Hertz and Ryanair.

[dave21478]

Am I sensing some kind of scam here?

Im in need of car hire for my next return to UK, and as Ryanair is my only reasonable carrier for the routes I need, they get my £0.01 plus taxes for the flight. On their flights, they always plug their car hire "partners" so I assumed they had some kind of deal going with Hertz for a small discount if you have flown with them.

 

Checked the ryanair website this evening and the flights are cool, so I clicked the car hire thing and got a reasonably cheap price for the car too. But then.... I wonder....I went direct to the Hertz main website and booked the same car for the same trip without the ryanair link and I got a CHEAPER price. So infact the Ryanair deal is about 5% dearer than just booking the car on my own.

 

Hmmmmmm.

[8-)]

[Gardian]

Dave ............

Prior to moving here (when doing recce's etc) and when friends have been coming over, we have always found the Hertz via Ryanair's website to be the best deal (I emphasise for a Hertz rental - I'm aware that many swear by Holidayautos and others).

However ......... I too found that when booking from France for a rental in the UK, it was cheaper to go direct.  There wasn't much in it, but €20 or so for a 4 day rent I seem to recall.

I don't think that it's necessarily a scam - just one of those currency conversion things maybe, but worth being aware of.

 

[Gardian]

Now that's really spookey - the very second that I clicked on 'post' for the above, an incoming email popped up ................ from Hertz!! 

[toni]

You really have to check around with car hire, especially with Hertz in my opinion. I have on accasion tried three different Hertz sites. For a while the hertzeurope one was cheaper than ryanair/hertz, then it was the other way around, the main hertz.com site was usually more expensive than the other two. Most recently I have found that carrentals.co.uk have been offering a better deal, particularly on short term rentals ie 3-4 days which with  Hertz seem disproportionately expensive. Perhaps the Hertz sites are operating under seperate franchises which leads to this variation in prices? Whatever the case it only takes a few minutes to check around and it is usually worth while.

[virginia.c]

Dave, we have always booked a car on line at the same time as the flight.  Several times we've found that when the next credit card bill arrives, we've been charged twice for insurance or petrol or something.  This time I have just booked the flights and was going to book a car (just for three days) when we get to the airport.  Have I let myself in for an even bigger bill in your opinion?  additionally, the Ryan air 1p deals end up costing around £49 each return by the time they have added all the surcharges and taxes etc.  Is this right?

many thanks

[cooperlola]

Whether or not it is a "scam", my understanding has always been that one of the factors which contributes to companies like Ryanair, being able to offer such cheap deals on flights, is the funding which they get from linking related businesses to their sites and packages.  Whether that's a "scam" depends upon our interpretation of the word, really!

But certainly Virginia's experience sounds fishy - as they say "always check your credit card statements" - I hope you queried this.

I believe that the advertising of such products without all the surcharges is the subject of investigation/change.  I'm sure I read this somewhere - does anybody know the current situation on any forthcoming legislation re this?

[Iceni]

[quote user="virginia.c"]

 additionally, the Ryan air 1p deals end up costing around £49 each return by the time they have added all the surcharges and taxes etc.  Is this right?

[/quote]

Is this the price that you accepted when you bought your tickets online ?  If yes then the price is right. However if you don't like dealing with Ryanair or feel that these prices are too high there are many others who will take you across the Channel.

John

not

[virginia.c]

We did query it, and got it resolved in our favour, but as usual it took hours of phone calls.  When it then happened again I was really cheesed off.  Would you or anyone else know that if I book it when we get there, will it cost more or roughly the same?

[cooperlola]

I know for sure that Ryanair flights booked on the day at the airport are full price - no discounts available.  A friend tried to do this when his mother was ill.  He went home, booked a flight on the internet for the following day, and paid £150 less than the price he would have been charged at the airport. 

This is standard practice with most transport companies.  If it's an urgent flight, you'll pay, and they know it.  Pre-booking, so that they can fill planes/trains etc to capacity with a variety of customers, paying different premiums, is the way they balance the books.  It's true for hotels too (I used to work for a hotel chain.)

[virginia.c]

Sorry!  didn't make myself clear.  I meant will we be charged more car hire if we book when we get there (only going for 3 days this time).

[cooperlola]

I don't know but my instincts tell me that they may operate in a similar way, for the same reasons.  Maybe e-mail them and ask?

[Gardian]

Right, let's get clear about this.

Re the flights, it's surely by now well known (but apparently not by some) that the final price incl taxes etc, is what you will pay.  That isn't necessarily the same as the 'come-on' price in the ads.  The authorities don't like it, but several of the l-c carriers are dragging their heels.  At the end of the booking process though, you have a clear picture of what it's going to cost you, so you can take it or leave it.  Not hard.

Re car hire, as a previous poster said, you maybe need to shop around a bit.  If you can't be bothered, then take the Ryanair / Hertz deal - you may feel that your time is worth more than the few quid you might otherwise save.  However, I always take the 'Super CDW' cover, and then there's no debate around any little knocks on the car. Expensive-ish, but worth it in my view.  There are other year-round deals with Ins Co.'s.

Never had a problem with Hertz over filling up immediately before leaving the car in dozens and dozens of rentals.  Form your own conclusions.

 

[val douest]

A couple of weeks ago my daughter and her husband picked up a rental car from Toulouse airport (prebooked through Holiday Autos).  While they were queueing a woman was going from rental desk to rental desk to ask if there were any cars left that she could hire. Eventually she was told that if she waited until everyone was served she might be lucky if there was a no-show, otherwise nothing until the following morning (this was 10.30pm).  So I guess you take a gamble if you don't book in advance and you may be left stranded or having to take a bigger car than you need.  In that situation the rental firm has the whip hand so I doubt whether they'll be offering any bargains!

[cooperlola]

It also depens where you're going.  When we went to Florida last year the car hire companies were falling over themselves to offer last minute deals on arrival.  At smaller airports and in other countries, you could be taking a risk, as Val says.  If the price on offer in advance seems OK to you, then pay it.  Yeah, you may have found cheaper if you waited/shopped around but, as said above, if you are satisfied it's not a total rip-off then that's fine, isn't it?

[toni]

A while ago in Carcassonne Airport the man in front of me hired a car which he hadn't previously reserved from Hertz. It was for the same hire period as my own and he was only quoted about €10 euros more than I had paid on the net. That said ,as previous posters have said ,I don't think I'd like to risk not making a prior booking where at least you have a choice of cars, providers and prices.

[MrCanary]

Flying into France with Ryanair, it is often cheaper tro book with Europcar. Plus their cars are usually better and their staff knock the Hertz lot into a top hat.

[Gardian]

[quote user="Gus Arasput"]Flying into France with Ryanair, it is often cheaper tro book with Europcar. [/quote]

All I'd say is to make absolutely sure that you're comparing apples with apples.

By that, I don't mean the base price of the car, or even the quality of customer service - though goodness know's, I'm one for that!

What I'm getting at is the price and cover of the insurance.  As said above, I always take Hertz 'Super CDW'. It isn't cheap and I know that there are other year-round deals available - just never got round to organising it.  Anyway, last time I looked at Europcar, their equivalent cover still had an excess of €300 imbedded in the small print, so you run more than a slight risk of being shafted for the slightest scratch - if you see what I mean.  You could end up 'saving' €10 / day on a hire and getting done for somebody else's dent.

I'll readily concede that I haven't compared prices recently, but that's the point really.  Compare, and make sure that you're comparing like with like + getting the cover you need.