Virgin flydrive/ USA car hire insurance question

icedgemma

Hi! My partner and I are looking at doing 2 weeks in California in September, flying in and out of San Francisco, and getting a hire car for the duration. Randomly, Virgin holidays has their “flydrive” package (flights and hire car) working out cheaper than just the flights alone, so it seems like that would be a good option to go with. However, on googling Virgin fly drives there are lots of mentions on hidden insurance fees at the check in stinging people. We have an annual hire car insurance policy as recommended by MSE, is there any reason why this wouldn’t suffice? It doesn’t seem to be mentioned anywhere whether there are any considerations on using this type of insurance in the USA.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Westin

It's a little known secret that often a FlyDrive deal with Virgin Holidays or British Airways Holidays can be cheaper than just purchasing the flight only element from the respective airline. Well done for that discovery!

I'm fairly sure that Virgin Atlantic and British Airways don't like their respective Holiday divisions undercutting them but it happens. The Holiday divisions can I believe get around this because they have access to fares set up in lower fare classes which can be used when another element is added to a flight - say a hotel, or car rental.

The same FlyDrive opportunity is also good with Virgin Atlantic when you might wish to purchase flights outside of the airline GDS range (11/12 months). Virgin Holidays will sell a Fly Drive packages in advance of this GDS range - useful if you need to travel over peak school holiday dates. It doesn't work with British Airways Holidays as they only sell within this 11/12 month period.

I'm afraid I cannot offer advice on the third party car insurance. Virgin Holidays use Alamo as their provider so perhaps have a hunt on their website to see what their policy is on accepting other providers insurance.

I have actually rented a fair few cars via Virgin Holidays and to be honest have actually always found the Virgin/Alamo deal of the Fully Inclusive Package to actually work out good value. Since opting for that I never get any hard sell upgrades at the counter (perhaps not much left to sell me) and never had any insurance issues.

When not travelling with Virgin Holidays I also now tend to use Alamo in the USA because of the hassle free set up.

One final tip on the Fly Drive issue. Whilst the tour operator won't like it you don't have to actually pick up the rental car - therefore just using the flight element. You may wish to consider other car rental firms if cheaper deals are available or you are affiliated to a particular car rental frequent user programme. Or of course if you only need the car for a few days (although in California I doubt it).

Enjoy CA.

jackieblack

Westin wrote: »

It's a little known secret that often a FlyDrive deal with Virgin Holidays or British Airways Holidays can be cheaper than just purchasing the flight only element from the respective airline. Well done for that discovery!

I'm fairly sure that Virgin Atlantic and British Airways don't like their respective Holiday divisions undercutting them but it happens. The Holiday divisions can I believe get around this because they have access to fares set up in lower fare classes which can be used when another element is added to a flight - say a hotel, or car rental.

The same FlyDrive opportunity is also good with Virgin Atlantic when you might wish to purchase flights outside of the airline GDS range (11/12 months). Virgin Holidays will sell a Fly Drive packages in advance of this GDS range - useful if you need to travel over peak school holiday dates. It doesn't work with British Airways Holidays as they only sell within this 11/12 month period.

I'm afraid I cannot offer advice on the third party car insurance. Virgin Holidays use Alamo as their provider so perhaps have a hunt on their website to see what their policy is on accepting other providers insurance.

I have actually rented a fair few cars via Virgin Holidays and to be honest have actually always found the Virgin/Alamo deal of the Fully Inclusive Package to actually work out good value. Since opting for that I never get any hard sell upgrades at the counter (perhaps not much left to sell me) and never had any insurance issues.

I echo all of the above