Car Hire - Merged Threads

spanner200

I've just tried this code for avis.com A153700, however when I select UK as the contry of residence it then gives me a quote for the rental in UKL- what currency is that?! do they mean GBP? I then altered it to France just so I can see what the saving would be in Euros- a whopping 100 euros cheaper with the code. Whats weird though was that if I select that the country of residence is USA the price it quotes is much more expensive then if I said I lived in France... wonder why that is?

can anyone explain these anomalies? I dont want to book the car under UKL currency if I don't actually know what that is in real terms! Also I notice that with avis.com you can only reserve the car and cannot pre-pay, is this the case?

exel1966

I think you will find that UKL is the official terminology for UK STERLING. GBP is not our currency, it's just what most websites use.

EDIT: It's common practice for major Car Rental companies to accept payment at the time of rental, rather than in advance. It's also better for you too as you will hold on to your own money for longer and if you have to make any ammendments / cancellation it won't cost you a penny.

spanner200

thanks for that! at least now I know!

spanner200

hmm its still very strange that merely changing the country of residence results in wide fluctuation in price- a Renualt Megan costs £223 for a week when you select UK as country of residence but when you select France it becomes 257EUR which is £177!

exel1966

Spanner, when and where in France are to trying to book this for ?

spanner200

Actually I'm trying to book a weeks rental in Slovenia, I was just playing around with the codes and different country of residence information and found this anomaly in prices. I actually do reside in the UK, but before you informed me UKL was actually the currency for the pound, I entered France as the countr of residence in order to get an idea of the savings I would get with the code. Now it transpires that your country of residence can have an impact on price!

alchemista

Has anyone booked with changing the country of residence wrongly? On a random sampling, it appears Avis is charging UK/USA residents about 20% more, if you choose another European country there is a huge discount. I don't understand this, and wonder how they would confirm it?

jenniferpa

alchemista wrote:

Has anyone booked with changing the country of residence wrongly? On a random sampling, it appears Avis is charging UK/USA residents about 20% more, if you choose another European country there is a huge discount. I don't understand this, and wonder how they would confirm it?

Credit card address? If you had an accident, would this not potentially invalidate the insurance?

Thriftylad

CHRISTINA_EVANS wrote:

just come back from australia. prebooked using the A153700 code - got a good discount. when i got to the desk, the agent asked if i worked for AVIS, i said that i worked for the NHS and that they have a special deal with AVIS and can book using the code. she said that i should have a letter from my manager to confirm this. i said that no-one had asked me to bring this along and she let it go. if you have any problems, i think you just have to blag it.

I had a similar problem in Orlando, Florida after booking woith one of these codes. The agent on the desk said that they are for Avis employees only and I should have a letter with me from my manager to confirm that I work for Avis. I told her that i didnt work for Avis and that my secretery had booked it on my behalf as we do a lot of business with them. Unfortunately she was not for budging and I had to pay the full walk-up price..so please beware with some of these codes.

jenniferpa

I normally use codes when booking through Avis (although not the employee code). I also, if I think I might have problems, make a booking with another company in the same location. That way, if I have a problem, I can always walk to the next rental company and at least get a better rate than the "walk-up" prices. Obviously, this has to be a company that doesn't require a credit card to hold a reservation. My back-up of choice is normally enterprise.

Jennifer