Car hire no show

Fried_Eggs · 2 August at 9:38AM

I booked a RyanAir flight to Italy and hired a car as an add on - it was very cheap, £170 for 8 days.

I was given a collection time of 4:30pm local time and instructions to take a shuttle bus and ring a number.

The flight out was delayed by nearly an hour, so we didn't land until 4:30pm. When we got out tof the airport, I tried several times to ring the hire company number but got no reply so we got on a shuttle bus to the car hire car park anyway. Then I got an text message telling me to go to a different car park to catch a shuttle bus.

By the time we got back to the airport from the wrong car park, walked to the correct car park a d caught the correct shuttle bus it was gone 6pm.

We got to the hire desk and they informed us that the booking had been closed as no show, 59 minutes after the flight had landed, and the hire cancelled, as per their terms and conditions.

I phoned RyanAir (really booking.com behind the scenes), who apologised, refunded the £170 and offered us an alternative booking that evening at £307 which I accepted.

I'm not sure there is much more I can do. The new car hire wasn't unreasonable though I had to wait until 10pm to get the car. Ryanair (booking.com) weren't to blame, and were at least helpful in sorting things out. Even if I had read the terms and conditions and noticed the no-show condition I couldn't have done anything about it.