Forums › Frequent flyer programs › British Airways Executive Club › BA car hire – recommended?
-
Hi guys I am looking to book a car in the USA during a trip in May. I have looked at various websites but never certain about the cover, damage collision waver and everything else you need in the ‘worst case scenario’ situation
Has anyone experience of renting a car via BA Executive club, the pros, cons and any eatra covers that I might need
thanks in advance
You might be better asking this in the dedicated car hire thread, also BA uses different companies (mainly Avis and Budget), which have different Ts and Cs, you can see these prior to booking. We’ve rented as part of BA holidays several times and never had any issues, but Ts and Cs will vary, e.g. by country.
You might be better asking this in the dedicated car hire thread, also BA uses different companies (mainly Avis and Budget), which have different Ts and Cs, you can see these prior to booking. We’ve rented as part of BA holidays several times and never had any issues, but Ts and Cs will vary, e.g. by country.
Thanks Northernlass I will put it on there where can I find that thread please
Yes, many times and I have 4 seperate rentals for my upcoming US trip.
If you book via the BA portal there are no optional extra insurances offered (for the USA, other areas may vary). Once you choose the car, you’ll get to an options screen for baby seats and GPS etc, and you’ll see some question marks at the bottom. Mouse over those and you’ll see:
“You’re covered for accidental damage, but if any repairs are required an excess may apply. When you collect your vehicle ask at the counter about how you can significantly reduce the excess.This vehicle’s excess is USD0.00.”
That applies irrespective if you choose Avis or Budget (often you’re not offered a choice of companies from a particular location). So Zero excess, no irritating upsell at the counter and no hassle when you drop off as all eventualities are covered.
You’ll also get an additional driver for free, 5x USD Avios at Avis, 2x USD Avios at Budget.
Yes, many times and I have 4 seperate rentals for my upcoming US trip.
If you book via the BA portal there are no optional extra insurances offered (for the USA, other areas may vary). Once you choose the car, you’ll get to an options screen for baby seats and GPS etc, and you’ll see some question marks at the bottom. Mouse over those and you’ll see:
“You’re covered for accidental damage, but if any repairs are required an excess may apply. When you collect your vehicle ask at the counter about how you can significantly reduce the excess.This vehicle’s excess is USD0.00.”
That applies irrespective if you choose Avis or Budget (often you’re not offered a choice of companies from a particular location). So Zero excess, no irritating upsell at the counter and no hassle when you drop off as all eventualities are covered.
You’ll also get an additional driver for free, 5x USD Avios at Avis, 2x USD Avios at Budget.
Thank you, I read of people arranging all sorts of additional insurance covers and knowing how litigious it is in America I would not want to find I was paying for the rest of my life if something went ‘wrong’
There are other way and sites to rent a car in the US, some will give you options of CDW/Super CDW, wheels, keys and tires options but the BA site is the cleanest and removes your choices.
If you’re really concerned about renting elsewhere then get a secondary policy (assuming you’re not a holder of the Amex Platinum card) to cover excesses etc. My annual cost about 50 quid for peace of mind as I typically rent in several countries per year.
If you’re renting one way in the US then Avis/Budget generally come out as the best with the lowest one way fee (One ways are usually free in CA/FL but expensive elsewhere if the company will even allow it as many dont).
Bizzarely Avis/Budget won’t allow a one way from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas, so I’ve had to resort to Alamo for that one.
One last thing, if you’re a Costco member check their website for a quote under the travel section as they give a free addtional driver and all insurances included and are often very competitive.
Essentially rental car insurance is in two areas, CDW/LDW which is insurance covering the car you’ve rented, and third party insurance covering you being responsible for damage to other cars. There are a couple of other things, personal effects coverage, typically this would duplicate areas of your travel insurance, and roadside coverage, which covers things like tires or you losing the keys. Proper mechanical failure is the responsibility of the rental company, but they do exclude tires, glass and maybe something else.
