bgmanne

We will be picking up a rental car at Milan Malpensa and dropping off ten days later at Rome Fiumicino. AutoEurope Ireland has the same car with the exact same terms for $187 less than AutoEurope USA. According to the person I talked to at AutoEurope, the only difference is that the USA rental is from Europecar and the Ireland rental is from Thrifty.

Are there any reasons to shy away from saving money by renting from Thrifty? Any general reputation issues or other red flags for Thrifty? Does Thrifty have a counter and on-site pick-up at Malpensa and an on-site drop off at Fiumicino like Europecar, or will Thrifty add pick-up and drop off hassle? Any other thoughts?

Sher

If I am understanding you correctly, you want to rent from the Auto Europe Ireland page rather than the Auto Europe USA page?

Are you a resident of the USA or a resident of Ireland? The reason I ask is that if you are a USA resident Auto Europe will try to require you to rent from the USA site. I am not saying that you could not use the Ireland site but different markets are priced differently and therefore the price gap.

But besides this, Europecar and Thrifty may have different requirements for the rental such as additional drivers, late rental return or early rental return rules. They may have different refueling options. These things are usually regulated by the actual car rental agency rather than Auto Europe. For example, I know that Thrifty charges a per diam extra driver fee in Italy. Europecar may have a weekly fee. Things like this.

I am renting a car in Italy through Auto Europe and they have placed me with Thrifty. The rental counter is in FCO but I don't know about Milan.

The rep from AE may be able to tell you some of those details between Thrifty and Europcar.

bgmanne

Thanks Sher,

I am a resident of USA and have spoken with the AutoEurope (USA) rep at length. They do not seem to have any issue with my renting through the Ireland or EU web sites, which both show the same (cheaper) price. Based on my reading of the terms and conditions, and the additional information provided by the AutoEurope phone rep, there are no major variances between the two rentals other than price. Where there are differences, they favor the cheaper Thrifty rental, such as E5.5 per day for a second driver with Thrifty vs E10.0 per day with EuropeCar. It would make it a lot easier if AutoEurope would just honor their price match guarantee against themselves....

All that said, hope you have a wonderful holiday.

J62

I have rented directly from Thrifty in Italy and was 100% satisfied. It's only one data point, so take it for what it's worth.

Michael

No deductible in either case? If there is, you can try EconomyCar Rentals.com which usually has no excess, i.e. deductible.

Sher

bgmanne. It would make it a lot easier if they would just match themselves. And I think more people are finding must less expensive rental prices on their other sites.

I know for a fact that my rental was much less expensive on the Italian site. I had a little bit of trouble getting them to agree to rent me the car listed there. But they did. They allowed me a break on the price but not as deep a discount as was listed on autoeurope.it. By the way the price difference between the two sites was considerable...about $500. I was shocked. So the difference you found of $187 is good but not quite as large.

J62. I found it curious that the car I am being supplied with through AE is from Thrifty. When I went directly to Thifty it was not available. I even called them and Thrifty told me that there are no economy automatics available at the Rome airport. Funny that they would not rent me the car I want directly. Maybe they save all of this type of rental for their brokers.

ira

Hi Sher,

>When I went directly to Thifty it was not available.<

I suggest that you be prepared to get very peeved with AE.

A compact-size automatic is, IME, a rarity.

AE is a broker. Thrifty is the rental agent. If there is no compact Automatic when you get there, you will have to take what they have.

Sher

Ira. What I meant was when I tried to prearrange a car from here through Thrifty it was not showing any availibility. So I assume they are not marketing those cars on their website for rental in Italy directly.

I have rented so many cars in Europe and they are always automatics (compact) and they are always there when I arrive. Oh. Except once or twice I got an upgrade to a very nifty Mercedes diesel automatic, once in France and once in Italy.

Maybe I am just lucky. I do usually rent at airport locations, except twice in Florence, so maybe that is why I haven't had a problem.

