[STORMIN']

I recently had cause to hire a car in Miami and as we all know, BA partners with Avis.

I therefore checked prices for the same vehicle and rental period through avisba.com, the car rental link through ba.com and avis.com – disclosing my BA Gold status and Avis Wizard # where relevant. This exercise threw up 3 different prices with, perhaps unsurprisingly, avis.com being the cheapest and avisba.com being the most expensive. I presume that the explanation for this is that BA skims off commission when booked through their sites. In any event, I thought that this was worth highlighting to those who believe that booking a car with Avis through the BA sites would be cheaper because this experience shows that it is not

[FaroFlyer]

Yes, there is an anomaly here which I have noticed. The avisba.com website has different prices. Try ba.com and, after logging in, click book car hire. Sometimes that works.

Similar situation with Europcar and easyJet cars, which is also Europcar.

Sometimes Skyscanner works out also as they only re-direct, compared to, for example, HolidayAutos who are a booking site.

[capetonianm]

This is a bit of hornet’s next.

The BA inclusive packages which include hotels and/or car hire seem to be good value compared to purchasing the components separately, but when I priced one recently for friends going to South Africa I found that the lead-in prices were for a small car and hotels that weren’t great, and as soon as you go upscale they become less competitive.

I find that booking Europcar through the link on the EZY website is usually significantly less expensive than Europcar direct. However it’s a bit of a lottery.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Fabcom

[manxman123]

It’s worth always worth checking the local pricing by looking at for example avis.co.za or avis.fr

And don’t forget that if you have a refundable booking made a long time ahead, it’s always worth checking if the price has dropped. I recently found that during the Ryanair strikes in Europe I got a price that was 70% (yes, seventy percent) lower because the rental companies simply didn’t have anywhere to put the cars due to cancellations.

[ASK1945]

[quote quote=888117]It’s worth always worth checking the local pricing by looking at for example avis.co.za or avis.fr

[/quote]

I have been using local Avis websites for years and have always found them to be considerably cheaper than AvisBA. Also, I use a third party insurer to cover the massive insurance excesses on these local websites.

[SwissExPat]

AvisBA bookings give you a free extra driver… may have some value depending on your circumstances.

[ASK1945]

[quote quote=888349]AvisBA bookings give you a free extra driver… may have some value depending on your circumstances.[/quote]

……………………… I believe that I also get this benefit with my “Avis Preferred”, but I have never asked because my other half refuses to drive overseas.

[Mark]

When booking the BA.Avis package it is also worth checking the actual amount charged when collecting the vehicle.

1.BA present the cost in sterling (I am UK based). On a recent trip to Barcelona the value of the booking was shown credit voucher in Euros, however the credit was less than the car cost by almost 10% (the difference = Avis profiteering on currency conversion).

2. Avis Barcelona also charged a further 20 Euro “airport fee” which should have been built in to the original fee on BA.com

[mkcol74]

[quote quote=888350]

SwissExPat wrote:

AvisBA bookings give you a free extra driver… may have some value depending on your circumstances.

……………………… I believe that I also get this benefit with my “Avis Preferred”, but I have never asked because my other half refuses to drive overseas.[/quote]

You have to be Avis Preferred Plus to get the free extra driver.

[ASK1945]

[quote quote=888719]

ASK1945 wrote:

SwissExPat wrote:

AvisBA bookings give you a free extra driver… may have some value depending on your circumstances.

……………………… I believe that I also get this benefit with my “Avis Preferred”, but I have never asked because my other half refuses to drive overseas.

You have to be Avis Preferred Plus to get the free extra driver.[/quote]

Thanks for that correction – I am “Preferred Plus”.

[capetonianm]

Over the years I have often flown easyJet and rented a car from Europcar using the clickthrough link on the EZY website. The discount on the standard EP rates was usually 30%, sometimes more. I know this to be correct as once in a while I would check it. I have always received excellent service from EP, particularly at their Gatwick branch.

Looking to book a car next week, it now seems that, unannounced, they have changed this, and their car rental now goes to ‘cartrawler’ which screenscrapes about 10 companies although you can ‘filter’. Unfortunately the Europcar discount appears to no longer apply. I assume that the discount deal has gone, which is a pity as it saved money on a provider whom I would possibly have chosen anyway over its competitors, so no downside at all.

Does anyone here know if the EP discount still applies and if so how to obtain it? As I spend a couple of hundred pounds a month on UK car rentals, it made a worthwhile difference. I will try calling Europcar but I don’t expect to get a coherent answer.

[capetonianm]

Follow up to the above. I contacted Europcar and was told they no longer do the easyJet discount.

The easyJet cartrawler site showed me £250-400 for the rental I wanted (using only Avis, Hertz, Europcar, Sixt, Budget, with lowlife such as Easirent coming in at around half that price.

I went directly to the Hertz website and got the same car type for £136, which I think took into account a ‘Black Friday’ discount.

[Author]

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