I usually park at the fasttrack location when i fly out of Will Rogers. This week when i got on the shuttle to take me to the airport there was a sign that said that fasttrack was becoming The Parking Spot. The driver said they had been bought out but wasn't sure of the details or when they were going to change over.

Anybody know any further details? The Parking spot will be a definite upgrade at the airport. they usually give a free newspaper when you arrive and a bottle of water when you leave.

Would definitely be an upgrade, not only locally....but nationally too. The Parking Spot has multiple ads in just about every single airline magazine, and they really don't have many locations. So having "OKC" listed with LAX, AUS, DEN, ATL, NYC, etc. (they use airport codes in their advertising) only helps to break loose the stereotypes of being a small, country city.

I usually park at the fasttrack location when i fly out of Will Rogers. This week when i got on the shuttle to take me to the airport there was a sign that said that fasttrack was becoming The Parking Spot. The driver said they had been bought out but wasn't sure of the details or when they were going to change over.

Anybody know any further details? The Parking spot will be a definite upgrade at the airport. they usually give a free newspaper when you arrive and a bottle of water when you leave.


That depends somewhat on the cost. If the price goes up you may be paying for that newspaper and water. I know other locations take reservations for parking but that may not be a big deal here I've never found that parking location to be full and that definitely happens elsewhere. I certainly hope they improve the parking lot though. You can fall in the holes there and never be found.

Well this is far from the first company to have bought up this location. It's changed a few times over the years, so now they're just being gobbled up by a "corporate" structure. That just means if they aren't successful, that they'll close it down rather than sell it.

The drivers there really piss me off when I'm on Meridian. They act like they're driving a Geo Metro in London or something....squeeze in where they don't belong.

I work at Avis and call them SlowTrack. I used to shuttle dirty/clean cars for Avis (now just clean them on the lot) and that area has to have the worst drivers in the city. Used to shuttle for Enterprise before Avis. Between GiddyUp, SlowTrack, and the former National buses, plus regular shuttle drivers and railroad tracks, it's a crazy stretch of road.

the parking spot has already been at the airport for awhile, they started changing there buses about 6 months ago, its seems like that fast trac, parking spot and sunpark, that parking area really changes hands a lot.. Giddyup shuttle/Ampco is still best bet since it is on airport property, the fast trac/parking spot is not.

I usually find a parking spot in the city garage at the airport

lol metro, yes there usually isa spot in the airport garage now, since they doubled it size.. I hated it when it use to fill up by 8 am every morning

Confirmed via email...they will switch the Fast-Track to The Parking Spot and make renovations later this year too. No firm date, but will be sometime in 2011.

confirmed a while back , like i said if anyone was paying attention who works at the airport parking area that the fast track buses have changed starting about 6 months ago and others going through process, plus a major shift in employees took place 4 months ago...if anyone has been driving down meridian around s.w 29th street to 44th( from 6 months ago till recently) they would have noticed several fast track buses at a detail place getting new paint jobs etc

Got another email back, I had replied asking about any renovations (specifically the condition of the parking lots). They say they will upgrade everything, including the shuttle buses, up to Parking Spot standards before they place their name on it. So this won't be a name change, they will actually improve the site before the name change.

What is "Fast Track?" I know it's just me because I have used OKC a gazillion times now and never heard of it. The only parking I know of are the covered and non-covered shuttle lots, the two garages and the hourly parking right next to the terminal.

Fast-Track is a private company that does off-airport parking. You park in their lot that is off-airport, take their shuttle to the terminal. When arriving, you take their shuttle from the terminal to the parking lot. Like the airport shuttle lot, except for it is off-airport.

^Ahh ok, thanks for explaining that, had no clue.

I think the only thing Fasttrack has going for it is it is cheaper then the airport parking and you can earn free parking.

fast track went bankrupt awhile ago the spot took over, they are slowing changing everything over the spot logo, fast track wasnt good at all business wise so we seen bankruptcy coming to them for a year or so, i know several employees that use to work for them and what most of them said wasnt nice things.

i talked to one of the drivers and they confirmed that the parking lot will starting being repaved in march.

I went by this place today and it still is Fasttrack. they did have some minor construction equipment out front. Maybe the parking spot realized it was beyond repair.

