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Renting a car for France thru BritishAirways.com instead of AutoEurope

Renting a car for France thru BritishAirways.com instead of AutoEurope

Old May 23rd, 2017, 05:33 PM
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Renting a car for France thru BritishAirways.com instead of AutoEurope

Hi, I would like to rent a car to use in the Dordogne. Pick up at Bordeaux Train Station. In the past, I rented a car through AutoEurope, as it is the popular, most well-talked about car rental portal. Therefore more information on the internet regarding their service. My travel buddy suggested that we rent a car using BritishAirways.com portal instead.

Of course I want AutoEurope. This company's business is mainly car rental. Have you guys rented cars for France using British Airways or any other airline's website? If something happens, a fender bender or damage to the car, my guess is that AutoEurope will have a better customer service? I'm from the USA.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 07:00 PM
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A fender bender is between you and the rental agency. But if you feel that you are being mistreated, I suspect that Autoreurope will go to bat for you faster than British Airways.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 07:02 PM
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Is British Airways cheaper than Autoeurope? Is the contract the same? Same added local costs, etc.?
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 07:29 PM
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I used AutoEurope once (in Mexico) and did not receive the insurance I had paid for. Tried to call Maine at time if rental but didn't get thru. I had the AutoEurope contract to show but Thrifty would not honor it. Since it was all prepaid I couldn't walk away and not lose the money. Puzzled why anyone would use AutoEurope? Why introduce a third party to this transaction?
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 11:25 PM
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Why introduce a third party to this transaction?

For one thing, the communicating with an agency in a foreign country may be problematic, especially if you do not know the language. For another, you may be just an occasional customer, which means that the agency does not care. Autoeurope, as a broker, relies on return customers, and might, for that reason, be more supportive of its current customers.

Of course, some people have a long term relationship with rental companies, and might get better deals and preferential treatment when renting directly from them.

BTW, I have rented successfully through other brokers, and I believe that one should always compare different offers.

I am not aware that Autoeurope offers insurance. It offers contracts with no CDW (your credit card would carry that) and contracts with insurance with a deductible, and contracts with insurance with no deductible. To my knowledge, Autoeurope is simply including in the rental cost the insurance that you are getting from the rental agency--in your instance, Thrifty.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 12:06 AM
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>

Rental cost is less expensive than booking direct, by some considerable difference, they are a wholesaler so get better pricing than going direct. I also use rentalcars.com, economycarrental.com and holidyautos.com and compare prices as AE is not always the cheapest. There is no such thing as an AE contract. The contract is with the rental company and thats the paperwork you sign when you pick up the car. Any paperwork from AE is a confirmation/voucher showing what you booked and paid for. If there was insurance paid for it would be indicated on the confirmation/voucher so there would not be an issue when picking up a car that you didn't get the insurance you paid for.

I've not used the BA website to book car rental but if the price was good I would not hesitate to book.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 02:37 AM
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>

Because it's cheaper than anyone else and you have 24-hour backup (in English) if you need it.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 04:13 AM
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We rented through BA when we went to California because it was cheaper than booking direct with a rental company for period we needed a car. It was an Avis rental, and all the vouchers came from Avis not from BA.

If they offered a cheaper rental than I could find elsewhere I would use them again.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 05:54 AM
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>>Because it's cheaper than anyone else and you have 24-hour backup (in English) if you need it.

Well, we couldn't get thru and Cancun and Maine are in the same time zone. Also, cheaper--- maybe. It was cheaper in Mexico but not in France when we rented last month. Check now: Budget for the first week of July is over 50% more on AutoEurope then direct from the Budget.com for a compact car.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 06:55 AM
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It's possible that if you rent a car through British Airways, you could qualify for "tour" pricing on the airfare and thus save money on the air.

Otherwise, all thing being equal, Auto Europe is the way to go.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 07:29 AM
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> Cancun and Maine are in the same time zone< has nothing to do with getting through to AE on the phone. Where you calling from your own mobile phone, or using the line at Thrifty?

