Revivals & Taxi Question

I'm flying back from SYD on a Z fare soon (although D's subsquently got priced cheaper than my Z - so could have got the Limo had I held off booking!!! grrrr [:(!]!).

I'm going to book a cab to take me to and from LHR, and one my neighbours is cab driver so he'll get the biz (he's reliable, knows where I live - and more importantly I know where he lives!!).

My question is around revivals, I need to give him a time to pick me up, and am thinking:

1) how long after arrival should I say, so I have enough time for a immigration, a shower and some breakfast

2) Where is the best place for him to pick me up - is there a waiting area for Taxi's where I can get paged from the revivals lounge (to save me waiting outside on a cold March morning!)?

I've not used revivals before - any comments are welcome!!

Many thanks!


Rich.

[preiffer]

Hi Richard,

There are a LOT of factors here, but I'll give you an idea based on my "normal" timings from the SFO flight.

Land at 10:30am
Immigration sorted by 10:45 (you'll be first off the plane) - but this COULD be longer, subject to other planes
Baggage sorted by 11:00
- arrive at Revivals -
Showers are normally available, so straight in and done by 11:30
If you want a treatment, allow for 12:00.

So, effectively, between 1 & 1.5 hours from landing, you should be free. Having said that, I don't stop for breakfast, having eaten on the plane. If you do, make it 1.5-2 hours after landing.


In terms of waiting areas, yes - the taxi driver can park at LHR T3 short stay (which is connected to the Revivals lounge area on the 1st floor) and come to reception for you.

As you enter, you'll walk down a slight ramp to the reception desk where they'll check you in and assign you a shower - you'll see all the VS limo drivers waiting there too, but there's nothing stopping your driver coming in and asking for you from there.


If, however, you want the driver literally waiting *in* the taxi - you may have to ask him to do 1 or 50 laps of T3, as there's nowhere officially for drivers picking passengers up to wait (hence the extortionate parking rates )

Flying in from HKG you'll find T3 very quiet, so it is normally pretty quick through immigration and customs to Revivals, and you should have the pick of the showers. I'd say 1.5 hours is a good rule of thumb if you want an orange juice and coffee as well as a shower.

BC

Thanks for the advice Preiffer & BlackCat.

I'll go with the 1.5 hour, and hope the taxi driver doesn't charge me for doing laps of T3!

[RichardMannion]

Obviously the big factor is how quickly you clear immigration, customs and collect your luggage. The latter has got much better recently.

I always get picked up from Revivals by of my colleagues (its a condition of borrowing my car!), and what I do is call them when I arrive at Revivals and ask them to pick me up 1.5 hours later, they also call me when they are coming up to the tunnel at LHR so I can make my way downstairs to the departure area.

Thanks,
Richard

I usually ask the driver to come to revivals 2h after landing. That gives ample time to shower, change, have a shave, read the paper,
eat breakfast and relax for a little while. The drivers we use are quite happy to park up in the short-stay car park and come to Revivals reception to get me. Seem to work fine.

Chris

I find revivals very relaxing and stay as long as possible, i'd say two and a half hours, it's good to a have a second breakfast after a shower and I always manage to 'borrow' some of the silver pens.

Find out how long notice they need to get to the airport. Then when you know you're that far out just call them from revivals.