They have a ton of locations across the nation to overhaul. They are slowly phasing other locations over and OKC will still happen. I have seen ads in airline onboard magazines with the new locations including OKC.

I would be curious to see ho much is going to take to bring that place up to parking spot spec. They already upgraded the buses. The parking lot couldn't be any worse. Part of the front building partially collapsed in the icestorm a couple year back. etc etc. I think they are basically starting from scratch.

No dice on that construction equipment doing anything. I went back this week and the equipment was gone and everything looked the same. they were running a new black bus this week.

The equipment was to measure the canopy for the engineering company doing the construction. Permits have been filed with the city to hopefully start construction in June.

I went throught this place this week and it looks like the workers have finally showed up. They were tearing down the old structure. Very curious to see how the new place will work.

Yes, construction on the canopy is almost done. Have a little more to do when we re-brand. Next week---fixing the pavement. Been told everything should be done by 9-22-11. I am interested in seeing how it will work to as we will have a cashier booth along with a credit card lane and the flow in and out will be changed.

Great to hear!

I drive by the place every day and all i've seen is a coat of black paint slapped on the beat up crappy canopy and yellow trucks with no sign on them.

I am supriseed they are keeping that piece of junk canopy rather then building a new one. Part of it had already collapsed from wear and tear.

I've never seen it take this long to convert a business over to the new name either. It's like they bought the place so someone else wouldn't, but they didn't really want to so they are dragging their feet. Or like a home improvement project, you do a little bit each month as you have extra cash so you take 5 years to complete a 2 month project.

They bought about 20 locations nationwide. They are converting them all to Parking Spot, so they didn't just get one location, they have a ton of locations to convert. Looks like they are doing it in pairs of two.

How are the updates looking at this place? I may fly out next week and am looking forward to seeing how it has changed.

You basically wouldn't know anything...the canopy is black instead of yellow or red. And the trucks are yellow or black.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply to this thread and share your thoughts about the Parking Spot coming to Oklahoma City. To say we are excited to be in OKC is an understatement. As you've been reading, we have just began Phase 1 of our capital improvement project which we hope will be finished by mid-late September. There are a lot of factors that govern how fast we can finish the project - unfortunately most of them are out of our control. Permitting, inspections, etc. are issues we are working with the city to handle in the most timely manner possible. Aside from the obvious asthetic improvements, our main goal for Phase 1 is to implement our revenue control systems which will allow us to provide our Spot Club loyalty program to the location. Like a typical airline, hotel program etc., Spot Club allows travelers to accumulate free parking points upon every stay. You can check into and out of the location entirely with a kiosk at the entrace/exit when you link your Spot Club card to a credit card. Of course, we will still have an option to check in/out with a person. You will also be able to manage your account online, view your parking points, redeem rewards, and print receipts for every transaction.

Stay tuned for some upcoming free parking promotions as we near closer to the completion of Phase 1. I'll post an exclusive promotion here on OKC Talk soon!

SkyWest OKC,

Are there currently any discounted or monthly parking programs for airline employees at Will Rogers? At many Parking Spot locations throughout the country, we provide extra discounts for anyone who is an employee of an airline. Some airports provide reasonably proced parking for airline associates, but many do not offer any discounts whasoever. We try to help where we can. Thank you for your feeback.

I passed through this way today and they seem to be making slow progress. The front awning has been repaired and painted black as previously reported. Not sure why it is painted black when the parking spots main color is yellow.

I think the parking lot has had its pot holes repaired. While the lot doesn't look perfect it does make for a much easier drive.

there appeared to be a new check out booth on site that was sitting in a corner along with a forklift. I am guessing they are going to replace the old one with this one.

TPSOKC,
How many phases are there to the upgrade and can you tell us roughly what is going to happen in each phase?

TPSOKC,

Sorry I just saw your post. There is no off-airport discounted parking that I am aware of. The airport does have an employee lot. I used to use it at my former company....they (my employer) paid for my parking, but I think it was around $15 a month for the access card and car tag. That's off the top of my head....so it is probably different. My current employer has their own parking, I am not sure if the situation has changed as far as discounts for employees.

