Mark - I am not surprised that Easyjet are going to switch their operations back to Ciampino; that's where they used to go and they seem to be going for the lowest common denominator when it goes for airports at the moment, if our recent experiences in Bordeaux and Berlin are anything to go by. in Berlin we were sent off to a Gate that was miles away [and which I remembered when we had to go through the bar to get to it] and in Bordeaux the waiting room for the gate had no seats at all.

I'm not picking up whether you can cancel your existing car hire - if you can, then the idea of booking another cancellable one for Ciampino is a good one - you just cancel the one you don't need.

if you can't, I'd wing it and play dumb - I can't see why it's going to matter to Hertz or whoever which Rome airport you return it to.

the good news [if you are leaving from Bristol Airport] is that they have just opened a new departure lounge - bigger and better apparently.

hope you have a great trip!

Thank you, Annhig. Actually, the reason they stated was due to the recent fire at Fiumicino, although I have also heard that they were considering switching to Ciampino anyway for cost reasons. So, I would guess their eagerness to switch (and probably stay that way) was pretty strong anyway. Actually, I'd just like them to make the call, rather than leave us hanging but there you go.

Yes, that's a good suggestion about the cancellation. It can be cancelled up until 24 hours before, so I may well go with the duplicate booking if a) I can find a reasonably priced option and b) that second booking also has no cancellation fees.

I play dumb very well :) Lots of practice. And, indeed, that is my plan.

It's funny, I am from Bristol (though I live in Seattle now) and even though I am in my 50's I have never flown from Lulsgate (Bristol). It is incredibly thoughtful of them to open a new terminal just before I fly with them after all these years :)

Thank you again.

Mark

Yestravel,

My expectation - because car companies try to bleed you dry of every last penny at every opportunity :) - is that they will find an excuse to levy a charge, even though I suspect the actual cost to them is very minor.

As I mentioned, a friend of mine changed her drop off point midway through her rental and there was no charge. I would obviously like that, but can't say it's my expectation.

We will see.

Mark

Mark - are you planning to drive to Bristol? if so, I can recommend the Silver Zone car park, where you deposit your car just outside the airport and get bussed in, over the standard airport car park. we've done both recently, and it was murder finding a parking space in the ordinary car park, whereas it isn't a problem in Silver Zone.

If for any reason you need to be close to the airport building, the Gold Zone [as I think it's called] was quite empty and is very close to the building. and if you are feeling flush [or someone else is paying] there is also valet parking.

My expectation - because car companies try to bleed you dry of every last penny at every opportunity :) - is that they will find an excuse to levy a charge, even though I suspect the actual cost to them is very minor.>>

I may not have been paying attention, but do you KNOW that it's the car hire co that wants to levy this charge, or is it Expedia?

anyway, as you can cancel it anyway, that hardly matters.

Couldnt agree more on car rentals. As I mentioned we made a last minute change of cities and had no problem or charge with Hertz. Talking face to face wit the counter guy might be more prodcutive than dealing with them thru Expedia or the phone. Good luck and have a great trip!

<i><font color=#555555>"Well, this is fun"</font></i>

Just another day of elbow jockey here on Fodor's. Fun? Not so sure about that.

<i><font color=#555555>"At this point my plan is to do nothing and tell them of the flight change when I pick up the car."</font></i>

If the flight/airport change is completely out of your control (which it will be), logic would suggest that the car rental company has to deal with it and not punish the customer.

But some rental companies are behaving like wild animals these days, desperate and drooling for more cash. Not sure if there are rules of notification, but I would find a way to play dumb as well, as in, "I did not know about the airport change until I got to the airport for take-off."

If the counter agent decides to play hardball with you, then I would fight back with every tool you have. And if worse comes to worse and you have to pay some ridiculous penalty, get everyone's name, including the CEO, and write yourself a nice complaint letter. This process has never failed me yet.

We had an interesting experience when picking up our hire car at Berlin Schoenefeld recently. We were travelling in a group so needed two cars, and the other hirer got there just before us. I was most amused to hear the hard sell that he got from the agent, not only trying to get him to take what seemed to be very expensive CWD, but also "offering" to let him prepay for a full tank of petrol on return, in case he "forgot" to fill up on the way back to the airport. [and no, if you do that, you don't get a refund on any petrol that is already in the tank, though it is considerably cheaper than what they charge for filling up if you don't pre-pay].

