The car hire tips thread

[NorthernLass]

Thanks, will do. It doesn’t help that my sister’s 40th falls on Easter weekend next year!

[LondonFly]

I’m looking at rentalcars dotcom and they are giving me the same prices as europecar and budget. What the pros and cons of booking through reliablke agent or direct?

[Dragonlady]

NorthernLass wrote:

Can anyone recommend a reliable car hire company at Alicante? Avis/Budget are quoting £250 for 3 days which is insane! Lots of other cheaper options but I haven’t used any of them before.

My experience has been that AVIS prices do come down at ALC . I generally book something I want as soon as I know I’m arriving and cancel and rebook as the price comes down (often multiple times as their cancellation policy is very straightforward ).My last one at ALC ( January ) had halved by the time I collected it . Easter may be a bit more tricky though. Service level has always been ok there too.

[davefl]

Avis showing 15% discount if you book by 23/6 on the app.

[AMcC]

I will shortly be planning / booking a car in Australia for later in the year, not sure yet who with but the tips from this thread will be very useful. We have an Amex Platinum card, my wife is primary card holder, I’m secondary and would expect to use its insurance. When I’ve booked cars in the past (pre Amex Platinum days), I have requested that my wife is second driver and generally paid a daily rate for this, sometimes I think there might have been offers with second driver free. For my future booking, I’m wondering what I might have to do when booking… the second driver charge may be simply as profit, it may be for the car hire firm’s provided insurance. I think that I need to declare the second driver but don’t want to pay for insurance for either of us.

Any thoughts on how this should / might work?

Thanks.

[Wiseoldman]

Ive booked a compact SUV for Vancouver @ £50/day for 3rd week of July using Amex CDP. Everything else was double the price. Is someone a regular Vancouver visitor and knows if the price will improve? should i keep checking? any tips? thanks

[Saltrams]

I’m 62 and have an Amex Platinum (therefore including car hire cover). So far so good.
However, the OH – who would ideally be the second/additional driver – is 71 and according to the Ts&Cs all Amex benefits & cover cease once the cardholder reaches 70 (let’s discuss THAT piece of ageism in today’s world!)
Does anyone know if & how the rule applies to an additional driver?
Failing that, does anyone know how I can get hold of the right department at Amex in order to clarify please?