Parking at BUF experiences??

[lionqueen]

Hi. I was looking for people that had experience parking at Buffalo International in the long term vs the economy parking lot. Is there a big difference between the time it takes to get from either to the terminal? Do the shuttle run fairly often? If my flight is at 10:10 am what time would you suggest getting there? I was planning an extra 30 minutes to park the car not sure if that is enough or not. Any thoughts or experiences are appreciated. TIA

 

[focusondisney]

Hi. I was looking for people that had experience parking at Buffalo International in the long term vs the economy parking lot. Is there a big difference between the time it takes to get from either to the terminal? Do the shuttle run fairly often? If my flight is at 10:10 am what time would you suggest getting there? I was planning an extra 30 minutes to park the car not sure if that is enough or not. Any thoughts or experiences are appreciated. TIA

We always park in the "long term preferred" lot so I can't compare with the economy lot. But I can tell you that you can walk to the terminal from the farthest points of the preferred lot in about 10 minutes or less. If you don't want to walk, there are always shuttles circling the lot. There are shelters every other aisle which has a switch you can flip to alert the shuttle driver that you are waiting. I'm sure there would be a similar set up in the economy lot.

You will be fine alloting 30 minutes to park & get to the terminal no matter where you park. We are neurotic about getting to the airport at least 2 hours early. So for a 10:10 flight, we would plan on getting to the airport parking lot about 7:45 ish. But again, we tend to arrive early. The airport recommends arriving 90 minutes before your flight. So you could arrive at the parking lot by around 8:10 & still enter the terminal by 90 minutes before your flight.

We prefer to be early & relax with a snack before boarding instead of rushing to the gate just before boarding. YMMV.

 

[canadiankim]

We have parked in both. The ecomony lot is a bit further out but only by maybe 5 minutes. The shuttle bus runs very frequently and as with the preferred lot they take you to your car! Last time we fly out of the economy lot as we pulled into a lane the shuttle bus started to follow us down ready to pick us up as soon as we locked the car! They gave us a card with the car location lane and everything.

As for timing, allow at least 20-30 minutes to park, unload, reload and be shuttled to the terminal - it usually takes around 15 minutes but its nice to have some 'wiggle' room.

We don't usually arrive at the airport 2 hours ahead as we don't usually have luggage to check just carry-on but as with the PP I like time to relax and feel like I am in holiday mode so will always allow at least 90 minutes.

The airport is small with not too much to do there so unless you have things to do at home before going, get there earlier, grab a coffee and paper and start relaxing and getting ready for your holiday.