Florida Flydrive car hire questions

gk172

Ive jsut booked up to go to florida next year and went via the virgin fly drive option also going via quidco and its showing as tracked at £74 but what id dint realise was they only gaive you the car for 1 week and we need it for 3 weeks so what is the best option to choose? If i take the 3 weeks with my booking and via virgin it will cost £900 ish or book the same car with the same company for the additional 2 weeks and hope they will roll it into 1 booking when we get to the airport for making the cost for the car hire for 3 weeks roughly £610 or cancell the car altogether which according to the website will cost £50 and then book with a differant company same size car but at a cost of £500 so including cancellation fee £550 or even taking the bigger car only £612 for 3 weeks seems the cheapest/best option BUT with the quidco amount showing as tracked alters things.

I dont want to do anything that will possible make the quidco amount declined but also dont want to be unable to change things after 7 days if thats the option we choose or can we change the car situation after quidco has been paid?

I hope you can understand what im saying and hope some kind person can help or advise me, thanks in advance;)

vanilla8

Just dont take the virgin car, thats what we are doing. (dont tell them you want to cancel it)

We have booked a seperate hire car, much cheaper than the virgin car. The reason why we booked a fly drive was that it was cheaper than buying flights direct with virgin atlantic.

Check out thedibb.co.uk
Lots of advice and plenty of tips of other car hire firms

trets77

does any of this price with Virgin included insurance ????? Virgin and Dollar have a nasty little gravy train going with the car hire.

buired deep in the Broucher and the web site you will find your Car hire comes with only the most basic insurance that covers third party costs only. here is the actual wording (p.s My travel and other fly drive companys have the same sort of set up too)

Although your car hire agreement includes Third Party Liability cover up to US$ 1 million, it is vital that you have adequate cover to protect yourself against financial risk in the event of total loss of the vehicle, damage or accidents, especially as some US drivers carry little or no insurance. If you pre-purchase one of our inclusive car packages, these risks are covered, however if you decide not to pre-purchase one of these packages the following extra charges may be payable on arrival:

you have to purchase LDW seperatly. again here is the actual text from Virgin

Loss Damage Waiver is not included. It provides Comprehensive Cover for all damage to the car, no matter how caused, provided you have not violated the rental agreement. It is technically optional, but if you do not take it you will be asked to provide evidence of credit worthiness, including a major credit card limit of $1,500 and you will be liable for any and all damage or loss - including loss of use of the rental vehicle up to its full retail value - regardless of fault.
WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND LDW.
LDW Daily Cost
Between $20.99-$25.99
PLEASE NOTE - DOLLAR does not recognise as a substitute for its LDW any type of LDW sold other than the one it sells itself.

notice that nasty little phrase on the end ?? it basically says take our over priced crap policy or else we will hold hold your Credit card hostage for the full value of the car your driving. why is it a crap policy ??? well £12.50ish a day x 21 days = £262 almost as much ( if not more !!) than renting it in the first place.. and it does not cover windscreen , wheel or undercarridge damage. and there is no mention of any excess or excess reduction either ...anthor fav little add on of car hire companys to hit you with if your not prepared !!!

and it gets better your local taxes are not included either. and there is no mention of the fuelling options .

here is the link the above qouted text is taken from
http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/brochures/usa/info/flydrive/costs/additional_costs.aspx

and here are some links to help navigate around the minefield that is car hire.Make sure you read this 1st link !!!!!!!!!

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/your_say/article713476.ece

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/article1293119.ece

but be careful
www.insurance4carhire.com and http://www.dailyexcess.com/index.asp?curID=1&langID=1&refID=874 are not my favorite of companys.

we rented a car in this country 3 weeks ago . the insurance4carhire policy contains exlusions so that euro policy does not cover cars rented within 150 miles of your home. the dailyexcess one does , we rang them up and checked that we could hire from nearby outlet . no problem said the agent on the phone , but you cannot take the policy till you have the car and reg number ect.
so i rent the car , decline the hire companys over priced excess reduction policy and call "excess 4 car hire". agent tells me you should have taken the poicy Before you rented!!!. totally the opposite of what the other agent had told us. they refused to give me a policy because i had already rented .... THANKS!!!

however the OH made the orginial phone call and a very heated phone call later they issued us with a policy for our rental. good job they did as we got a stone chip on the windscreen travelling up the M6 which Enterprise charged me £50 . i have sent my claim off but as of 2 weeks on i have had no cheque from Daily excess !!!..next time i ring them i will be recording the call on my mobile !!!!

also the insurance4carhire USA policy cantains some very vague wording when it comes to fly drive rentals with your tour operator ect

• Why do you not recommend this insurance for fly-drive programmes?
Fly Drive programmes are generally structured so that the car rental company makes its money from add-ons such as insurance. For that reason, companies which participate in fly-drive programmes do not always readily accept this insurance. For example, both Dollar and Alamo will accept our insurance but will withdraw or block US$ 1,500 from your credit card for the duration of the rental when you do a fly-drive through them, using our insurance.

