Thomson/Alamo 'Free' Car

bbd999

Hi

This has been discussed before (not recently) but always seems to go on about right and wrongs about whether you need CDW ( you do!)

I have booked Thomson package with free car to Florida.

The free car should be sufficient

Thomson say CDW and TW are 'compulsory' either with them in advance or at the Alamo desk. DO they mean compulsory to HAVE or compulsory to buy?

I have car hire excess insurance separately

I have asked Alamo by email and have written response saying it is optional ( I explained it would be a Thomson voucher)

But I cannot see anyone in the forums who say they successfully got a free car without paying extra?

Anyone have experience

TBH I am happy to pay for an upgrade so may negotiate at airport but CDW is $25 a day

I am reasonably confident but the lack of forum evidence is worrying.

NiftyDigits

Don't know anything about Thomson 'free cars', but if you want to be sure that you are fully covered, you should look more closely at your current car hire excess policy.
It is likely that it does not offer you adequate cover in the event of a mishap.
Examples of the kind of policy that you would need are to be found here and here. The options to include SLI. Don't forget Quidco.

Your current policy likely covers you for cars that already have a form of CDW. Your 'free' car will not. So you would be liable for the full cost of the cars, as opposed to the £4000 or so of coverage from your (likely) current policy.
So in order to be adequately insured, you would need one of the policies from my examples

bbd999

Thanks for reply I have £50k of cover ( went for 'deluxe' annual cover with a company called worldwideinsure.com (bought this last few years - think it was/is on MSE(?))

Cannot see mention of SLI

Archergirl

I wouldn't bother with an upgrade, a few times we have been to USA they say 'just go to Alamo( or whoever) line and pick one' You can pick any one you like we did.....
But it is VERY hard sell till you get outside. See if you have breakdown cover, they hard sold us that which is why we didn't feel guilty picking an upgraded car

NiftyDigits

All the details are on the Thomson website.

http://www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/features/car-hire/car-hire-inclusive-packages-florida.html

What's included with your inclusive car hire?

Included in your booking:
• Air-conditioned car with unlimited mileage, automatic transmission, and radio.
• Local road maps and information.
• Liability cover offering third party liability protection to the state minimum of $20,000 per accident. Third party liability protection relates to any damage or injury you may cause with your rental vehicle to either the property or person of a third party excluding relatives.
Please note: Each state in the USA establishes a minimum level of third party liability coverage which may be as low as US$10,000, meaning you could be left financially exposed if a claim is made against you. Because of this, we highly recommend that you upgrade to Fully Inclusive or Alamo Gold to include up to $1 million Liability Coverage and Collision Damage Waiver (CDW).

So you'll have Liability Cover. But at the State's minimum. SLI is Supplementary Liability Cover.
I'm not sure as to how much they will attempt to ringfence on your CC.

Additional charges and optional extras - payable locally
The following charges may also apply to your car hire booking and can be paid for when you collect your hire car:
Additional driver surcharge: If two or more people are going to be driving the car, you'll need to pay an additional driver surcharge of $10.00 per driver per day. Please note – if you purchase our Gold package, you can have up to three additional drivers for free.
Deposits: You'll need to leave a credit card imprint or a cash deposit of $100 per week when you pick up the car.
Fuel: When you pick up your car, it'll come with a full tank of fuel. A charge for this is made based on the average full service pump price for mid-grade fuel. You'll need to pay for this up front, but you can return the car with an empty tank. Please note – if you purchase our Gold package, your tank of fuel is free.
Young driver surcharge: The minimum age for hiring a car in Florida is 21 years, but drivers under 25 years will need to pay an additional young driver surcharge of $25.00 each per day.
Child seats: Remember, child seats are compulsory for children under 6 years. You can hire these locally for $5.99 per seat per day.
Returning your car: Alamo operate a 24-hour rental system, so on your last day you'll need to return the car by the same time you originally collected it - otherwise you'll incur a charge for an extra day's rental.

We had no issues renting a car on the spot in Miami. But then we rented from AVIS, who stated that they pride themselves on not bothering you unduly. They certainly did not and we rolled out in a brand new Chevrolet Equinox.

In conclusion, your insurance policy is adequate, though it doesn't cover all bases.

bbd999

Thanks again for the replies

This is the wording from email sent relevant section at bottom ( from research and replies I think it's just sales tactic but this is why I wondered abou "compulsory to buy or compulsory to have")

On arrival at Sanford airport driving instructions and your vehicle documentation will be available at the Thomson Service Centre. Please collect these instructions to ensure a hassle free journey to your accommodation.



What's included:
Unlimited mileage
Local maps & information
Liabilty cover with 3rd party protection (max $200k per accident)^

^Up to $1m liability cover is included with Fully Inclusive and Gold insurance packages
What's not included:
Collision damage waiver (CDW)*
Theft Waiver (THW)*
Petrol (1 tank included with Gold insurance)
Parking charge, toll fees and traffic fines
Garage costs
Accommodation delivery & pick up
Late returns
Additional drivers†
CDW & THW claim excess
Extra equipment e.g. infant seats
Taxes may change with government policies
*CDW and THW are included in Fully Inclusive and Gold upgrades. These are compulsory for all car hire so will need to be paid in resort if no upgrade is booked prior to travel.
†included

headpin

Archergirl wrote: »

I wouldn't bother with an upgrade, a few times we have been to USA they say 'just go to Alamo( or whoever) line and pick one' You can pick any one you like we did.....
But it is VERY hard sell till you get outside. See if you have breakdown cover, they hard sold us that which is why we didn't feel guilty picking an upgraded car

This is somewhat misleading. When they say go and pick your car from the line what they are telling you to do is to pick it from the line in the class of vehicle that you have a booking for. If you could just go and pick a luxury vehicle having paid for a budget size vehicle then everybody would do that. So if you are looking to upgrade from say an intermediate to a full-size you would still need to do that at the desk. However if they do not have the size of vehicle available that you have reserved the normal practice is to then upgrade you to the next size available that they have at no additional cost. You can often tell if I do not have your class of vehicle available because the hard sell for an upgrade will be even more telling than is usual.

So far as the US is concerned most companies now offer the CDW or LDW as some call it with Zero excess. In some cases the only thing that you may be liable for would be glass, keys, the underside, and possibly the interior but this does not necessarily apply to all rental companies. So your excess waiver product will generally only be required for these items. However should you not choose to take the CDW or LDW product I do not believe that your insurance Excess cover would pay out because they are covering the Excess and not the total liability. If I were you I would clarify with your excess liability insurance company your precise position. Whilst it is unlikely that you will have an accident in the US, it is better to be safe than sorry, otherwise you could land yourself with an exceptionally large bill.

In addition as indicated in an earlier post you should also make sure that you have adequate coverage for the supplementary liability that you may incur, this is the SLI insurance. This would cover you if you say cause damage in a car park, hit a pedestrian or something similar. Again I would suggest it would be foolhardy not to ensure that you have suitable cover for this type of occurrence.

Many people get taken in by the free car offer that is provided by a number of holiday tour organisations. Often these "offer" cars do not cover the insurance products that are necessary to drive with peace of mind in the US. I have been in the position of having a free car in the past and I have generally found that I can hire a car separately with all of the necessary insurances at a lower cost than it would be to pay for the insurance separately on the free car. I would suggest that you may wish to investigate this option too if you discover that you would need to take out the CDW and SLI as separate products at the desk.