It’s certainly not the cheapest, but having the CDW/insurance from the rental company is absolutely the easiest to work with in the event of an accident/incident. Should you decide to go a cheaper route make sure it’s sufficient. For example I believe the Amex Platinum car insurance covers vehicles upto $50K, that’s less than the cost of large SUVs or high end cars. With the third party part you need to think about an accident deemed to be your fault and what US medical bills are like. I think anything less than $500K is insufficient.
Renting with Avis through BA the rates you’ll see include CDW and insurance. I’m a big fan of insurance through the rental company, and the convenience that brings. Others feel differently.
Lastly it’s not hard to find rental company horror stories in regard claims around the vehicle was returned with damage. Renting with Avis, Hertz and National I’ve never experienced this, beyond some easily rebutted claim with a NYC non airport rental.
I’d offer don’t be rushed to leave the rental location, look the vehicle over carefully, take pictures or video of any damage you see, check it has a spare wheel, jack etc. Give the windows a careful look over for chips or cracks, if you find anything don’t be fraud to ask for an alternate.
If you don’t have some sort of skip the desk status, and the person at the desk asks about how many in your party or how much luggage you have, that’s the start of their upsell. Don’t be afraid to shut that down and say you want the car you’ve rented. Rent the size of car you want, the desk after a long flight is not the place to make value judgements about paid upgrades.
Lastly look the paperwork over before leaving the location, make sure they haven’t marked you as accepting the roadside or personal effects when you didn’t want it, that the fuel policy matches what you wanted. Depending on location how tolls are handled is another thing to make sure you understand.
Apologies if this seems like one giant pain list, but it’s worth being aware of the rental pitfalls, doesn’t hurt to have a checklist of things to check on a post-it.
Lastly as above it’s worth having a read of that car rental tips thread.
Booked many times (always BA/AVIS). Insurance included, as is extra driver. Never paid an excess. They do all this windscreen/tyre/breakdown stuff/keys, but forget it because it’s already included. Not to be unkind, but they know you’ve been travelling like 10 hours so see you as an easy sell.
USA is very “kind” because people rent all the time. EU companies try and s&^%t you. Just take a video of the car when you get it (inc wheels and open boot/trunk). Never, ever had a problem in the USA. Don’t fall for the “airport gas station” as they charge a fortune.
Only thing to note is that they will usually take a massive hold on your credit card (£2k or more). If you use a debit card that will come straight out of your account .
Watch out for the excess, especially in Europe. It can be as much as £2k and is often buried in the small print. You can get an annual policy to cover it for around £50.
BA add an offer going with Avis recently. I hired a mid range vehicle, Toyoya Rav 4 type for £454 for 2 weeks in the USA (Got a new Ford bronco with only 1000 miles on the clock). Everything was included in the price, even an additional driver. No excess mileage either. As everything was included collection was very quick as there was no upselling.
BA add an offer going with Avis recently. I hired a mid range vehicle, Toyoya Rav 4 type for £454 for 2 weeks in the USA (Got a new Ford bronco with only 1000 miles on the clock). Everything was included in the price, even an additional driver. No excess mileage either. As everything was included collection was very quick as there was no upselling.
This isn’t an offer, it’s a permanent partnership with those benefits.
There’s a dedicated portal for it https://secure-one.avisworld.com/en_GB/CarhireBA
I’ve rarely found a better ‘inclusive’ deal than Avis or Budget through BA. When combined with Amex Platinum Avis upgrade to Presidents Circle, it’s one of travel’s best conveniences in being able to byapss the counters and walk straight to an upgraded car via your name on a board next to which parking space it’s in.
I’ve been using Avis in the US, through BA, for the last 10 years and never had any negative experiences. If you’re looking to book the vehicle together with your BA flights, therefore turning it into a BA Holidays reservation you get the added benefits of deposit only at time of booking and often cheaper flight buckets. If you book like this, your Avis reservation will treated as ‘pre-paid’ and only $250 will be held on credit card upon collection. I can confirm that all Avis rentals via BA in the US are zero excess.
