Talk me through hiring a car in the US

jimi_man

I've just come back from driving round Western USA. Picked up a car in Las Vegas and dropped it off in Phoenix. I booked it through BA Holidays (only the car hire) and it was £330 for a mid range for 12 days (which included a one way drop off fee), which was ok. They use Avis (or Budget but it's the same firm I think). Absolutely seamless pickup, no upselling, no trying to get us to pay SLI or extra CDW or anything. Just checking my licence (they don't seem to care about my wife's licence) and a couple of signatures and that was it. 

I've used booking sites too but only ever for Avis as I've found them very good. I've never been asked if I want extra insurance. I have an annual top up thingy as suggested on here. I think it's the cheaper companies that do the upselling. 

At_home_with_the_cookes

We recently travelled to LA, we flew with British airways and booked or car hire through them which was with Avis.  We collected our car once we landed and drove to he hotel around 30 minutes away.  we then kept the car for 12 nights, drove to Las Vega and Arizona before dropping the car at the airport in Las Vegas a few hours before our flight home.  The whole process was very straightforward and due to booking with British airways most of the insurance and waivers that we needed were included in the price which was around £350 for a small SUV.