But even in August in Nice Europecar came up with one for me.

kybourbon

The Europe AutoEurope websites offer different prices for various countries with the US website usually being the highest priced. There have been threads about using autoreurope.it, .fr, .es, etc. These two threads have info about using the various AutoEurope websites for better prices.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...m#last-comment

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...s-resident.cfm

Sher

kybourbon. When I contacted AE about the price difference on their various sites they did compromise a little with me on the price. I know from reading here that people have received the lower price. I guess I just wasn't forceful enough. But what I was told was that no way would they rent that car to me at that price. Maybe because it is a mini-compact and wasn't offered on the US site. It was offered on the UK site though.
They usually will match a price if it is the exact same car with the exact conditions. And the car I wanted wasn't available on the US site so therefore they felt they did not have to match it. At this point I think I probably could have switched cars to see what they would do.
I still do not understand why they do not match their own prices when someone asks.

bgmanne

I have been round and round with the AE folk, and they are unwilling to move at all on the USD price. Once a supervisor finally got involved, I was told that I was welcome to reserve/rent through the eu site, but that those rates are for people with European passports and that I might get to the airport and find them unwilling to give me the car.

bgmanne

Well, I have gone ahead and reserved through autoeuope.eu. The information I submitted makes clear that I am a resident of the USA, not the EU. Should they accept it and send me a voucher, I expect all to go smoothly when picking up the car.

All in all, it would have been far cheaper to just pay the higher USA rate and spend my time working and billing. Being principled sure can be expensive....

Sher

bgmanne. I guess some people are lucky or get the right rep and are able to get the price reduced.
I think people here have reserved with the other sites and it has been perfectly fine when they pick up the car.
I for one would apprecitat very much if you would report back on how everything turns out.

ekscrunchy

I have rented from foreign sites several times. And several times I have been successful in having AutoEurope match the price I found on the Italian site. If they will not do this, I would just call them again and ask for a supervisor.

There are always differences in the cars that are available through different brokers. No cause for concern.

We book compact automatics, which are widely available in Italy and have never had a problem when we showed up with our US passports. The people at the rental counter do not care which broker you use.

Sher

ekscrunchy. I said that AE had sort of met me part way on the price. The ended up charging me E660 and the price on the Italian site with them was E593. So I think I am paying about $100 more for the rental.
But the next time I am just going to rent from whichever site is less expensive.
This rental includes zero excess also. Not all of their rentals do. But none of my credit cards cover me in Italy.

ekscrunchy

S: So you did well. Trying to navigate all those sites is a minefield. But now we know for certain that we (I mean US residents) can rent from any of them with no problem.

Have a great trip and let us know how it works out!!

Also, for those renting at at Malpensa, especially, please take care to keep an eye on your belongings while you do the paperwork...

kybourbon

>>>But none of my credit cards cover me in Italy.<<<

Several people have reported their Visa cards do so you might want to check if you have one.

Sher

ekscrunchy. I don't feel that I did too badly. Of course all of us would like to get the best possible price possible. I always rent automatics and know they are more expensive. I don't gripe about it because it is my choice. But I will rent from alternate sites from now on and avoid the hassle.

kybourbon. I am in the process of looking into a new card. I like my Capital one card but am willing to have another just for difficult rentals.

ekscrunchy

Sher I agree with you. I, too, rent automatics.

We just have to build the price in to the cost of the entire trip. At least we have gotten the word out there that there are alternatives to the standard rental sites. And shame on those agencies that skew their prices so much higher for US-based travelers!

bgmanne

Well, I found the problem and have bailed out from the autoeurope.eu rental. The autoeurope rental was through europecar, who categorized the vehicle as an intermediate. The autoeurope.eu rental was through Thrifty, who categorized the same vehicle as a compact. My concern was that, upon arrival, Thrifty would not have the reserved vehicle and would put us into their definition of "or similar", which would be a compact, rather than an intermediate size vehicle. If we wanted a compact, we could simply rent a compact for less still....