Think about what it takes to have a short trip to the airport if you have to rely on someone to drop you off and pick you up a few days later. First off, you need to find someone willing to basically be your driver on your schedule. That might seem easy at first, with the assumption of a spouse or roommate being available, but that person has to change their schedule to suit yours. Second, then you have to time the drop-off and pick up around your flights. Again, this brings about a scheduling issue, as well as dealing with the commute to and from the airport at the time. Add in the fact that your ride can’t sit at the curb and wait for you, and they have to drive around or wait at a designated spot away from the terminal, and it gets more complicated.
The alternative, of course, is just to use public transit. That assumes, however, that public transit is reliable and actually goes to the airport. Not every major city’s airport has a dedicated bus or train connecting to it. Alternatively, there is ride-sharing, but this can be expensive as the surcharges, tourist taxes, and driver’s tips add up over the base rate for the ride. It’s quite possible to pay $35 to $50 for a one-way ride with ride-sharing services.
Given the above, it’s important to also understand what overnight airport parking is in the different options available at Philadelphia International Airport. PHL generally provides the standard fare of economy parking, overnight, and premium parking. Prices range from the lowest, being economy parking and the farthest out from the airport, to overnight parking, typically in a connected structure and costing more, to premium, which provides the shortest distance to the terminal in question and is the most expensive. However, all of these are subject to demand and availability. When PHL, for example, curtailed the economy lot for construction changes due to COVID in 2020, obviously that impacted what was left in terms of availability.
There is another choice for overnight parking, though. Dedicated parking services accommodate travelers, allowing them to still enjoy the convenience of using a personal car and instead avoid having to fight the commute or jockey for available airport spots. Instead, the traveler has a dedicated spot with a parking service that provides an easy connection to the terminal, the car is parked in a secure location overnight, and coming back to the car is just as simple on return. It’s everything parking overnight at the airport should be.
When compared to each other, PHL standard parking doesn’t seem to make much sense versus dedicated overnight parking services. And it’s the savvy traveler who takes advantage of this difference to make their trip easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable with their own car.
