[Anonymous]

[DontTurnRight]

Interesting that when renting a car through Avis in either Australia or NZ and probably other countries as well, the rate you pay varies considerably by Nationality. For example a three day rental out of Sydney for a full size car ranges from AUD 350.27 if you have US Nationality, AUD 381.27 if you are from Australia, AUD 343.77 for NZ and a whopping AUD 552.11 if you are lucky enough to be a UK citizen.

Always worth playing around with this when booking a car.

A few more details on my Facebook page DontTurnRight

[SwissExPat]

Europcar do this big time in Europe. On their site, the Swiss are crucified with much higher rates than Uk/Irish for example.

BT did a piece on this about a year ago and I remember the laughable excuse given by some rep from Europcar. Largely “we can, so we do”

I would have thought that this is close to being illegal, if you think that nowadays, you cannot even differentiate price for insurance products based on gender, even though there is a clear statistical link between claim frequency and severity with gender in a number if classes of insurance, eg Cars and life assurance.

[LuganoPirate]

Trouble is most people, and the Swiss are probably the worst at this, just accept the price offered and book. You can get a great rate from Europcar but as soon as you enter the billing address of your CC you are switched to that home page and the rate goes up.

I now use http://www.arguscarhire.com/ or else http://www.rentalcars.com/ for some great rates, cheaper than the car hires own websites and with extras such as free drop off, unlimited mileage etc thrown in. Quite often the car comes from Europcar anyway.

[SwissExPat]

Agreed LP,

I ensure that my address on the Europcar profile is not in CH!

Rgds P

[ViajeroUK]

Not only car rental, on a recent trip to Peru, needed to book some internal flights, went onto LAN website, found suitable flights, went through the booking process, but could not complete on line because their website only accepts CCards issued to a Peruvian address. So had to resort to visiting the local LAN office, with a print out of the flights/fares that I had found online. I was told that on line afres were only applicable to Peruvian nationals, and that as a UK passport holder I would have to pay a higher price, worked out about 20% higher!. LAN is a OW alliance airline, so I at least though I would earn BAEC miles for the flights, wrong! LAN domestic flights are not eligible for BAEC miles. Not only did I pay over the odds for the flights, but no miles either!

[FormerlyDoS]

For rental cars, have a look at http://www.travelsupermarket.com, it’s saved me a fortune over the years, as it scans a whole basket of providers and gives a lot of choice.

[AMcWhirter]

The different rates can depend not just on nationality but where you live and/or where you maintain a bank account, credit card address etc.

This example shows how prices and rental conditions vary depending on whether the car is booked in Strasbourg in France or in Baden Baden in Germany. Even though the distance between these destinations is not far at all there is a substantial difference, not just in the price but also in the rental conditions.

For example, if a car for hire in France is booked in Germany then you get unlimited mileage. But if the same car, with the same company is booked in France then a mileage limit applies.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/ask-alex/2012/rental-rage

[VintageKrug]

It’s certainly worth doing plen ty of research, pricing after clearing cookies and removing/adding nationality/ discount codes and loyalty schemes.

[Author]

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