Aberdeen Airport Car Hire

skullncrossbones

Hiya,

So I'd like to hire a car from aberdeen airport in a few weeks for about 5 days. When I've looked at doing this before (my partner's recently moved there) I get bogged down with all the terminology and not entirely sure what I need to get and what I can do without. I read great reviews and awful reviews! I'm rather confused.

All I want is a small manual car from a company that's not going to take me for a ride! Preferably from a company that is next to the airport rather than one I need to get picked up and driven to.

Any reccomendations or advice appreciated.

JP1978

Firstly, all UK car hires have quite a substantial excess on the policy - so if any damage is done, you pay the excess (sometimes up to £1200).

You can pay additional to reduce this excess to zero, but will be an extra £20 or so a day on top of the cost of hire. As I hire a few cars every year, i purchase seperate car hire excess cover (there are a few suppliers) and I pay £35 a year to cover if I have to pay out on damage to a hire car. For 5 days cover, you can get it for about £15 (for the full five days). The policy has to be set up before the hire start date though.

Quite a few years ago when hiring a car from Manchester airport, I walked between all the desks and asked how much it would be for my particular needs (was a one way hire) and played each one off against each other to get the price down. Can you consider doing this by phone to the usual suspects - Hertz, Enterprise, budget, sixt etc.?

If you book via an agent - ie rentalcars.com, although the price maybe cheaper - you are generally limited to 90 miles per hire day - if this isn't enough, you either pay an additional 20p a mile (approx) or have to book direct.

To add, I think that all the firms are 'off airport' - ie, they are within the boundaries of the airport but not the main terminal so you may have a short walk or shuttle bus to get them - i've never found this to be an issue. Also, if you use a comparison website like rentalcars.com, the likes of 'keddy' and 'firefly' etc may show up - these are brands of the main hire companies that are only available to agents and not direct - its because their T&C's are slightly different (ie, the mileage per day).

redpete

JP1978 wrote: »

To add, I think that all the firms are 'off airport' - ie, they are within the boundaries of the airport but not the main terminal so you may have a short walk or shuttle bus to get them - i've never found this to be an issue. Also, if you use a comparison website like rentalcars.com, the likes of 'keddy' and 'firefly' etc may show up - these are brands of the main hire companies that are only available to agents and not direct - its because their T&C's are slightly different (ie, the mileage per day).

By that definition all the 5 or 6 hire companies at Aberdeen Airport are 'off airport' because you do go out of the main terminal doors and walk (undercover) for maybe 2 minutes before you are in the hire car hall with desks for several of the main companies.

skullncrossbones

Thanks for the advice - all booked now!

Yes I know they're all offsite I've been before but what I meant is some of them you have to call the company and they drive down and pick you up.