I can only echo the above comments about Avis Preferred, but would point out that even the free to sign up to, base tier Preferred will grant you skip-the-desk privileges and a speedier exit from the rental location. Sign up before you make your BA reservation, as it’s easier to add you Avis Wizard number during the BA booking process than add it to the Avis booking retrospectively.
Bizzarely Avis/Budget won’t allow a one way from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas, so I’ve had to resort to Alamo for that one.
Just rechecked all my upcoming rentals and bizarrely since the Avis/BA site was revamped they will now offer me SLC-LAS but at an eyewatering cost of $3618 for 12 days. I’ll stick with the far more reasonable Alamo via Costco for that one thanks, at a mere $982.
Always pays to shop around and keep shopping around, so far saved £170 over my upcoming 4 rentals.
Avis Preferred is great when it works but it’s typically only good at major airport locations and I mostly rent from downtown ones or smaller airports where it doesn’t offer anything.
I would never book a car with BA again. The booking isn’t flexible. Avis is flexible, and I find Avis the same price or cheaper than BA.
I booked a car through BA in 2022. I thought I had booked a pick up in central Philly. Some time later, when checking the pick up address, I discovered that the map pin for a downtown location actually related to a location 30 miles out of town. Took nearly an hour on the phone to change the booking plus £100 fee.
I would never book a car with BA again. The booking isn’t flexible. Avis is flexible, and I find Avis the same price or cheaper than BA.
The discussion here is the BA/Avis portal which directly books Avis or Budget depending on the location and your choice. Prepay rentals can be cancelled free of charge up until the day before. Non pre-paid rentals can be cancelled any time until the time of rental free of charge. Not sure how much more flexible that can be.
I booked a car through BA in 2022. I thought I had booked a pick up in central Philly. Some time later, when checking the pick up address, I discovered that the map pin for a downtown location actually related to a location 30 miles out of town. Took nearly an hour on the phone to change the booking plus £100 fee.
So this wasn’t an Avis/Budget booking through the BA Avis/Budget portal then, it was something else like a BA Holidays booking which has different Ts&Cs and you’re blaming them for your failure to check the address of the rental location?
I would never book a car with BA again. The booking isn’t flexible. Avis is flexible, and I find Avis the same price or cheaper than BA.
The discussion here is the BA/Avis portal which directly books Avis or Budget depending on the location and your choice. Prepay rentals can be cancelled free of charge up until the day before. Non pre-paid rentals can be cancelled any time until the time of rental free of charge. Not sure how much more flexible that can be.
I booked a car through BA in 2022. I thought I had booked a pick up in central Philly. Some time later, when checking the pick up address, I discovered that the map pin for a downtown location actually related to a location 30 miles out of town. Took nearly an hour on the phone to change the booking plus £100 fee.
So this wasn’t an Avis/Budget booking through the BA Avis/Budget portal then, it was something else like a BA Holidays booking which has different Ts&Cs and you’re blaming them for your failure to check the address of the rental location?
The discussion here is “BA Car Hire – Recommended?”
Who appointed you as a moderator?
I have posted about my experience of renting a car through BA.
I booked by logging on to the BA website as an executive club member, and booking a car only, at https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/flights-and-holidays/car-hire
The Car Hire page promotes car hire with Budget or Avis.
The page promises “great rates and flexibility”
The truth is that you do not get the same flexibility that you get if you book directly with Avis.
If you want to change the booking, you pay £100 fee.
If rates fall, you can’t cancel and re book to make a saving.
Never again will I rent a car through BA. Avis allow free cancellations and rebooking.
