Fly-drive with Virgin Holidays in Orlando – Basic Car Hire.

StockportGerbil

Hi!
My wife and I have booked a Virgin Holidays fly-drive in Orlando departing in a couple of weeks.

It comes with the basic car hire package which we’ve upgraded to an SUV. Virgin organise their car hire via Alamo.

My expectation is that I’ll have to pay $100 or so of local taxes / charges plus £80 for CDW / SLI insurance which I buy beforehand. Is this sensible / am I fully covered?

Ideally my wife would also be able to drive the car and be added to the car rental policy. I’ve just contacted Virgin and they say only way to do that is to take out their fully inclusive package which is £496.66. (Which is more expensive than hiring a car there.)

The questions I’ve got are …

- If I’m the only driver will buying third party CDW / SLI insurance cover be sufficient cover for any eventualities?

- Am I right in thinking if my wife wants to drive she needs to be named on the rental agreement with Alamo?

- When we pitch up at Alamo will they be happy to add my wife onto the rental? (If so any idea of the price?)

Thanks

Kevin

pompeyrich

You would probably have been better off to book your own car direct with Alamo, especially through the Alamo Brits website, where an extra driver is free and the cost for 2 weeks SUV rental is around £380.

Legally your wife would have to be on the rental agreement, according to the Alamo site an extra driver is $139+tax for the 2 weeks payable at the desk. On the UK site you can upgrade to a tank of fuel and additional driver for around £75.

if you have an Alamo reference number you might be able to amend your booking online HERE

StockportGerbil

Thanks for the reply - it is appreciated.

pompeyrich wrote: »

You would probably have been better off to book your own car direct with Alamo, especially through the Alamo Brits website, where an extra driver is free and the cost for 2 weeks SUV rental is around £380.

I think it's marginally cheaper booking the fly drive, but with hindsight there's not alot in it. If someone else is thinking of doing what I've done then the additional charges I'll have when I get to Orlando were (in 2014 and according to a tripadvisor post)

Customer Facility Charge 2.50/day $12.50 (capped at 5 days)
Priv Fee Recov Chg 10 % $16.53
Tire/battery Fee .02/day $0.28
Florida Surcharge 2.00/day $28.00
Vehicle License Fee .71/day $9.94
Sales Tax (6.50%) $14.47
Subtotal $81.72

If I get the additional insurance cover from Bettersafe going via Quidco that's £60 or so in total. and I think I paid an extra £150 or so between the fly-drive and just the flights.

pompeyrich wrote: »

Legally your wife would have to be on the rental agreement, according to the Alamo site an extra driver is $139+tax for the 2 weeks payable at the desk. On the UK site you can upgrade to a tank of fuel and additional driver for around £75.

Add my Mrs at £110 assuming she does want to drive and I can't get the £75 UK deal then there's not alot in it.

Thanks again :-)

NiftyDigits

StockportGerbil wrote: »

Hi!
My wife and I have booked a Virgin Holidays fly-drive in Orlando departing in a couple of weeks.

It comes with the basic car hire package which we’ve upgraded to an SUV. Virgin organise their car hire via Alamo.

My expectation is that I’ll have to pay $100 or so of local taxes / charges plus £80 for CDW / SLI insurance which I buy beforehand. Is this sensible / am I fully covered?

Ideally my wife would also be able to drive the car and be added to the car rental policy. I’ve just contacted Virgin and they say only way to do that is to take out their fully inclusive package which is £496.66. (Which is more expensive than hiring a car there.)

The questions I’ve got are …

- If I’m the only driver will buying third party CDW / SLI insurance cover be sufficient cover for any eventualities?

- Am I right in thinking if my wife wants to drive she needs to be named on the rental agreement with Alamo?

- When we pitch up at Alamo will they be happy to add my wife onto the rental? (If so any idea of the price?)

Thanks

Kevin

Cheaper with Bettersafe: https://www.quidco.com/bettersafe/
https://www.bettersafe.com/Products/Car-Hire-Excess-Insurance-Protection

Annual policy for £85 minus 20%....if it pays out. Of course daily is cheaper, but if you are likely to rent again...

I use: https://www.quidco.com/insurance4carhire-com/
http://www.insurance4carhire.com/usa-canada-car-hire-excess-insurance
A bit more, but I've dealt with them before. Familiarity and all that.

StockportGerbil

Folks :-
To answer my own questions following my trip to Florida

- If I’m the only driver will buying third party CDW / SLI insurance cover be sufficient cover for any eventualities?

I think so - I went for the bettersafe policy, but didn't need to claim so I've no idea how good it was / is.

- Am I right in thinking if my wife wants to drive she needs to be named on the rental agreement with Alamo?

Yes - and the only way of getting her on the agreement is paying Virgin stupid amounts of money. So in the end I did all the driving which for the most part wasn't a problem, but you need to be aware of this. Alamo were not interested in my paying them direct to add her on.

- When we pitch up at Alamo will they be happy to add my wife onto the rental? (If so any idea of the price?)

See above

Other thoughts include pay the few dollars a day (capped at 5 days, which I didn't know) for the automated toll collection - it's worth it rather than trying to sort out change all the time.

I was charged $110.87 for all the add-ons (this was for an 18 day hire)

I hope that helps someone

Kev

NiftyDigits

Thanks for the update. Helpful to many I'm sure.