Half-way through this bravura performance the other agent became free and, perhaps having seen the expression on my face at some of the things his colleague was saying, made no attempt to persuade me to do buy anything extra, and we were all signed up and ready to go almost as quickly as the other car.

By co-incidence we had the same agent when we returned the car and he was as pleasant and helpful as he had been when we picked it up.

not all hire car desk agents are ruthless.

come to think of it, we had a very good experience in Bordeaux too.

[and yes I do appreciate that i was not asking them to do anything unusual just to rent me the car].

A quick closure on this.

EasyJet did send us to Ciampino for the flight into Rome. They told us it was "90% certain" that the return flight would be from there too. So, I mentioned that at EuropCar when I picked it up and the gentleman there simply said to give him a call when I knew for sure - no charge.

But all turned out to be a false alarm anyway. With two days before our return flight I still hadn't heard from EasyJet. When I contacted them they STILL said it could change to Ciampino - but they didn't know for sure until 24 hours before our flight, which was frustrating and made our last day drive difficult to plan.

We did end up flying from Fiumicino after all. The reason for the potential change was a fire at that airport back in May. And what do you know, the day we flew back there was ANOTHER fire, this time a brush fire across the other side of the airport which closed down the entire airport for an hour or so while we were there and obviously had a knock on effect. Our flight ended up being delay for 5+ hours, which is slightly frustrating for a 2 1/2 hour flight.

But we got home in the end and the many planes and helicopters dropping water on the fire was quite the show.

Thanks again for all the advice.

Mark

By the way, on the drive on the last day we dropped into Civita di Bagnoregio. WOW! Well worth the detour off A1 and a very memorable location. Of our party of four, only two of us (my daughter and me) walked to the town itself and it was quite the workout. But what a reward. Absolutely loved that part of our trip.

Mark

Quite an ending to what I hope was a good trip. Thanks for reporting back.

glad it all worked out ok. I really didn't think that they would care about whether you returned it to Fiumicino or Ciampino.

Thanks for the tip re Civita di Bagnoregio - I'll be sure to drop in next time we're passing!

Glad it worked out - on our recent trip EasyJet notified 36 h priro to departure that our flight scheduled for Fiumicino "may" be redirected to Ciampino, then a couple hours later outright cancelled the flight. They offered free rescheduling to another of their flights or refund. None of their flights had space for 2 days, so I took refund and was (fortunately!) able to find seats on a Vueling flight.

Still waiting to hear from the customer non-service folks at Easy Jet about my request for EC261 compensation - used their form, submitted twice, followed up with email inquiry twice, no response other than automated reply saying message received, expect response in 7-10 days. Needless to say, they are on my S list.

Seamus,

I send a request to EasyJet about our flight to Rome with a separate question. I did do about 2 1/2 weeks before that flight.

They replied 5 days after we had flown to Italy.

So, that was helpful! :)

By the way, in the interests of fairness, I do have to commend the flight crew on our delayed return flight. There were lots of frustrated passengers on that flight (I tend to keep calm and enjoy watching the edgy people :)). Once we boarded, which by the way was after a long bus ride from one side of the airport to the other taking at least 15 minutes, we sat in our seats and waited. There was a palpable anger/irritation in the air.

Then the pilot came out and gave a very honest and transparent speech about what had happened, what was going to happen and set an expectation (we ended up in our seats for 1 1/2 hours before we pulled away). He also gave a plea not to take it out on the folks who were serving them (flight attendants).

He did it with openness and a small degree of humor and it TOTALLY changed the atmosphere on the plan. He also invited folks to bring their kids up to the cockpit to look around (obviously this was while we were still not started up).

From that point there was an air of acceptance and an almost jovial sense. That little speech - which did nothing more than just tell us what was going on - had a major and positive effect and I commend him for that. The attendants also had a very good attitude too.

Mark

Interestingly, I received response from someone at Easyjet today about an hour after posting here... coincidence?? The case ID referenced is not one attached to any prior correspondence.

The response, as expected, is unacceptable pure BS that no EC261 compensation is due as it was "extraordinary" circumstances. I am not buying that, will pursue and keep Fodorville posted on another thread so as not to totally hijack this one.

Mark, that's great. it is not being told why you are being kept corralled like cattle which p..es off the punters more than anything, IME.

other captains/crew please note.

BTW, this is why I always take some food and drink on board with me - even if they have got supplies it can take a while for them to come round, and at least munching improves the mood and relieves the boredom!

Seamus - keep us posted.