay (also including parking our car) & fly several times for short trips. Many flights from Toronto to points south leave very early in the morning and coupled with the required 'be there 3 hrs in advance' as well as our 60-90 minute drive (in good weather) to the airport, it saves us some time and stress of possibly driving in bad weather. In previously years our trip to Belize started with a very short overnight stay in a hotel near YYZ as none of our kids wanted to drive us down at 2am! Our flight left at or just after 6am, and we then had a usually short connection in either Atlanta or Miami depending on which airline we used. This past December we tried something different. Instead of taking the very early morning flight to Atlanta, we booked the late afternoon one the day before we wanted to arrive in Belize and then a flight the next morning to BZE. There was no price difference booking the flights that way. We had no trouble getting our DS to drive us to the airport at lunchtime and the crowds at security and US Customs were non-existent. We booked a hotel near the Atlanta airport (that was much cheaper than one near YYZ) that had a shuttle. We had time to go out for dinner and still have a decent nights sleep. We caught the shuttle back to the airport in time for the 2nd leg of our journey and arrived in Belize not feeling like zombies!

Another variation that we have done when flying out of Buffalo is to stay at the hotel (with parking) at the end of our trip. We take a late afternoon flight south to give us lots of time to get to BUF then when we fly home we take the shuttle to the hotel. The next day we can do a bunch of shopping and not need to worry about size of liquids or food on the flight before we drive home. We are just under a 3hr drive to BUF from our house and often the difference in airfare makes it very worthwhile to fly out of there.


~Diane

 

[SandyPGravel]

We do a kind of hybrid of this. We fly mid day from the Midwest to the coast, stay overnight in either Philadelphia, Charlotte or Miami airport hotel, so we can fly out early and arrive mid day at our Caribbean destination.

 

[Luanne]

We do this all the time. We live about an hour from the Albuquerque airport. When we have an early morning flight we spend the night at a hotel near the airport. When we have a late arrival into ABQ we also spend the night. The hotel we like used to allow you to leave your car for one week free, and a very nominal fee for the additional days. They have changed that policy and for our last few trips even though we stay at that hotel we park our car in one of the off airport parking lots.

 

[slip]

We always used the same Park and Fly in Madison, Wisconsin. They didn't have any limit on parking days and only charged us $20 for each additional week after the first free week.

It's been 4 years now but it was only $115 for the night the last time we stayed. It was just a Econolodge but it was very much worth it for us.

 

[tiel]

We do the park and fly often. So much less stress. A website we have frequently found useful is buyreservations.com. We can usually find hotels that have parking for the entire length of our stay included in the rate provided. A couple of times, that has meant parking for 3 weeks. It doesn't work for all airports, and sometimes they don't have the rates for the year posted until late in January, but overall it's been a valuable site for us.

 

[Luanne]

One thing we've found, and want to make sure of, is that not all hotel parking lots are monitored. There was one hotel we looked into but they admitted their parking was around the back and that they really didn't check it. Nope, didn't stay there. The hotel where we do stay has open parking, but it's out in front and they do monitor it. We've left our car there for up to two weeks with no problems.

 

[slip]

I was just talking about this with my wife and she reminded me it was 14 days free parking. One year we paid an extra $20 for a third week. The parking was always in front by the road. I don't know if it was live monitored but they did have cameras. We never had a problem.

I always remember the tires freezing and had a slight flat side when we got back. We always heard a thumping until it thawed out about a quarter of the way home.