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Zipcar Flex opens at Heathrow Terminal 5 – drive yourself home for £17

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Most readers, at least London-based ones, will know Zipcar as a ‘pound per hour’ car hire group.  They have a few hundred cars scattered across Central London and you can book them by the half-hour via their app.

If you live in the right area – there are about 10 cars within 10 minutes walk of us, the nearest around 30 seconds away – it is a fantastic service.  You are virtually guaranteed a car when you need one and the cost is a fraction of buying and running one yourself.

Zipcar Flex Heathrow Terminal 5

Zipcar Flex, which is currently being rolled out, takes the service one step further.  You can take the car and leave it wherever you want, within a designated zone.  Park and walk away.  You don’t need to drive it back to where it came from.  To be honest I struggle to see why I would ever want to do this, but Zipcar clearly has other ideas.

Zipcar Flex has now launched at Heathrow Terminal 5 for a 90 day trial period.  You can jump in a Zipcar Flex car anywhere in London and drive yourself to Terminal 5, where you must park in the Avis Budget area on Level 4 of the car park.  You can also do it in reverse – walk up to Level 4 of the car park, jump in a Zipcar Flex car, drive yourself home and leave it outside your door for the next user to pick up.

Zipcar estimates, to or from Central London, that you will pay £17.  This is far, far cheaper than even an UberX.

Full details are on the Zipcar website here.

If you are not already a member, my referral link – https://zipcar.mention-me.com/m/ol/ef8rk-robert-burgess-28 – gets you £25 of driving credit.

Comments (101)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Clive says:

    OT – If i take out a Gold Amex and want to add a supp card. Is their a points bonus and do you need a link or how is it handled?

  • KevMc says:

    OT Does anyone have any experience booking T-361 days or with Iberia? Trying to book a flight which was released today for 14th April. Can view it and select it on their website but when I click through to the confirmation page I get an error stating ‘you can only book 361 days ahead’.

    I have called Iberia’s booking line but they were as useful as a chocolate teapot. Told me that they will not offer online support over the phone (and we’re not able to point me on the direction of anyone I could contact who would help) and that they can only search 360 days ahead over the phone. Then started repeating ‘Just try again later, Sir’.

    Overall, very frustrating

    • sunguy says:

      Par for the course with Iberia …..

      Iberia CS is appauling – they make the rules up as they go along, pretend they cannot speak English and cut you off when the question is too difficult….

      Try booking via BA CS, sometimes that can work, including for Iberia promotions, but it all depends on whether BA have seat availability….

      • sunguy says:

        Oh and one last BIG major problem with Iberia, if you want to complain, you must do it online, you cannot speak to a supervisor let alone a manager and even if you could, they pretend they cannot do anything anyway as all complaints have to be done online…..(and of course, there is no deadline for complaint acknowledgement or resolution)…

      • Sussex Bantam says:

        I love the irony of “Iberia CS is appauling….pretend they cannot speak English…”

  • Faithy says:

    OT- Both my amex cards, BA and Gold have been frozen. Called up and been told, under review. This was just after my wife cancelled her plat. What can I do? Should I be worried?

    • JPa says:

      Not sure never seen that before. Might be a good idea to transfer any MR balance you have just in case (if you still can)….

      I have seen this mentioned on US sites before with Amex when people signed up for a deal that only certain people should have got (but we don’t have those sort of deals over here).

    • Genghis says:

      I’ve read some stories (on FT I think it was) but like JPa, these were US related. Do report back though on your experience.

      • Faithy says:

        Will do. thanks.
        They said they will call me. Any thing I should or shouldn’t do or say?

      • Faithy says:

        After speaking to them, they said they could give me no info and i was under review. and that they would get in touch with me. Next day i used card for contactless payments and even online.
        Seems to work now!

    • The_real_a says:

      Just expect to have to prove your income via payslips and submit your tax info for the previous year

    • mark2 says:

      My BAPP was blocked yesterday. When I rang up they said it was being reviewed. Fraud prevention rang me within 15 mins and asked a few questions before restoring.

    • simon says:

      Had this last December. Was very worried. They just needed proof of my income etc. Sent them a load of statements they requested and was all cleared up in about 72 hours.

      • Geoff says:

        Interesting – any idea what triggered the need for such proof?

        • simon says:

          Yep. One of my supplementary card holders had been to the same Post office to get currency a few times over a few months. it had gone through as purchases. Seemed to trigger the AMEX “WTF is going on” alarm.

  • Lux says:

    On Zipcar Flex – which I finally signed up for through HfP – I do find it very useful, as I live in and work in drop zones about five miles apart in South London. I can take the train, usually cycle, drive my own car but sometimes use Zipcar Flex if I don’t want to pay for parking / am running late / going to the pub after work / too lazy to walk to the station that day. It works out at £20 an hour pro-rata, so a drive to the airport seems about right for what they’re quoting. You will get traffic light delay anxiety though, racking up the pennies. And the cars take a good bashing.

  • Mark 4 says:

    Zipcar Flex is fantastic, I’m not sure how you can’t see its value… I’ve been a Zipcar member for years and the lack of one-way trips was always a problem, now solved by Flex… Previously I would use the car just a couple of times in a month, now I’m driving around pretty much every weekend… The T5 addition is great as well, it will save me around £35.

    • Rob says:

      Probably because I never go anywhere one-way!

      • Mike says:

        That’s the thing: you don’t have to go one way, you simply don’t get charged for the time the car is parked while you’re minding your business. You pick a car, go anywhere in the Flex zone, park and stop the clock on the hire. You do whatever it is you want to do (shops, lunch, etc.) without paying Zipcar for that time in which you’re not driving. Then, when you want to go back, you either pick up the same car (if it’s still there) or you pick another one (there’s usually a few within reasonable walking distance). Boom!

  • Waribai says:

    We arrive back into LHR T5 next Monday and I’m tempted to give Zipcar Flex a try. But with the family in tow, the last thing I want is to find that there are no cars available. It would be great if there was more than a 15 minute booking period!

    • James knox says:

      The Flexes are usually small VW golf type cars, which might be a bit of a squeeze if you have a lot of luggage – I’ve used them occasionally if its raining and I’m on school pick up, IE pick up a car near to station, go and collect kids, drop off at home (my street is in the flex-zone) which for small change is pretty useful – I can see the T5 being of use if I am flying solo (or with the Mrs, HBO) but might be a bit of a challenge if we’re with both kids. I also use the Europcar £1 one way offers to get to LHR as they always seem to be available from our local Europcar office – but never on the way back!

  • Geoff says:

    re 320neo: “On the upside, it does feature power sockets in all seats”

    apparently not, according to reports on FT.

    • Rob says:

      I include a USB socket in that definition (not a plug) which the seats are meant to have ….

  • Paul says:

    Is there an update on when the FlyBe sale will start?

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.