I don't understand the phased approach with the name still NOT being the parking spot. If it's supposed to be The Parking Spot, why hasn't the name changed yet? Do all the asethetics and whatever as you go. If the place has been bought, change the name and update later. Unless, of course, you don't feel the location is up to par with The Parking Spot's other locations. If that's the case, then the HQ should be prioritizing upgrades or maybe shouldn't have bought so many at once...quality over quantity. I understand that now that it's a more corporate environment, the local folks have less control over what happens. But come on, it can't take that much effort to convert a place. I've seen faster integration of large corporations than a small off-airport parking company.

I understand your frustration. I think they bought all of the fasttrack locations when they went into bankruptcy. They have been cutting over a couple a month to the parking spot name. I imagine they are cutting these over with the easiest ones first. the OKC location was in horrible shape so i can understand them taking this long just with the planning on how to fix it up.

CharterAg,

Thanks for your post. The black coat of paint you see is simply a base coat/protectant. The plan for the canopy is to wrap it with our signature spotted wrap. Additionally, all the canopy lighting fixtures will be replaced. All of the shuttles will be wrapped with signauture spots and branding as well.

The major potholes have been filled and we'll be resurfacing the front portion of the lot very soon. The booth that you see there will go in as soon as we get approval from the city to install it. One of the frustrations of construction is that there is a lot of waiting for approvals to do the things we want to do. Unfortunately we can't get a blanket approval for the entire plan.

TPSOKC,

Sorry I just saw your post. There is no off-airport discounted parking that I am aware of. The airport does have an employee lot. I used to use it at my former company....they (my employer) paid for my parking, but I think it was around $15 a month for the access card and car tag. That's off the top of my head....so it is probably different. My current employer has their own parking, I am not sure if the situation has changed as far as discounts for employees.

SkyWest OKC, thanks for the information. When we officially become The Parking Spot, we will most certainly implement airline assiciate programs. In most of our markets, some people choose to do the monthly program at the airport and others choose to park with us - usually those who just take 2-3 trips per month find it more economical to pay a daily rate as opposed to the monthly rate since they pay less.

Went though again this week. Not much changes. They have trenches dug everywere for what i am guessing is electrical cabling rework. the lot is very confusing and you have to be careful not to put a tire in one of the trenches. They need to put up some new signs to guide people around the parking lot.

Bad pic I took with my phone this morning on my way to work.

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/2106/img2011092200390.jpg

OKC Talk members,

As some of you have noticed, Fast Track has almost finished Phase 1 of construction and, if all goes according to schedule, will officially open as The Parking Spot on September 29, 2011. As promised, The Parking Spot would like to offer each of you 2 Free Days of parking simply for signing up for Spot Club, our frequent parker program. With this promotion, when you sign up for a new Spot Club account, you will receive a membership card in the mail preloaded with 557 Spot Club points, equivalent to 2 free days of covered valet parking in Oklahoma City. This promotion is good until November 30, 2011. In order to receive the 2 Free Days, please follow the procedure below.

Send an e-mail to cmaguire@theparkingspot.com that includes your name, physical mailing address, company name, and references promo OKCTALKFREE2011. If the e-mail does not reference OKCTALKFREE2011, the card you receive will not include preloaded points!

We ask for company name because we have hundreds of previously negotiated corporate discounts already in our system with both national companies and OKC-based companies, and chances are we have a discount program already in place for your employer. If so, the Spot Club card that you receive will be embedded with your corporate discount and the free parking points. For more information about the Parking Spot and our Spot Club program, please visit www.theparkingspot.com

Please feel free to forward this information to anyone you think would like to take advantage of the free parking promotion. We are looking forward to seeing you all on our new and improved lot soon!

Saw a dotted shuttle bus the other day!

I can confirm they are the officially parking spot now. So far I have not been impressed and like the old place better. Here are some of the thing i noticed so far:

1. Prices have increased.

2. I had to convert over my frequent parking points to the new parking spot club. I lost over half my free parking days. Parking spot requires double the amount of points for a free parking day that Fasttrack did.

3. They gave me a newspaper the other day when i arrive at 9am. When i got on the plane a realized it was yesterdays paper.

