Park & ride, on-airport, or meet & greet?

Every listing on WeCompare is one of three products. The names are used loosely across the industry, so here is what they actually mean at a UK airport — and why the number on the quote has to include the transfer, not just the bay.

Park & ride

You drive to a compound near the airport, park the car yourself, and a shuttle takes you to the terminal. Buses typically run every 10 to 20 minutes. Transfer time is shown on every listing we return because that is the real cost of the cheaper rate.

It is the cheapest option at almost every airport we cover. On our current sample board that starts from £5.75 a day. Live rates replace that figure when you search your dates.

On-airport

The airport's own long-stay car park. You walk or take a short transit to check-in. Convenient, usually the most expensive of the three, and worth putting next to an off-airport quote before you commit. On-airport products are outside the Price Promise — those car parks are priced by the airport, not by the operator network the promise is built on.

Meet & greet

A driver meets you at the terminal door. You pull up at departures, hand over the keys, and the car is returned to the same spot when you land. No shuttle, no walk with luggage. You pay for that time.

How to choose

• Short trip, tight connection, children or a lot of bags — meet & greet usually wins the morning.
• A week away and a flexible outbound — park & ride is the rate that should have to lose, not the one you skip.
• You want to stay on the airport estate — on-airport, compared against the off-airport quotes rather than assumed.

The useful move is not picking a type in advance. Search the airport and dates once and read transfer time, cancellation terms and the total on the same screen. We cover 18 UK airports; the board on airport parking is the shop window.