The parking at the airport is still pretty wide open since there aren't as many people flying still. I used to part in the economy lot, but after a flight home where I had to wait at least 45 minutes for a bus that had space to return to the lot I started parking at PreFlight. It's super easy to get to and pretty much right across the street from the airport. They have deals and it's a little cheaper than the airport typically. And the shuttles go by frequently. It's been faster getting too and from their lot than it was from the economy lot the few times I parked there.
We've been using PreFlight parking for about 5 years. You can pay more to park your car inside the building or less outside. In the past, I would always be waiting for a shuttle and see the red PreFlight shuttles coming by, so we gave them a shot. . Think the longest I've waited is 5 or 10 minutes.
This!
We used to use the airport's economy lot but while waiting for the shuttle back after a vacation and started paying attention, we saw the Preflight shuttle go past us at least 4x while waiting for the huge ecomony bus. Also the ecomony bus follows it's preplanned bus route even if there are only a few passengers on the bus, while picking up and dropping off along the way. Basically you are forced into a massive tour of the economy parking lot, all while you just want to get to your car as fast as possible.
With PreFlight, there are usually 2-3 travel groups on the small shuttle/van and they take each group directly to their car. (When you board the van they ask what section you're parked in.) The driver helps unload the bags and some have even placed them in our trunk without being asked. Most of the time we are either the first or 2nd group to be dropped off so it's not a lot of wasted time.
On the way to start our vacation, we stop at the manned booth at the entrance and the person suggests which section to park in. Once we park, by the time we pull our bags out of the car, the shuttle is right there and the driver is helping put our bags on the shuttle. He is not simultaneously dropping people off at this stop so his focus is just getting passengers to their terminal. We usually pick up 1-2 other travel parties along the way but it's a much smaller lot than the economy.
I also love that they have a frequent parker program so we get some free days approx every other vacation, depending how long each trip is. Also we can book a reservation at the prepaid rate which is better than or equivalent to their coupon price. The send an email confirmation which can be printed out or just use paperless and scan it from my phone as we leave to go home. If your trip has to be extended for some unplanned reason, the extra days are billed at the same low rate as your original reservation. It's so nice to just scan my frequent parker card on the way in, then scan the barcode on my phone to "pay" on the way out. (For those not in the frequent parker club you take a time-stamped ticket with you when you enter and then give it to the cashier and pay when you exit.)
We tried Winner once and not that the service was bad but I don't like the concept of going on vacation and leaving my car and keys with strangers. For the driver to legally drive it, we have to leave our registration and insurance cards in the car/glove box so anyone with bad intentions can see our address and know we won't be home for x number of days. Also our particular driver was speeding the entire time he took us from their lot to the terminal and practically flew through the terminal and over speed bumps, nearly giving me a heart attack along the way.
Maybe I just have issues trusting people but I feel much better to park my car, lock it, and keep the keys with me.
We’ll be there in a month too and planned to use Winner again. Guess the DH has some work to do! I’ll have him look into Pacifico as the other poster suggested.
