9 ms·
Protip: Just book VIP to avoid troubles when arriving/departing at LHR. https://www.heathrowvip.com/ https://www.heathrowvip.com/ Same goes for Schiphol https:
by prvit 4y ago
Protip: Just book VIP to avoid troubles when arriving/departing at LHR. https://www.heathrowvip.com/ https://www.heathrowvip.com/
Same goes for Schiphol https://www.schiphol.nl/en/page/schiphol-vip-service/ https://www.schiphol.nl/en/page/schiphol-vip-service/
For relatively little money, the private terminal services offer you a very high quality stress-free experience. No need to navigate crowded airports or tow your luggage around. They’ll drive you from a comfortable lounge straight to the plane (and vice-versa). For passport control, you just sit in a comfy armchair as the border force girl comes to check your documents.
Depending on the airline and airport you depart from, your luggage will often get binned separately in order to guarantee a super fast delivery to the VIP terminal.
- tpmx 4y agoThis is some next-gen level bait. Gotta admire it.
- 5350-uiop-1130 4y agoPro protip: take your private jet
- prvit 4y agoWell yeah, but the prices for those have actually more than doubled in the post-COVID world. Makes more sense for bigger groups, but hard to justify for many individuals who’d have previously flown private.
- throw93232 4y agoWhy bait? Heathrow has terrible service and 400 pounds may be worth it to get normal service. It is something like bakshis in Egypt... It pays off after couple of hours.
- tpmx 4y ago"£2750 plus VAT"
- TrainedMonkey 4y ago> Prices for the Black service start at GBP £2,750 + VAT for up to 3 persons for an arriving or departing flight, as well as those on flights connecting within 3 hours. Kind of pricy, source: https://www.heathrowvip.com/s/faqs https://www.heathrowvip.com/s/faqs
- pcurve 4y agoyeah and "The service is not available to those flying Economy or Premium Economy class"
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ramesh31 4y agoProtip: Just be rich
- AMSthrow 4y ago[dead]
- zhte415 4y agoFrom the heathrowvip.com FAQ: > Prices for the Black service start at GBP £2,750 + VAT for up to 3 persons for an arriving or departing flight, as well as those on flights connecting within 3 hours. For perspective, LHR-JFK is around £500 return including taxes for one adult in economy, or £850 for premium economy.
- oarsinsync 4y agoFor perspective, if you’re not flying first class, this probably isn’t something you consider value for money.
- HWR_14 4y agoIf you're not flying first class, this isn't even available as an upgrade.
- enlyth 4y ago>relatively little money On what planet? It costs £2750 plus VAT, sometimes I think I live in a different universe than HN posters
- prvit 4y agoPeople making more than $300k/yr TC aren’t exactly a small minority on HN. While the VIP service at Heathrow is unusually expensive compared to other airports, it’s really not a crazy price to avoid some very stressful hours.
- jltsiren 4y agoIn my experience, flying from/to Heathrow is no more stressful than the average day at work. If I made something crazy like $10M/year, I might consider paying those fees. As long as my compensation is at the level of mere mortals, my time is not worth even remotely that much.
- ghaff 4y agoMy experience with Heathrow which is considerable (although not recently) is that other than a lot of walking--which is fine if you're able-bodied and your carry-on is reasonable is OK--it's mostly OK. Especially as a US citizen who was latterly able to use the electronic entry lanes.
- enlyth 4y agoEven if you're on 300k a year, that's still 1/4th of your monthly salary to stay in a fancy lounge for two hours and avoid a shuttle bus
- pcurve 4y agoYeah...I can see spending 275 pounds if I were REALLY desperate. 2750 pound? Maybe if you made $3 million a year.
- jjulius 4y ago
- avidphantasm 4y agoProtip: be rich.
- a_t48 4y agoAh! I took first class from NYC to London as a treat to myself once (using a RTW fare). On the flight there Keith Richards was sitting a few seats away. Cool guy, gave me shit about it being "the wrong time to use the loo" while I was waiting near the end of the flight. After we landed, he got off before everyone and got into a black car like this - I had always wondered how one goes and does that. > They’ll drive you from a comfortable lounge straight to the plane (and vice-versa). For passport control, you just sit in a comfy armchair as the border force girl comes to check your documents. For some airports you don't have to pay for a separate extra service for this, flying first class with the right airline at the right airport will get you that. I'm trying to remember where I did this - I think it was Taipei. Wherever it was, I didn't have a black car, but a thing resembling a baggage cart that played Fur Elise to let people know I was coming. I don't think I would use the cart service again, but the checkin experience was nice.
