The car hire tips thread

[bhanorthy]

Just checked my trip to Canada for next month (booked via Avis about a month back). Now £70 cheaper so cancelled and rebooked, keep checking your prices people!

[sm]

Just trying to make a booking for US car rental hertz using gold plus membership ( enrolled with plat amex ) using US website – so I don’t add any optional insurance at the booking stage? If you do a pay now option I guess there’s nothing else to pay when you go to collect the car. Also Do they give you a one grade upgrade free of charge above the car you actually select? Thanks in advance for newbie questions

[JenT]

Hi @sm,

No need to add any insurance if you still hold the Platinum Amex at the time of renting the vehicle. Pay now is exactly that – nothing else to pay when you arrive.

Upgrade isn’t guaranteed at the Five Star level (which is what you get through Amex Platinum) – it’s only ‘as available’. If you book a mid-size or above in the USA and the rental station has Ultimate Choice, you will likely end up with a better car than you have booked, but again, there are no guarantees. You’ll need to be President’s Circle to get that. Hertz do status matching if you are high enough in another rental rewards program.

[sm]

Thanks JenT. ☺️ Was hoping you might reply to me! Brilliant will make the booking!
On the small chance there is an accident / damage / theft would I just pay the car rental company and then claim on my plat Amex policy? There is no excess as such as there is no insurance with the car rental company I think. Thank you again for all the information.

[JenT]

All correct! Make sure you have the Amex code included in the Hertz booking as it may be a lot cheaper. If you have time, it’s worth changing the country on Hertz – see earlier pages – to see if you can get a better price. Some people were doing well with Bermuda! Enjoy your trip!

[sm]

Ah thanks so much JenT. Flying to Vegas and then onwards on Hawaii where we will rent a car!

[Molly]

Looking to use Amex Plat insurance for a hertz rental in the States. I’m a supplementary card holder on my mum’s account. Will my wife still be insured as a 2nd driver even though she does not hold a Plat card?

[janed9388]

Is the amex platinum code still amex platimum EMEA ? I have it hanging around from a platinum card I had a few years back and the prices seem really high even with the code in and trying various countries websites. I’m after a 1 day hire in the USA in August so i suspect that is the issue but pretty much everywhere else is cheaper.

[NorthernLass]

I booked a hire car through Zest for our OPO trip as they seemed to include the most extras out of all the companies in the same price range. Had to pay £49 deposit, which I assumed was non-refundable, however I cancelled the booking the other day due to a change of plans and got a message that the £49 would be refunded, so I’m even more impressed now!

[JD]

Thanks for the car hire tips in this thread.

Re US car hire, I’ve recently booked a c.2 weeks hire for Florida in the summer. I worked through a lot of booking options (as set out in this thread) to try and find the best deal with a reputable player.

The best that I could find was through Avis – I had Avis Preferred via BA Gold, but I used their MasterCard World Elite pages to get my Avis Preferred shifted up to Avis Presidents Club using the Barclaycard World Elite Mastercard benefit (their master data team emailed to say that they had manually made the change in the back end and to give it a couple of days to replicate through their systems). That appeared to result in an incremental discount over and above the Avis Preferred offer.

I am going to keep monitoring over the next couple of months to see if prices move down.

[JD]

JD wrote:

Thanks for the car hire tips in this thread.

Re US car hire, I’ve recently booked a c.2 weeks hire for Florida in the summer. I worked through a lot of booking options (as set out in this thread) to try and find the best deal with a reputable player.

The best that I could find was through Avis – I had Avis Preferred via BA Gold, but I used their MasterCard World Elite pages to get my Avis Preferred shifted up to Avis Presidents Club using the Barclaycard World Elite Mastercard benefit (their master data team emailed to say that they had manually made the change in the back end and to give it a couple of days to replicate through their systems). That appeared to result in an incremental discount over and above the Avis Preferred offer.

I am going to keep monitoring over the next couple of months to see if prices move down.

Data point: I managed to rebook this today, saving c.45% on exactly the same booking (provider, car class, dates and times).

[NorthernLass]

Prices seem to be staying depressingly high into next summer – is this going to be the new norm?

[NorthernLass]

bhanorthy wrote:

Thought it would be worth adding my newest experience.

Boston for two weeks in June. Hertz at Hanscom Field, a small private airport 30 mins from downtown in an Uber, is under half the cost of Logan International.

Always always try the non major airport locations!

