Car hire US with Ebookers?

misa.blue

The Netflights car hire tool still does not work for me, showing no cars available..
Carhire3000 does not have Ford Escape on offer at all.

Ebookers (Dollar) everything we need, cheaper than others plus 6% Quidco cashback. However it is quite
worrying that nobody here seems to have experience with them..

jamesbrownontheroad

misa.blue wrote: »

Has anybody booked hire car with Ebookers before? Any experience?

misa.blue wrote: »

I would like to ask if you have experience with booking hire car in USA via Ebookers.

We are looking for Ford Escape from LAX to San Francisco for 8 days and Ebookers Alamo quote is £202 uincluding add driver and full tank.

I'm just back from California. I booked an 'Intermediate' / 'Midsize' vehicle with Alamo through Ebookers for six days from SF to LA. The car priced in at about £115 before Quidco cashback (which tracked quite quickly). I was billed another $50 or so for the first tank of fuel when I picked the car up, this was in the T&C. I didn't opt for any of the Alamo insurances, taking instead my usual coverage from dailyexcess.com. In retrospect I don't know for certain if this would have covered all the liabilities that litigious Californian drivers might have needed in the event of an accident that injured other people, but luckily didn't have to find out.

Alamo is part of National, and they share facilities at both SF and LA. A perk which I wasn't expecting (and this may be the same at LA) is that at SF your car isn't chosen for you at the desk. You complete the paperwork at the counter and then go through to the parking garage. I was directed to the Midsize aisle, and invited to choose whichever car I wanted. The keys were waiting in the cars, and the car was matched to my rental when I drove to the check-out barrier at the exit of the car park. In my case that meant the usual choice of moderately !!!!!! Chevrolets and Toyotas; two Aussie girls pinched the one tasty looking Volkswagen moments ahead of me, but in the end I picked out a very comfortable, economical and sharp looking Kia Forte (a US/Australia model not sold in the UK). Strangely there was one anomaly in that aisle - a Chevrolet Impala which is usually classed as a much larger 'Full Size' car - I didn't try to to take it but have heard that occasionally larger / better cars will get parked in the wrong bay and you can drive off in an upgrade.

photome

misa.blue

When are you going ?

Carhire3000 show a jeep liberty which is the same class as the Escape. As you know there is no gtee which model you will get but as an example if you were to rent thru CH3000 and the compamny used was dollar and pick up at LAS, even though it says jeep liberty, you would more likely get an Escape as there were a few of them at LAS last year, and of course as previous poster says you do get to pick whatever car you want from the class booked.

BUT there is a smaller choice at LAX than LAS

jamesbrownontheroad

Forgot to add. Like most rental companies, National / Alamo agents at LAX and SFO work on commission. Their easiest prey for extras (such as upgrades, insurance packages, satellite navigation hire, child seat hire etc etc etc) are jet lagged Brits. Brits are notorious for rarely spending less than a week, often two or three times that, when they come to the USA for their holidays. They are also usually jet lagged to hell when they arrive in west coast US airports, so are shall we say ... more pliable. We are also notoriously easy to tempt with pricey upgrades, usually to convertibles or over sized cars (and agents will sometimes suggest that four people plus bags won't fit in smaller vehicles).

Just remember that any option the agent offers you will be earning him/her a commission calculated on then number of days of your hire. I would research and confirm your insurance in advance.

See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other-car-rental-programs-partners-ie-alamo-enterprise-sixt-595/

Oh, and while we on the matter... never get tempted to go for a convertible in California. There are only a limited number of models available - normally absolute shitbox Chrysler Sebrings or Chrysler PT Cruisers (or, just conceivably, if the lot is empty, maybe a Mustang convertible... but they really aren't nice cars to drive). And people forget that coastal California, especially north of LA, can become rainy and foggy on a regular basis. So you'll either end up with roof up a lot of the time or being suburnt when it's down

photome

Mmmmmmmmm ?

StuieUK34

I booked with netflights and usrentacar for my cars, all paid there and then on the spot..
Usrentacar had the £50 deposit option but i paid in full, had voucher few hours later.....

misa.blue

StuieUK34 wrote: »

I booked with netflights , all paid there and then on the spot..

I keep trying Netflights 3 weeks now, but their website car hire does not work, last week it did not show any optional locations for drop off in San Fran, now it does show location but which ever I choose it says sorry no cars available :mad: I send mesages to Netflights and they said 3 times:"we are looking into it, you can book over the phone". Well I don't want book over phone as they will not do Quidco cashback or offer equivalent discount..So I'm not impresed with Netflights and main thing, they are £30 more expensive on same hire then Ebookers!