- FredPret 4y agoI also want to take the Fur Elise taxi when I fly from now on
- corrral 4y ago> the border force girl Is this phenomenon a psychology trick? Most folks doing bad stuff are guys, so have a hot young woman ask the questions to throw them off and make it harder to lie? I've wondered whether it's a deliberate tactic employed by some border controls since I stepped off a plane in Canada and saw that every single one of the half-dozen folks doing our "what are you doing in Canada?" Q&A stuff was a very attractive, put-together young woman. Like, that's a hell of a coincidence if it's not intentional.
- prvit 4y agoOh, I’ve never been asked questions at the VIP terminal. Just a quick look at my passport and they tell me I’m good to go. Regular LHR border control on the other hand used to quiz me all the time. What are you doing? Where are you staying? Who pays for your travel? What do you do for a living?
- corrral 4y agoOh, I meant at regular border control, I'm not rich enough to spend money on VIP services and not feel terrible (that is, like I really should have done something else with that money) about doing so.
- jrockway 4y agoYeah, LHR immigration has some intense questioning. I have been to a lot of countries, and they leave the impression as most invasive. (The rest of Europe is very pleasant. Hong Kong was my favorite; I felt like they gave 0 fucks about who comes into their territory. I've also been yelled at in Japan because I filled out some form in blue ink instead of black ink. The immigration agent gave me a long lecture about how "I know you can read Japanese because you had a student visa, what part of black ink didn't you understand?" I said I didn't have a black pen, and they didn't have any around. That seemed to be good enough of an answer. I guess the strategy is to rile people up so they say something dumb, but I guess I had nothing to hide except my taste in pens. And I suppose they want to test that I'm who I say I am; I should be able to answer that question in Japanese if I am who my passport says I am, though gotta admit this was about 10 years after that and I was pretty rusty! The mind games are pretty transparent, though tedious after an 18 hour flight.) US immigration is also very invasive, but I have Global Entry now and haven't spoken to immigration in years. Love it. (Customs, yeah they'll still ask you questions. Immigration questions upon arrival to the US always annoy me because I feel like I have a right to exist in my country of birth and citizenship. If I have the wrong answer to some question, where are they going to deport me to? The US? But, I don't feel like I have any right to bring in goods from abroad without paying taxes, so if people ask me those kinds of questions, it doesn't bother me.)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- astura 4y agoBy "relatively little money" you mean triple the cost of the ticket... So just like the Tom Brady method of avoiding sexual harassment[1] [1] https://youtu.be/PxuUkYiaUc8 https://youtu.be/PxuUkYiaUc8
- shapefrog 4y agoDon't you just get out of the car and walk up the stairs and tell the pilot you are ready to go? Protip: have your staff book a car for your luggage, saves having to wait for someone to unload your luggage from the plane, you can just get into the waiting car on the tarmac and go. Super protip: have your luggage shipped ahead and unpacked in advance of your arrival.
- HWR_14 4y ago"Luggage" sounds like you bring preowned (by you, but that's barely better) things on your trip. You're already having new bedding delivered to your chateau, just have your stylist have some new tailored clothes and accessories hung in your closet when you get there. Plus that way if there's something small (like one of the watches) you particularly like, you have a souvenir you can take home as opposed to leaving for housekeeping.
- shapefrog 4y agoI prefer to have everything shipped back to the home office for secure destruction, nobody really would have much use for a once used bedding, or silver ware except something to sell for heroin or some other perversion. Better to spare the staff the temptation of such sins. Very occasionally I like to blend in and perhaps get a second use out of a Patek, the leather strap really show up the wear much more, making it an even bolder statement.
- HWR_14 4y agoI am shocked, shocked to think that housekeeping might be stealing some of the items as opposed to destroying them. Next you'll tell me they take my half-empty bottles of Moet (the bubbles leave too quickly to get a refill out of an opened bottle) and drink it.
- prvit 4y agoAre you drinking Moet? That stuff is only good for the staff to clean the toilets with.