USA Car Hire - Is this reasonable?

Hxc

Hxc

Hxc

Soldato
Joined
29 Oct 2004
Posts
12,501
Location
London
Hi all

Have booked a holiday to Florida this year with the girlfriend, and have been trying to work out car hire.

We booked a Virgin package as it was by far and away the cheapest to get the hotel and flights desired. It came with car hire chucked in for 'free'. It was cheaper to agree to having a car than having no airport transfers whatsoever... I don't entirely understand this but I'm assuming it's some Alamo kickback virgin have in place

This was basic car hire and after some reading, it seems that it is basically worthless; you need to pay a collision damage waiver, you need to pay lots of airport fees and other bits and bobs, and then there is also the case of the young driver excess being $25 a day plus tax. Conveniently this was not made particularly clear on the original booking, but no matter.

We would really like to have a car so I called up Virgin and asked about their other car packages, and they have offered me platinum cover for £159 for the week. This covers the following

$1million liability cover
Third Party Liability
Collision Damage Waiver
All pre-payable local state taxes/surcharges
Airport User Fee
Tank of fuel
Underage Driver Surcharges

As well as some other stuff like ski racks and booster seats which I have absolutely zero need for.

I have looked at uscarhire.co.uk using the young driver packages and the same thing comes out at over £200... I'm a little unsure as to whether I am missing anything that would be included in that, or the like... so.. am I covered for everything I need to be?

Cheers
 
Sounds a bargain. It has all the things you need, sometimes they try to slip in personal injury cover which should be covered under your travel insurance. I can see that one doesn't which is good.

I have hired cars out there about 10 times, about 7 years ago last time and I am sure I paid more than that then and I was 33 years old.
 
A bargain? Lol, looks rubbish! You could buy an entirely new rental with all that included for less, especially as the free car will be a rubbish one.

What class of car have you been offered, will see if I can find something better. I typically pay 200 quid a week fully inclusive for the top luxury class.
 
Misleading, it's not normally possible to get an SLK for that at any age, sounds like they had run out of cars to your benefit :p
 
I originally went in for a Chevy Aveo, I asked whether I could swap for the SLK and they were quite happy to oblige.
 
[TW]Fox;25638807 said:
A bargain? Lol, looks rubbish! You could buy an entirely new rental with all that included for less, especially as the free car will be a rubbish one.

What class of car have you been offered, will see if I can find something better. I typically pay 200 quid a week fully inclusive for the top luxury class.
Click to expand...

It's the lowest spec basic Alamo car hire.

I looked around and saw nothing that would come close to this price but I'm not at all versed in the world of US car hire so I am probably looking in the wrong place.

It's for June, 1 week, Orlando International.

I need young driver cover as I am 22.

Cheers Fox!
 
You'll end up in something like a Spark if you go for the lowest class.

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:D
 
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