Cancun is in the EST zone, except when they are not. Cancun does not do the daylight saving time thing, fall back-spring ahead!
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Old May 24th, 2017, 08:42 AM
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Hi, I'm the OP. Years ago, I've rented thru AutoEurope for Europe driving and got a car from Avis or Hertz. I used the AMEX Premium Car Rentai Insurance. It cost about $20 more or less. I'm planning on using same Car rental coverage from AMEX.

I was curious about renting thru an airlines portal, as there isn't that much information about it. If renting in the USA for USA driving, I will not hesitate to use airlines portal for car rental if cheaper and can earn miles. But this is for France car rental. So I'm definitely leaning toward AutoEurope again.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 08:48 AM
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AutoEurope will match any price you can find elsewhere or offer you an even better deal, so yes, it's cheaper than anyone else.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 09:21 AM
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AE was not cheaper on at least 5 years of renting cars .. also their cancellation policy was not favorable compared to the car agency directly. I still compare with them, and am shocked that so many find better prices with them, since I don't. Perhaps if you are an EU resident, prices are not as good as US residents? Who knows.

re airline car rental portals. I rented a car through Ryanair more than once when flying with them as their price was favorable.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 09:27 AM
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I just rented directly through Hertz for my upcoming trip in July and they were cheaper than Autoeurope in a couple ways, or I wouldn't have.

No, they will NOT always match better prices as I asked them. First, the fine print on Hertz' website said it included some of the local road or environmental fees, etc., whatever they are, and Autoeurope's fine print said they did NOT include them. When I asked about that, the AUtoeurope clerk could not help and said those were just the terms Hertz gave them with the rate, so there was nothing they could do. Secondly, the Hertz price was 10 percent cheaper on the base rate in addition because I used my AAA discount number and it actually works even in Europe, which surprised me . Autoeurope told me they DID not match AAA discounts or any other kind of special discount rate you got.

No, they did not just offer me a better deal, they offered me nothing.

Surprisingly, I though Autoeurope was supposed to have much better deals than that also but in this case they didn't maybe it was a fluke (Hertz in Lyon and Provence as I checked several locations). The AE rate quotes was exactly the same rate you'd get on the HErtz website before using a AAA discount, except for the fee inclusion difference terms I noted.

Now AE did have better rates than Europcar in this case, but Hertz had lower rates than Europcar so no reason for me to pick them.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 09:40 AM
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With AE you lose control over the situation, so the savings would have to be substantial to come out ahead. I did come out ahead in Mexico because thifty.com, the only agency in our hotel, would not quote mixed rates, e.g. 1 week + 2 days, but only quote 2 weeks. AutoEurope would combine weeks and days in their quite so choosing them was a no brainer, however the attitude of the sales agent to not honor the contract bothered me and I could not walk away due to AE's prepay policy. Not that I am even sure what liability excess coverage (what was in the AE contract but refused by Thrifty without another $100) is and why it might be important...

Just matching prices would not make sense to me. I want satisfactory terms before I pay. Prepay = no leverage.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 10:06 AM
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Your OP said you wanted AE. That ought to be your choice then. I have used AE without problems for the past 18 years or so and I have had them match prices and then take an additional 5% off as well! Usually, you are squabbling over a relatively small difference in prices anyway - so I would say go with whom your comfortable. Regardless who you choose, don't look back, just enjoy your trip.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 11:56 AM
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Just matching prices would not make sense to me. I want satisfactory terms before I pay. Prepay = no leverage.

Your voucher will state the exact conditions of the contract. Did you contact AE upon your return and complain that the voucher was not honored? If so, what did AE say?
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Old May 24th, 2017, 12:47 PM
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You always have to shop around. I rented a car directly through Europcar a couple of weeks ago and paid 46 euros for 4 days!!!. I can only imagine that it was a bug in their reservation system, but nobody batted an eye. In July, I am renting a car for 10 days using AutoEurope (car provided by Budget) and it is 200 euros cheaper than the price proposed by Europcar.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 01:28 PM
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>>Your voucher will state the exact conditions of the contract. Did you contact AE upon your return and complain that the voucher was not honored? If so, what did AE say?

But when your reservation is thru the company website everyone is looking at the same data. When you reserve thru AutoEurope the systems are different-- does someone manually key the data over?

When I took the AE survey I checked that I would not recommend AE and typed in the specifics. I heard nothing but do not intend to use them again so don't care..
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