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I have done a forum search and although I suspect it has been covered I cannot find the answer.
In order to claim double tier points on a 5 day holiday composing of flight and car hire do i have to actually pick up the hire car ?
Many thanksI am sure I saw on another forum that the best practice is YES you do need to collect the car. Some Rental agencies have very large early return fees and will be within their rights to charge you. It seems unfair But apparently has happened.
I’ve booked and completed a 5 day BA Holiday in Europe with car hire. I didn’t pick up the car. No issues, double tier pints were awarded. Neither the car hire company or BA contacted me to question anything. I doubt there is anything in a contract with BA that says they can charge you for not picking up the car especially given one may be too ill to drive etc.
If you book a car hire directly with a hire company then I’m sure they have all sorts of underhand terms.
Not picking up the car isn’t the same as picking it up and returning it early. And yes when people have done that they do get charged.
Some people just seem to forget their driving licences in the pre departure palava we all go through
Some agencies will fine you €50 or so if you don’t collect a prepaid car. This is compensation for the loss they make not being able to sell you rip-off insurance or fake damage claims. It’s only a nominal sum though.
Some agencies will fine you €50 or so if you don’t collect a prepaid car. This is compensation for the loss they make not being able to sell you rip-off insurance or fake damage claims. It’s only a nominal sum though.
Are you sure that applies if you book through BA Holidays? Is it in the booking terms with BA?
Just thinking if this is the same with a hotel booking such as a single night before deoarture or on arrival and skipping that.
Any more examples of not picking up cars?!
Was told yesterday that, for a 10-night holiday, there has
to be a minimum 5 nights of either hotel or car (is that right?? is there a formula for that? Half the trip?). Original plan was car for 1 day.Ended up swapping expensive hotel (had another booked separately) for far cheaper car for 5 days, but don’t need/want it.
-Is it better to just do nothing, rather than, say, picking it up, doing a daytrip and say we’re returning it early (think I saw some FT report about this leading to flight repricing?!), or ringing and saying we forgot licence, etc.?!
Note also that the hotel or car element of the booking must be booked for the duration of the trip
Note also that the hotel or car element of the booking must be booked for the duration of the trip
Isn’t that just a condition of the extra avios offer?
Just did a faux booking, first with 5 days of car, then 1 day, and it reduced the price accordingly.
Maybe I should just HUACA…You can do a lot with BA Holiday bookings, it’s worth spending a bit of time playing with the system. For example, 2 separate car hire bookings will price up as a holiday; it might not be any cheaper but it does give you the pay later option which BA car hire generally doesn’t.
There are still things you annoyingly can’t do online like booking different cabins on each leg though. Sadly I am forced to fly home in CW this summer while OH and son are in PE, curse BA’s IT 😂Any more examples of not picking up cars?!
Was told yesterday that, for a 10-night holiday, there has
to be a minimum 5 nights of either hotel or car (is that right?? is there a formula for that? Half the trip?). Original plan was car for 1 day.Ended up swapping expensive hotel (had another booked separately) for far cheaper car for 5 days, but don’t need/want it.
-Is it better to just do nothing, rather than, say, picking it up, doing a daytrip and say we’re returning it early (think I saw some FT report about this leading to flight repricing?!), or ringing and saying we forgot licence, etc.?!
Who told you that it had to be a minimum of 5 nights?
Have never had an issue booking a BA holiday with only a one nights stay as part of it. But then again I book online.
Either don’t pick it up at all or return it in accordance with the booking you made. If you pick it up and return it early then the car agency can reprice the car hire booking.
BA told me years ago that holiday bookings had to include flight plus car and/or accommodation for the whole stay; it wasn’t till I started reading HFP that I found out that this was yet more BABS. Sometimes there’s an issue with cookies or browsers which means the system demands payment up front but this can be swerved by using another device or browser. My next BA holiday consists of a CW flight for me plus one night in a Hampton Inn on the first night, which we’ll need anyway as we like to stay near the airport after a long flight enjoying the F & B!
I’ve made 2 booking over the past couple of years for flight plus car and had no intention of picking up the car. Sadly the pandemic meant I was unable to take either trip.
When booking the most recent I was upfront and honest with the guy on the phone, just said I was doing it to avoid paying upfront so what was the best option for the least amount of money.
He looked at a few options and said the system was only showing a discounted rate if the car hire was 3 or more days of the 7 and it was cheaper than doing just a 1 day hire. I don’t think there is fixed min rule, just depends on circumstances.
I think there are 2 issues being conflated here.
1) the minimum criteria to make a package holiday booking with ATOL protection & the ability to only pay a deposit which is a single day car hire or 1 night in a hotel.
2) the minimum criteria to get access to cheap fare buckets for the flight. This varies for LH/SH I believe & was tightened up in last few years. You used to be able to dodge Saturday night restrictions & get cheap (<£2k) J tickets 1 week out through BAH when flight only would be £6k+ to NYC etc.
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