4. When I parked there a week ago they had installed a cooler and you got a free water bottle when you check out. When went through this week they were no longer stocking the cooler and had run out.

5. They don't have covered self park like the other parking spots i have been to. I was looking forward to that.

I think it is safe to say that they are done with their renovations. The flow to this place is a disaster. Driving to park is like running a maze. One area is one lane but traffic flows both ways so it is a game of chicken. They should have just stuck to the old design as it made sense.

I feel bad for the employees because they work really hard and are really nice but are forced to deal with the poor design put in place.

This location (not necessarily Parking Spot's fault) has been a real disaster. It's crammed between a railroad track and a few industrial business and has never really had the room to be organized or expand.

Their old location, a few lots North of there, was even worse and was smaller. So be glad they at least have the little extra room compared to what they previously had. The only way it will improve is if they buy out a neighboring business...not likely.

Well I guess we will soon find out if they are going to hang around. They lost the entire awning structure in the front and a lot of roof on the building in the storm on Friday. The awning was across Meridian on Saturday and took out some power lines with it.

I received an email from them saying that they are temporarily not accepting new cars until repairs are made. I seriously doubt that it would cause them to close up.

We suffered some serious damage to our revenue control equipment and the building was flooded. We are in process of meeting with the insurance adjustor and a contractor and we hope to know more within the next couple of days on a timeframe for reopening. Thanks, Frank

Has The Parking Spot reopened yet?

No

That stinks - hope they can get up and running soon. Far better option for cheapish airport parking than the airport lots. Plus there's always a coupon in every in-flight magazine!

They have quite a bit of cleanup to do. They didn't get the curbside stuff out until this week and there will be some work to do on the land too. Now I don't work for them or anything but I would imagine they can open within a few weeks but they Judy wouldn't have an awning for of while.

The clean up is going slower than planned and we should know more on a timeline next week. The biggest problem is the complete loss of our revenue control equipment--servers, gate arms, loops. I will keep you apprised as soon as I know something. In the meantime we apologize to our guests for having to park at the airport. If you want to contact me directly please email me at fwilhelm@theparkingspot.com. Thanks, Frank. Oh, and one of the options is a rebuild with more covered parking. Crossing my fingers on that one.

The clean up is going slower than planned and we should know more on a timeline next week. The biggest problem is the complete loss of our revenue control equipment--servers, gate arms, loops. I will keep you apprised as soon as I know something. In the meantime we apologize to our guests for having to park at the airport. If you want to contact me directly please email me at fwilhelm@theparkingspot.com. Thanks, Frank. Oh, and one of the options is a rebuild with more covered parking. Crossing my fingers on that one.

Thanks for the update. Hoping TPS can get back in the game soon. I use(d) it every time I flew out of OKC!

Flew over the lot today and didn't look like much was going on. I have a hard time imagining this place reopening after all of this time. Have all the employees found other jobs by now?

More covered parking would be nice. One of the things I don't like about this lot is the lack of self park covered parking that is available at other parking spots. I know you can do it via valet but I don't like giving my keys away.

That's the feeling I've gotten too. Insurance claims should have been resolved by now unless there is an underlying problem with how/if there will be a rebuild. It's about the most simple company possible to put together. The main building is still there so all they have to do is repair it and buy some new hardware. An insurance claim, again, would have already been able to pay for that work. The other businesses in the area had everything resolved within 2 weeks, tops. The parking lot of the parking spot is still full of debris....not a good sign. The warehouse businesses just west of there lost entire walls, but they're back in business. The chemical company next door lost half it's roof. They're back in business. The trucking company across the street lost roofing and structures. They've even ADDED on to structures in the same amount of time. TPS....nothing.

Given the time it's been closed with absolutely no work being done, i'm not optomistic that it will come back.

Wow this is terrible, and a very curious business decision - unless the bottom line wasn't where TPS wanted it to be. Which I would find hard to believe given how absolutely packed the lot seemed to be every time I used it. I absolutely HATE the airport parking lots. There definitely is a market for off-airport parking here - perhaps another competitor will enter? When I lived in Milwaukee, FastPark&Relax was unbelievable. Would love to see them here. The Fast Park (http://www.thefastpark.com/)