If there is damage to the vehicle, they are unlikely to charge your credit card unless the amount is small. It is more likely that the car rental company will take direct contact with our claims management company. However, the renter must submit a claim form so that the claims management company is fully appraised of the circumstances in which the damage was sustained.

love the use of the words "unlikely" and "more likely" when you could have a bill for a few $1000 to deal with.

i will still use them in the future ..their prices and cover are fantastic for no strings car hire!!!,,i will just be making sure i get all the t's crossed and checked and cover myself agaisnt poor customer service by recording telephone calls and keeping copies of any correspondance..

me personally i go with Travelbag in North America. everything except fuel is included in the up front price, and it says so in black and white on your agreement. they use Alamo as rule. we rented a car in Canada last year and all insurance and taxes were included ..no excess reduction as excess was Zero. we payed approx $15 for a full tank of fuel and were offered personal item insurance ( which you don,t need because your travel insurance will cover it).i,m renting with them again for 15 days in oct for Boston and my policy clearly states that eveything is included except fuel.prices are comparable to all the other firms and Travelbag also do 5% with Quidco

i agree with Vanilla8 ..unless you have shelled out for any insurance already just don,t collect the car and go elsewhere.or wait till you have your quidco money in hand then cancel and book elsewhere

gk172

Thank you for your help, i am part of the dibb but never got an answer when i asked and there isnt too much mention about quidco over on that board hence asking here, i know about all the pitfalls with insurance and i upgraded the car and insurance (platinum) at the time of booking, i wish i hadnt it would be easier just to book with alamo but as it stands i have 1 week at the correct rate and correct car I just would like the same car without having to swap after the first week.

Amys

I would cancel the car insurance and then simply not pick up the car using the Virgin agreement and book your own car, with the relevent insruances and use that for the three weeks. It is likey to be cheaper that way, unless you have dirvers under 25, as the Virgin insruance does not have an access for them, other all do, and it can work out better with Virgin under those circumstances.

newish2this

I was also looking at a fly-drive as we needed a car AND the flight worked out cheaper this way!! I'm so glad I looked at this post as I hadn't even looked at the insurance until now.....it is only the 3rd party basic stuff!!!!
Looking around, it would actually work out cheaper to keep the fly-drive flight but to hire a car from elsewhere...but, is there any comeback on you if you don't pick up the fly-drive car??

gk172

Amys wrote: »

I would cancel the car insurance and then simply not pick up the car using the Virgin agreement and book your own car, with the relevent insruances and use that for the three weeks. It is likey to be cheaper that way, unless you have dirvers under 25, as the Virgin insruance does not have an access for them, other all do, and it can work out better with Virgin under those circumstances.

Yes including the £50 fee can save £100 doing it this way providing there is no come back, i guess i will be waiting on quicdo then call them and cancel the car if i can, has anyone cancelled there flydrive car after the initial 7 days without penalty?

vanilla8

I have read on the dibb plenty of people who always NEVER pick up the virgin hire car, and there are never ever comebacks/fines

Have a search on the dibb forums if you want to check yourselves

trets77

newish2this wrote: »

I was also looking at a fly-drive as we needed a car AND the flight worked out cheaper this way!! I'm so glad I looked at this post as I hadn't even looked at the insurance until now.....it is only the 3rd party basic stuff!!!!
Looking around, it would actually work out cheaper to keep the fly-drive flight but to hire a car from elsewhere...but, is there any comeback on you if you don't pick up the fly-drive car??

how could there be ???

you don,t have take a flight if you pay for it, do you . your bascially not taking the service you have payed for and thats your problem.

what could they do ??? stop you getting on the plane back.turf you out of somebody else's Villa/ Hotel after they have paid them ?? ( after you have paid Virgin and have proof you have). they could not even try to charge you on the credit card you payed with it for.

i doubt Virgin holidays / dollar could sort a complaint out if it meant involving Virgin Atlantic. ( as people who have complained about Virgin have no doubt experianced) let alone conspire together to unlawfully be spiteful to you . you could always make some bulls**t story up about not being fit to drive and your going to use public transport if they rang you up.

i would like to see them explain it in writing.

" due to the fact the customer did collect the car they paid for ( and didn,t ask for a refund) we denied boarding to our aircraft so we could maintain high customer services for the people we do manage to get to buy our optional insurnace policy."

i would be glad if they tried anything , i would be getting a groveling letter of public apoligie , compensation and a apperance on BBC watchdog as well.

bring it on !

newish2this

Hmmmm........perhaps I didn't eplain what I was thinking properly...
I was thinking that maybe they parked the car at a terminal at the airport and you were liable for the parking ticket OR if they left it in a certain place for the 2weeks etc and it got damaged, you were still liable!!!???

I know, far fetched, but worse things have happened!!:o
:rotfl:

trets77

no way you have sign when you take charge of the car. no signature..no problem. besides all the cars will be in secure parking.