Rental cars in Australia - cancelling and rebooking at lower price

[Jurahn]

I'Ve booked a rental car with Thrifty for 6 days in September (picking up from/returning to Canberra Airport) - was looking today at rental car prices In the next week or so as unfortunately my mother has been taken to hospital with a suspected stroke and I may have to do the "cross-country dash" to the NSW south coast at very short notice.

I see the rental car prices in the next few weeks are around $100 cheaper than the price I've booked for September (assuming that trip will still be going ahead then) - has anyone had issues cancelling an existing booking closer to the time and rebooking at a cheaper price? I know it tends to be common practice in the US but wasn't sure if the rental companies here are OK with it.

(BTW, please don't think I'm being callous or unfeeling posting this at the moment, I'm currently just trying to distract myself until I get another update on what's happening )

 

[VPS]

I do it all the time - sometimes with same company and sometimes different ones

 

[RooFlyer]

No deposit or cc details are taken when I've booked any rental car, so assuming your case is the same, can cancel without any problems. People's travel plans change all the time.

 

[Jurahn]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

 

[Jurahn]

Whilst we're on the subject of rental cars ... I've unfortunately had a call to say my mother has definitely had a stroke and it's unlikely she will survive, so currently making urgent arrangements to fly to NSW - will have to fly into SYD given the exorbitant cost of getting into CBR booking flights today. Problem is I'm not sure how long I'll be over there - anyone got any idea whether I'm better to making an online booking and then advising them when I pick the car up that I may have to change the length of it (longer/shorter depending on what happens) or should I just do a walk-up to the counter when I get to SYD tonight?

 

[Jurahn]

Just updates on both of the questions above, in case it might be of use to anyone else:

Regarding cancelling/rebooking at a lower price, turns out I didn't have to do that with my Thrifty booking, I had been watching the prices for the week I'd booked, saw they'd dropped so just went into "Manage My Booking" and opted to change the car I'd booked - it came up with a list of all the car types (including the one I'd booked) at the lower prices, so was just able to "re-select" the same car type and the booking was amended to the lower price. So didn't have to cancel and rebook in the end.

And re whether to do a walk-up to the counter instead of prebooking - on arrival at SYD airport, people were being turned away at the rental desks if they didn't already have a booking. I heard the Hertz agent say to several people that no one had any cars available, so I thanked my lucky stars I'd decided to do an online booking with Thrifty before getting on the plane in PER.

 

[BAM1748]

Yep, if they don't have your cc details then cancel away and rebook.

 

[Awesom Andy]

Yep, if they don't have your cc details then cancel away and rebook.

Even if they have your details, go ahead and do it anyway. The vast majority of the bookings have free changes and cancellations. As long as you are certain that you aren't on the prepaid option, it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Jurahn]

Even if they have your details, go ahead and do it anyway. The vast majority of the bookings have free changes and cancellations. As long as you are certain that you aren't on the prepaid option, it shouldn't be an issue.

There's often a time factor involved though, so pays to check the Ts & Cs or FAQs on the relevant website. With Thrifty, for example, you can cancel car bookings for free as long as it's more than 7 days' notice (with variations for NT locations), for 4WDs/trucks/buses it's 14 days' notice, cancelling after that incurs various fees. You can make changes for free right up to the time of the reservation, although they ask that changes are made at least 12 hours prior to vehicle collection.

 

[sezza]

I've done this many times with thrifty. Most recent earlier this month. If you do a search and find a cheaper price all you do is login with your reservation confirmation number and change/modify booking, and the lower price appears. That way you've still got your original confirmation no.

 

[Awesom Andy]

I've done this many times with thrifty. Most recent earlier this month. If you do a search and find a cheaper price all you do is login with your reservation confirmation number and change/modify booking, and the lower price appears. That way you've still got your original confirmation no.

It's good you can do it that way. With Hertz and Europcar (the two I'm familiar with), simply going into the booking won't update the price. I would need to change something material, e.g. date/time of pick up/drop off, before the new price would apply. It's either that, or I would need to cancel and rebook.

 

[Jurahn]

It's good you can do it that way. With Hertz and Europcar (the two I'm familiar with), simply going into the booking won't update the price. I would need to change something material, e.g. date/time of pick up/drop off, before the new price would apply. It's either that, or I would need to cancel and rebook.

Yes, it's very handy being able to do it this way, although I found just going into the booking doesn't automatically update the pricing with Thrifty either (unless I'm doing something wrong!) - retrieving your booking, which I've done several times now, brings up the original booking details and pricing, but you then need to click on "Change" next to the car you've selected and the page comes up showing the list of vehicles with the new pricing. I then just click on the same car, continue to the next page and resubmit the booking and I then receive a "Booking Amendment" email which shows the updated (lower) pricing. You don't have to change dates, locations or anything else.

I'm checking the prices every day at the moment as I pick the car up in 10 days' time, so am keeping an eye on it in case there's any more changes in a downwards direction!

 

[Jurahn]

Hmmmm ... Well, picked up the car today in CBR and even though it had the right category of car booked, the total estimated cost for the rental on their system was $75 more than it should be - another hassle I just don't need at the moment! Odd thing was, although I've updated the booking 3 times with change of car, drop-off time and on the last occasion, just the pricing, NONE of the previous changes showed that amount as the total. Luckily I had a printout of the latest booking amendment, although the woman at the counter said she had to get the "IT guys" to fix it as she didn't know why it was displaying the incorrect price, so she took a copy of the paperwork and said she'd send me through an updated rental agreement once the pricing was fixed.

I wasn't particularly happy to leave it at that, but with people piling up behind me in the Thrifty office and having just come off a redeye from PER with a connection through MEL to CBR, I wasn't exactly up to arguing. Will go and see them in the office when I drop the car back next week, and will have to keep a close eye on what's actually charged