When you choose a rental location in Philadelphia, you have a choice of 6 locations. You can see them on a map. I chose Philadelphia City Centre. The map shows the location as being at the east of the city centre, between Walnut and South streets, at the Delaware. When you chose that location, it tells you the rental location is North East Philadelphia. If I had double checked the address in Google Maps, I would have discovered that the rental location was 20 miles from downtown, but having chosen the location on the map provided by BA as part of the booking, I didn’t feel it necessary to check the location independently. The BA map was wrong, and is still wrong two years later.
When I booked, I ticked a box that said I agree to the Terms and Conditions. The Terms and Conditions amount to twelve thousand words, and if you print them out you get 27 pages. I did not read the T&Cs. Mea culpa.
Given the fact that an error on the BA web site lead me to book a car from the wrong location, one might think that a decent company would allow me to change the pick up location. BA of course is not a decent company. I was not making a substantive change to the booking. The dates, car type and drop off point were fine. I simply wanted to change the pick up point from one location in Philly to another.
If I had booked directly with Avis, I would not have had this problem. I could have cancelled or amended the booking on line. I would not have needed to have spent an hour on the phone, or paid £100 for making a simple amendment to the booking.
So my advice, based on my experience, is never never never rent a car through BA. Go direct to Avis.
Agree that BA can have cheaper prices on Avis/Budget sometimes but YOU CANNOT CANCEL.
Booking the same car with Expedia or directly with the provider (be it Avis or another) allows you to cancel 6 or 48hrs before pickup. Much safer if you are booking months in advance.
I would never book a car with BA again. The booking isn’t flexible. Avis is flexible, and I find Avis the same price or cheaper than BA.
The discussion here is the BA/Avis portal which directly books Avis or Budget depending on the location and your choice. Prepay rentals can be cancelled free of charge up until the day before. Non pre-paid rentals can be cancelled any time until the time of rental free of charge. Not sure how much more flexible that can be.
I booked a car through BA in 2022. I thought I had booked a pick up in central Philly. Some time later, when checking the pick up address, I discovered that the map pin for a downtown location actually related to a location 30 miles out of town. Took nearly an hour on the phone to change the booking plus £100 fee.
So this wasn’t an Avis/Budget booking through the BA Avis/Budget portal then, it was something else like a BA Holidays booking which has different Ts&Cs and you’re blaming them for your failure to check the address of the rental location?
The discussion here is “BA Car Hire – Recommended?”
Who appointed you as a moderator?
I was trying to clarify that the booking through BA Holidays and the Executive CLub portal are two completely different things. There’s no need to rant at me.
The OP was talking about the Exec Club portal and I posted a link to it above to clarify that’s what he was talking about. That link books directly with Avis/Budget not with BA and gives extra benefits if you are an Exec Club member.
That link allows free cancellation and I’ve done that many times.
I’m sorry you had a crappy experience with BA Holidays but that’s irrelevant to the OPs question and my reply.
FWIW, the link above has no map for locations so you need to do your own research as to which office is closest to your hotel etc.
Let’s be fair, @Alex G/@davfl, the OP said booking via BA Executive – I’ve booked a few Avis rentals through BA, as a member of the Exec Club, but as part of holidays or add-ons to existing bookings. I had no idea about the Avis portal, and it’s possible that the OP hasn’t heard of it either.
It’s definitely something I’ll look into!
If the OP was considering the car through BA/BA Holidays, I would like to add a cautionary note – ALWAYS check that there are no extra charges being levied on return. Be very clear and specific when asking the question – asking if there is anything more to pay is not the same. The agents will tell you there isn’t, but that’s because any extra charges will be taken from the hold on your credit card.
These arise, apparently, from differences between the exchange rate at the time of booking and time of hire. The agent CAN sort this there and then, but often don’t. It can be resolved (best course of action is to contact BA/BAH directly on return), but it’s a pain in the arse.
And watch out for the actual charge to your card, not the extra charge for the hire – you may have incurred currency conversion charges.
Funnily enough, the exchange rate differences never seem to result in a credit – make of that what you will.