Found this tip trawling through the posts – it still stands, especially if you pay up front, otherwise about £300 more for 2 weeks’ hire. Still half the price of collecting at BOS! Just a shame it’s 25 miles in the wrong direction of where we’re headed but I’ll bear it in mind.

[Phil1]

This thread is incredibly useful, thanks to all.

I don’t have Amex Platinum at the moment, but with the current sign-up bonus and various credits I think I will apply.
I’m looking for car hire for ~2 weeks from San Francisco next May and the prices are incredible as we all know. Avis.co.uk ~£1350, but if I go via Avis.com £811 without insurance which would be covered by Platinum. Would almost cover the Platinum fee. Will look at Hertz next.

Could anyone help with some questions –
For Avis.com it asks for ‘residency’. I only get the £811 price by selecting USA, if select UK the price is much higher as some insurances are included that you cannot un-select. Does Avis allow this?
Are there discounts associated with Platinum that means I should wait until actually having Platinum to compare prices? The Avis.com price, for example, is pay now with a fee to cancel.

[davefl]

Yes it’s allowable. Also try carhire-ba.com for an Avis/budget quote especially if you’re BA silver and above. Not that they ever ask for proof.

[NorthernLass]

Have a trawl through the different pick up options. Hertz is currently charging half the price (and pay up front) if you collect the car in BOS city centre as opposed to airport. Easily worth the cost of the taxi ride, I would imagine this also applies to other US cities.

Incidentally, I got some sort of Hertz status via IHG Diamond but when you get a quote having logged in prices are even higher! I’m not sure what the point of it is?

[Notmyrealname]

So I’ve tried the options in this thread and still the hire car fee is stupidly expensive for Canada!

Getting nearly £800 for 14 days hire!

Anyone got any better ideas?

Thanks

[dougzz99]

Notmyrealname wrote:

So I’ve tried the options in this thread and still the hire car fee is stupidly expensive for Canada!

Getting nearly £800 for 14 days hire!

Anyone got any better ideas?

Thanks

That’s the new normal. What sort of price were you expecting?

[Notmyrealname]

dougzz99 wrote:

Notmyrealname wrote:

So I’ve tried the options in this thread and still the hire car fee is stupidly expensive for Canada!

Getting nearly £800 for 14 days hire!

Anyone got any better ideas?

Thanks

That’s the new normal. What sort of price were you expecting?

Should have said this if NEXT July.

“Normal” prices should be £200 per week.

[davefl]

Notmyrealname wrote:

So I’ve tried the options in this thread and still the hire car fee is stupidly expensive for Canada!

Getting nearly £800 for 14 days hire!

Anyone got any better ideas?

Thanks

I would say that is extremely cheap in the current market. Avis just quoted me £356 prepaid for 4 days in Prague.

[Notmyrealname]

davefl wrote:

Notmyrealname wrote:

So I’ve tried the options in this thread and still the hire car fee is stupidly expensive for Canada!

Getting nearly £800 for 14 days hire!

Anyone got any better ideas?

Thanks

I would say that is extremely cheap in the current market. Avis just quoted me £356 prepaid for 4 days in Prague.

The clue is “current market”

This is for NEXT July which is the Future, car hire Co’s are ripping people off

[NorthernLass]

And they will continue if people pay these prices! I was just grappling with the “new normal” of $1000 US for a fortnight’s car hire when the £ tanked …
Might have to start looking at these Amtraks Americans like so much!

[PeteM]

Notmyrealname wrote:

The clue is “current market”

This is for NEXT July which is the Future, car hire Co’s are ripping people off

Or you can see it as recouping losses from the pandemic… and people are clearly paying these prices. Why not book a refundable hire now and keep checking to see if prices come down?

[Notmyrealname]

PeteM wrote:

Notmyrealname wrote:

The clue is “current market”

This is for NEXT July which is the Future, car hire Co’s are ripping people off

Or you can see it as recouping losses from the pandemic… and people are clearly paying these prices. Why not book a refundable hire now and keep checking to see if prices come down?

If I book a refundable rate now it only encourages the car hire companies to keep their money grabbing high rates IMHO.
People on here are clearly paying those prices 🙂

I have found Priceline DOT COM has reasonable rates:- £430 for 14 days.

Never used them and it’s pay on arrival.

Anyone had any experience of Priceline.com?

Thanks

[NorthernLass]

I haven’t tried them, but I’ll have a look. With these 3rd party companies you have to check the Ts and Cs very carefully, some of them don’t include much by way of insurance, for example.