I'm an in the process of finalizing car rental plans for Italy, and mulling 2 options.

A) Auto Europe.
Pros are well known, incl known cost of zero excess insurance., 24/7 US support.
Cons (in this case) are higher cost (rental + insurance + added drivers for at least part of the rental period (2 = wife + MIL). My #'s say the cost is about is about $800 vs #'s I get from Hertz of ~$500 for the same vehicle.

Unknowns.
If I choose Hertz as the company it's not sure what perks I can count on (spouse free as added driver + free wifi (nice to have, not a must have))
What added costs are imposed at time of rental (local surcharges, added driver fees, etc)

Anybody have experience here?

B) Hertz, Gold member w/ corp discount rate.
Pros.
Wife is automatically included as an added driver so I'd only need to add MIL for the days at the end of the rental when I'll already have returned home earlier than the others, free wifi (not a must have), lower price by $300, or more if there are on-the-ground added costs using AE.

Cons.
Pressure at the sales desk to add insurance, including strong arm pressure "you must get this..."
Pressure at time of return on any tag on fees including real or made up damage, etc.

Unknowns - added costs at time of rental, but the quote from hertz seems to include everything (ex optional insurance)

For me the big deciding factor is insurance/piece of mind, and how much is that worth. A few hundred $$ delta won't make or break us, but don't want to throw away $$ for the sake of it.

Insurance: I've confirmed that my chase visa does cover CDW/LDW for this vehicle in Italy, but I must decline any added insurance at the time of rental. it also means that any charges Hertz may decide they want to levy (whether real or made up) need to be first put on the card, then get reimbursed later via Chase (allianz ins co). If it were just myself having to deal with that on the ground in Italy I'd deal with the uncertainty. Since it'll be my wife & MIL who'll be returning the car, piece of mind for them to rely on coverage paid up front w/ the rental car co / Auto Europe.

Anybody have experience filing a claim with Chase? Tales to tell or lessons learned?
Am I missing any pros/cons or unknown rental costs in either option?

I think I know the answers I'll get, but what-would-you do?

Talk to Autoeurope if you intend to have your CDW carried by your credit card. My impression is that this option is not available for Italy, but it's been a long time since I rented a car in Italy. If your card can carry the CDW for you, then Autoeurope should know about it. Liability is always included in a rental.

The last time we rented directly from Hertz, as I recall, the daily insurance charge at the desk was something like $30/day. And there were various upsell efforts at the desk that I have never had with an AutoEurope rental. Recent AutoEurope prepaid insurance rates have been about $10/day. I don't know how many days this rental is for, but, to make an accurate comparison, if you decide to buy the extra peace of mind, you need to estimate about $20/day difference.

With the AutoEurope insurance, I don't need to worry about scratches that already are on my car and don't need to worry about someone looking at it upon return. I prefer that to going through the claims process of my credit card company, although on first glance I don't see any negative reviews of claims via Chase Sapphire visa. I have read that if you have a problem with Hertz in Italy, you cannot resolve it via Hertz USA since they are a separate company. I do not know if that is a fact. I have one other bias; I briefly knew the founder of AutoEurope in Maine, and he was a nice guy.

Have you tried to contact AutoEurope and see if they can give you a better rate under their "best price guarantee"?

I'd call AE. I've rented all over Europe for work and play and honestly I find the Italian scene the worst, so get the tough guys on your side and then ask for the best price.

What bilbo said. Not to mention that, depending on where you pick up and drop off a car, if you can't discuss brake failures or dents in the undercarriage in Italian, you may be SOL.

Absolutely phone AuroEurope, and also call Kemwell. I have used those two companies many times and always seem to get a better price when I phone. You can also specify that you want to rent from Hertz, or Avis, or Sicily by Car, or whatever. Last fall they gave us an Audi (free upgrade that we asked for at the desk in FCO) and threw in the GPS which was exceedingly helpful.

Thanks for all the input, & responses are what I expected.

I like the way StCirq put it - no, I am not able to discuss brake failures or dents in the undercarriage in Italian...
A hassle free experience has value.

Will definitely call AE, as I didn't know you may be able to get a better price by calling them. Good tip.

We will be picking up & dropping off at FLR airport, and the rental is for 15 days for 5 people, only 4 of whom will be transporting luggage at any one time due to staggered arrival departure dates.