There’s a topic on FlyerTalk all about it
And there is no need to rant at me either.
Unless you have been having private discussions with NICK N, you don’t know what he is referring to. What he wrote is ambiguous and open to interpretation. You are making an assumption. You seem to think that you are infallible.
I am saying that you should not book a car with BA. If you take your head out of your ass for a second you will see that we are saying the same thing. You recommend booking directly with Avis/Budget. So do I. The link you post is for making a booking directly with Avis/Budget.
“FWIW, the link above has no map for locations so you need to do your own research as to which office is closest to your hotel etc.”
So now you are calling me a liar! Book a car with a Philly pickup through the BA website and you are offered a map of the pick up locations. And the map is wrong.
Fact.
BA car hire – recommended? – NO
Booking direct with Avis recommended? – YES
@Alex give it up please. Nick said “Has anyone experience of renting a car via BA Executive club, ”
That’s the site I’ve been referring to all along. Not the general BA site. There’s nothing ambiguous about his or any of my statements and I’m not calling anybody a liar. I would just like you to recognise that the conversation is/was about the Exec club site.
I am fully aware that the BA site leads you to a crappy map and has crappy Ts&Cs and I would never use it as it has no benefits for Bronze/Silver/Gold members.
For clarity yet again, the Excutive Clubs site that Nick asked about and I keep referring to is https://secure-one.avisworld.com/en_GB/CarhireBA
Davefl
Only Nick knows what he was referring to.
And you are referring to an Avis site. Not a BA site.
And once again, you seem to think you are a moderator for this forum. You are not.
Give it up please.
Forgot that (some) AMEX cards give you Presidents Club with AVIS. Last year in BOS ordered a mid-size and they had run out of cars, so got a Merc 350GLE with 1.5 miles on the clock. I drive a 2010 Audi at home, so had no idea how to drive it – took me 30 mins to get out of the car park 😀 Spent two days hiding in the trunk so I didn’t have to drive!!
As @NorthernLass says, in Europe always get a separate CDW policy for £30-£50 before you travel (often almost the same price for one trip or annual). Then you can stick it to the crooks at the desk. And watch out for cheap UK/European rentals (like those whose “cars” are “gold”). It seems to be their business model to charge you for “damage”. Never had that issue in the USA.
Interesting dialogue! I used to pay for Car Hire using BA or Virgin with all the extras covered. However, I now use the direct Avis/Budget link
https://secure-one.avisworld.com/en_GB/CarhireBANote:- This has changed recently, I am currently monitoring the prices for South Africa on late November. The free additional driver is not as clear as before.
I book and then cancel (without any charges) as the price comes down. A few years ago it started at £800 then after 7 cancellations and re-bookings I got it for £450!
I pay around £50 per year for Car Hire Excess Insurance so I don’t do any extras! In SA a few weeks ago I returned a car to CPT Airport and they identified a very small chip on the windscreen. This cost me almost £500! So I would then see how good my Insurance was. Well I provided/uploaded all the docs/photos and within 2 weeks I got all my money back.As indicated in the previous posts booking Car Hire via the BA Exec Club is not good if you want flexibility.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
New to Head for Points?
Welcome! We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.
NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points
Latest Forum Posts
-
Rob Burgess on The O2
-
kec_5217 on Amex has cancelled all my cards!
-
mkcol on BA Flights – Seat Allocation Maps No longer available in TripCase
-
TGLoyalty on The O2
-
HampshireHog on Is the upgrade voucher useless for short haul?
-
Ihar on BA 2FA – BA IT “business as usual”…..
-
Ant M on Chat thread – Saturday 27th April
-
executiveclubber on Running out of Avios credit cards options – advice?
-
Froggee on Is the upgrade voucher useless for short haul?
-
Maples on Running out of Avios credit cards options – advice?
Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card
Check reward flight availability instantly for free!
Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card
Booking a luxury hotel?
Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.
SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP
Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold
