Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Park Here Park Here
I’m sitting here in the Philadelphia Airport getting ready to leave to visit my daughter Lauren in Madrid. She has been studying there this semester. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for quite some time.
I’m flying out of Philly as opposed to Baltimore because I was able to get a direct flight to Madrid from Philly. It takes about ninety minutes to get to this airport from my home but it is so worth not having to transfer planes!
Whenever I fly I always try to find a good deal on parking. Not that I’m cheap or anything. It’s not that. I just HATE getting ripped off. Why pay $30 per day to park my car at the airport when I can pay seven bucks off premises? It just doesn’t make sense to me!
So I did my homework a few days ago. I went onto Google and searched for Philadelphia Airport parking. Lo and behold, a site for “Priority Airport Parking” came up. It looked fine to me. “PAP” as I will call it was close to the airport, had a shuttle service that ran 24 hours and even had a discount coupon I could print out. And the directions from I-95 looked simple.
PAP actually reminded me of a place called Airport Fast Park that I use at BWI (Baltimore Washington International Airport). Every time I pull into Airport Fast Park at BWI, I am greeted with a smile, a newspaper and a bottle of water.
So here I am, trucking up I-95 on my way to Philly. It was a beautiful mid-Atlantic day and I had my top down, singing along to The Grateful Dead. I reach exit 9A outside of Philly and I take Essington Road South. After a left at the first traffic light, I get a visual of PAP on the left hand side. It was a kind of strange road configuration and I don’t think I can explain it very well here, but I had to cut through a gas station and make a little bit of a U-turn to get to the entrance of PAP.
Now as I pulled into the PAP lot, I went over those things in the road (does anyone know exactly what they are called?) with a sign that said “severe tire damage – DO NOT back up.” And then as I continued forward, another sign read “LOT FULL.” This was certainly a dilemna!
Would you back up and certainly get four flat tires or would you drive into a full lot? Well, I decided to do the latter since I only had one spare tire in my trunk!
As I proceeded into the lot, I spotted a few empty spots. Fantastic! So the lot was not full after all. Maybe the management didn’t realize some people had left. That was great news for me.
I found the perfect spot and centered my car so the cars on either side could not put any dings into my car doors. Man do I get pissed when that happens. So everything was great.
I took my luggage out of the trunk and placed it behind my car as I put my top up and made sure everything was locked up. That would not be very cool if I left something unlocked for the week. So I double checked. Everything was safe.
Next, I gathered up my luggage and went to find the place where I check in and catch the shuttle over to the airport. As I was making my way to that area, a man who apparently worked at the parking lot came up to me and very abruptly said “Do you have a reservation?”
“A reservation for a parking lot? No, I don’t think so, but I’m here and my car is in that space over there! And I'm excited because I'm going to Spain to visit my daughter! So where can I catch the shuttle?”
At that point, the man started screaming at me and basically told me to get my luggage back in my car and get out of the lot as soon as humanly possible.
“WHAT???” I said back to him?
“You heard me... get off this lot NOW” he fired back at me.
I figured I would try one more time so I made him aware that my car was over there in a legitimate parking spot. He then asked me if I had seen the “LOT FULL” sign as I drove in and continued to tell me that the Fire Marshal would not allow me to park in that spot.
“So why do you have that parking spot in your lot? What's it for” I asked.
His face got all red and again asked me to leave and reinforced that the next time I better have a reservation.
Well guess what buddy, there will NEVER be a next time because I will never again attempt to pull my vehicle into the Priority Airport Parking lot at The Philadelphia International Airport. I simply drove my car across the street, entered a very friendly looking parking lot called “Colonial Parking,” pulled into a marked spot, got on the shuttle bus, and I was on my way to the airport with a friendly driver who appreciated me being there. As a matter of fact, I related the story to the driver and everyone on the shuttle and we all had a good laugh!
So if you have never been screamed at and ridiculed by a parking lot attendant, you don't know what you're missing. Simply call Priority Airport Parking at 1-877-FLY-4100 and ask what happens if you dare to try to park in their lot without a reservation!
Until next time...
D
I’m flying out of Philly as opposed to Baltimore because I was able to get a direct flight to Madrid from Philly. It takes about ninety minutes to get to this airport from my home but it is so worth not having to transfer planes!
Whenever I fly I always try to find a good deal on parking. Not that I’m cheap or anything. It’s not that. I just HATE getting ripped off. Why pay $30 per day to park my car at the airport when I can pay seven bucks off premises? It just doesn’t make sense to me!
So I did my homework a few days ago. I went onto Google and searched for Philadelphia Airport parking. Lo and behold, a site for “Priority Airport Parking” came up. It looked fine to me. “PAP” as I will call it was close to the airport, had a shuttle service that ran 24 hours and even had a discount coupon I could print out. And the directions from I-95 looked simple.
PAP actually reminded me of a place called Airport Fast Park that I use at BWI (Baltimore Washington International Airport). Every time I pull into Airport Fast Park at BWI, I am greeted with a smile, a newspaper and a bottle of water.
So here I am, trucking up I-95 on my way to Philly. It was a beautiful mid-Atlantic day and I had my top down, singing along to The Grateful Dead. I reach exit 9A outside of Philly and I take Essington Road South. After a left at the first traffic light, I get a visual of PAP on the left hand side. It was a kind of strange road configuration and I don’t think I can explain it very well here, but I had to cut through a gas station and make a little bit of a U-turn to get to the entrance of PAP.
Now as I pulled into the PAP lot, I went over those things in the road (does anyone know exactly what they are called?) with a sign that said “severe tire damage – DO NOT back up.” And then as I continued forward, another sign read “LOT FULL.” This was certainly a dilemna!
Would you back up and certainly get four flat tires or would you drive into a full lot? Well, I decided to do the latter since I only had one spare tire in my trunk!
As I proceeded into the lot, I spotted a few empty spots. Fantastic! So the lot was not full after all. Maybe the management didn’t realize some people had left. That was great news for me.
I found the perfect spot and centered my car so the cars on either side could not put any dings into my car doors. Man do I get pissed when that happens. So everything was great.
I took my luggage out of the trunk and placed it behind my car as I put my top up and made sure everything was locked up. That would not be very cool if I left something unlocked for the week. So I double checked. Everything was safe.
Next, I gathered up my luggage and went to find the place where I check in and catch the shuttle over to the airport. As I was making my way to that area, a man who apparently worked at the parking lot came up to me and very abruptly said “Do you have a reservation?”
“A reservation for a parking lot? No, I don’t think so, but I’m here and my car is in that space over there! And I'm excited because I'm going to Spain to visit my daughter! So where can I catch the shuttle?”
At that point, the man started screaming at me and basically told me to get my luggage back in my car and get out of the lot as soon as humanly possible.
“WHAT???” I said back to him?
“You heard me... get off this lot NOW” he fired back at me.
I figured I would try one more time so I made him aware that my car was over there in a legitimate parking spot. He then asked me if I had seen the “LOT FULL” sign as I drove in and continued to tell me that the Fire Marshal would not allow me to park in that spot.
“So why do you have that parking spot in your lot? What's it for” I asked.
His face got all red and again asked me to leave and reinforced that the next time I better have a reservation.
Well guess what buddy, there will NEVER be a next time because I will never again attempt to pull my vehicle into the Priority Airport Parking lot at The Philadelphia International Airport. I simply drove my car across the street, entered a very friendly looking parking lot called “Colonial Parking,” pulled into a marked spot, got on the shuttle bus, and I was on my way to the airport with a friendly driver who appreciated me being there. As a matter of fact, I related the story to the driver and everyone on the shuttle and we all had a good laugh!
So if you have never been screamed at and ridiculed by a parking lot attendant, you don't know what you're missing. Simply call Priority Airport Parking at 1-877-FLY-4100 and ask what happens if you dare to try to park in their lot without a reservation!
Until next time...
D
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