Car Hire

[djchuckles]

I'm platinum, and therefore Europcar Elite.

Whats ts the best way to book a car rental? I get different prices whether I go through Europcar (logged in) or Velocity.

Looking for a prestige (A5 Cabriolet) for 2 days in Melbourne

 

[markis10]

Take the cheapest price and book it.

 

[djchuckles]

That's no very helpful! Was hoping would get some advice from people's experiences - maybe phoning up etc.

 

[straitman]

That's no very helpful! Was hoping would get some advice from people's experiences - maybe phoning up etc.

To spell it out then.

From my experience you need to look at all the options every time. It is the pits but it is amazing the difference in results you can get.

 

[djchuckles]

Again - thanks!

i wrongly assumed someone might be able to give some insight into their experience other than 'go find out yourself'

clearly I was wrong

 

[markis10]

Again - thanks!

i wrongly assumed someone might be able to give some insight into their experience other than 'go find out yourself'

clearly I was wrong

What do you mean by experience, seriously, there is no magic carpet to catch, prices vary day by day so other than doing the hard yards there are no tricks with Europcar, apart from the obvious such as tolls etc.

 

[straitman]

What do you mean by experience, seriously, there is no magic carpet to catch, prices vary day by day so other than doing the hard yards there are no tricks with Europcar, apart from the obvious such as tolls etc.

I only wish you were right and that there was a magic method but reality says otherwise. :evil:

 

[AdMEL]

As others have said, you should check, as rates fluctuate wildly. However, generally, logging in to the Europcar website and using your Elite status should give you a significantly cheaper price than the Virgin website, given Elite provides up to 30% discount and the highest discount on the Virgin website is 15% off for prestige cars.

A random check for Feb 1-3, shows the Virgin website appears to give a 5% discount, though I can't work out whether this is before or after the 15% offer. Using my Executive status gives me 20% off.

 

[djchuckles]

As others have said, you should check, as rates fluctuate wildly. However, generally, logging in to the Europcar website and using your Elite status should give you a significantly cheaper price than the Virgin website, given Elite provides up to 30% discount and the highest discount on the Virgin website is 15% off for prestige cars.

A random check for Feb 1-3, shows the Virgin website appears to give a 5% discount, though I can't work out whether this is before or after the 15% offer. Using my Executive status gives me 20% off.

Thank you

 

[cssaus]

As a VA Platinum member with Europcar Elite status, I've just gone through the exercise of arranging rental cars for Europe in May/June.

I checked out various sites and I ended up booking directly with the Europcar web site with the 30% discount as it was the cheapest option for me. I tend to avoid going through a 3rd party site to avoid any unnecessary hassles should complications arise.

When I made the bookings I was give a confirmed price in GBP for my UK bookings and in EURO for my Italian booking. The only downside was that I wasn't able to pre-pay in order to lock-in the conversion rate to $A.

For my UK bookings I declined the option to waive the excess and will instead rely on my travel insurance. I took the view that if there were to be any issues at least I would be communicating with an English-speaking person. On the other hand for my booking in Italy I did take the option to waive the excess and that way I can just return the car, flick the keys on the counter and walk away knowing in the event of an "incident" I didn't have anything further to worry about.