Here's an update:
I was able to get a great price on a Hertz rental through Kemwell. I've booked, paid, and have voucher. The rental shows up on Hertz site as well when I look up the conf #.

Hertz, group R (5 pax station wagon, automatic)
$0 deductible coverage
unlimited mileage
Total work out to ~$35/day

Still tbd is if I can add spouse covered as additional driver for free (Hertz gold benefit), or get the free Hertz wifi widgit (Hertz coupon). I'll call Hertz, but probably won't know until time of rental end of May.

Here's an update on how it went:

Bottom line - booking Hertz car through Kemwell / AutoEurope worked out perfectly.

Hertz - FLR Airport

• Getting to the rental car pickup by bus w/ luggage is a pain. One bus runs the route, and it's not designed for a lot of luggage. You can't walk to the pickup location as it's on the other side of a highway. The rental car center is under construction so it's kind of a mess. Signeage not clear, but we figured it out.
• No hassle pick up. Didn't need paper voucher as Hertz had it on file. Pickup took a while and I'm glad I wasn't 4th in line. Guy a few behind me kept insisting on "I'm a Gold member, where's the #@$#@$ Gold desk..." I and others gave him a "lighten up Francis" glare.
• I had a coupon for free Hertz wifi unit direct from Hertz. This turned out to be very valuable as we carried it with us wherever we went and had unlimited LTE speed wifi 24x7. It's basically a smart phone and includes mapping capability if you need a gps unit.
• I had called Hertz before the trip and had them add my Gold # to the reservation. This added spouse as an authorized additional driver for free.
• No issues with the car, thankfully. Had a 2019 model Ford station wagon - comfortable for 5, automatic, Apple & Android CarPlay, safety / proximity sensors (handy for getting in/out of tight spaces, of which there are many.
• No hassle return. We dropped off luggage and co-travelers at the airport, then a quick easy drive with no luggage to the rental car return.
• Dropped off the car after hours (about 30min before they opened). Got an e-receipt with $0 balance due within minutes of their opening time.
• Shuttle bus back to the airport was quick - less hassle with no luggage and when not tired.

Gas:

• On 2 separate occasions we were not able to use any of our 3 US chip credit cards at self serve gas stations. - we avoided this issue by only using an attended station and using either cash or cc, and not running low on gas. We only logged about 1000km over 2 weeks so no big trips.

Tolls:

• Our only tolls were 1 euro or less - used ticket & cash lanes. Dropped coins into the slot, didn't need to try cc, so it was easy.

ZTL:

• AFAIK we avoided these. You can find ZTL google maps if you look for them to familiarize yourself with certain towns. We scoped out point a to b to c directions ahead of time, and chose a different route if there was a risk of passing through a ZTL (2 occasions, near Siena)

Speed cameras.

• Passed many along the autostrade. Generally tried to stay below the speed limit with cruise control, but I'm sure we went past some cameras at higher speed. Lots of cars going over the speed limit, so either they don't give tickets, or those drivers don't care, or we'll see in about a year or 2 if one shows up in the mail.

Driving.

• Generally, no issues. It took a day or 2 to become re-familiar with the placement and meaning of signs, but after that we could read direction signs at a glance.
• My main observation about the roads is the lack of any shoulder, and that applies to both country roads and autostrade. If you're used to Texas sized SUV's on Texas sized lanes, then you're info for a learning curve.
• Speaking of curves. Lots of curves in Tuscan hill country. Not sure why they put all the hill towns at the top of hills, but whatever. Getting anywhere by country road meant lots of switchbacks - fine if you don't get motion sickness, but not if you do.

Parking

• Used pay to park lots in hill towns and cities. Each of the places we went had good signage (parking lot name, sign boards with # free spots, etc). We had parking apps for Florence and Siena, which gave real time parking lot capacity info - very helpful to know where we could park (or not) before getting there. Mapping out the parking lots on my google maps ahead of time made them easy to find. Parking spaces everywhere are smaller - at the supermarket, city lots, etc. Backup camera helped, as did navigator/copilot who could hop out and give parking assistance when needed.

Insurance

• We had the $0 deductible from Kemwell / AE. We didn't put a scratch on the car, so have no idea if this made car return simpler or not. Having the coverage was good peace of mind as we were in and out of many tight spaces.

good to know