Car Hire Upgrades

[markandpam]

I was away on business in Minneapolis last year and had booked a 4 door saloon type car. I was thrilled when the guy on the desk said that he liked my English accent so much that he was going to upgrade me. I was even more delighted that I ended up with Jaguar! It didn't cost me a penny more and I drove around in luxury for two weeks

Pam.

[pieman790]

The English accent thing may not work in Orlando airport as they are very common asthey must get through many thousand English accents every day.
Im sure you were delighted driving a Jag for two weeks at no extra cost.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by markandpam
I was away on business in Minneapolis last year and had booked a 4 door saloon type car. I was thrilled when the guy on the desk said that he liked my English accent so much that he was going to upgrade me. I was even more delighted that I ended up with Jaguar! It didn't cost me a penny more and I drove around in luxury for two weeks

Pam.
[/quote]

[ujpest doza]

The smallest car we've ever had was a Mitsubishi Eclipse and that was supposed to be an Economy car.

I never upgrade and have usually booked flights and car seperately, although on a couple of occassions have taken the car with the Flydrive package having already pre-paid for the type i wanted beforehand (Usually a 4 door intermediate which is what i have booked as part of a Virgin flydrive for Christmas).

Last year we were supposed to have a 4 door Intermediate but all that was left in the car park by the time we'd waited for our pram and car seat were Dodge Grand Caravan Poeple Carriers (2 adults and 1 infant travelling!).

I've seen the 2 of us have a huge 6 seater Oldsmobile and a 6 seater Lincoln when all we have booked is either an Economy or a Compact.

My dad once got given a Metro by Alamo and had to return and upgrade to something a bit bigger, but its the only time i've ever known anyone not get a decent sized car without paying to upgrade.

[Cruella DeVilla]

I ordered an IC Intermediate and they still tried to upgrade me to luxury at only onen price raise..no thank you! Got a nice Pontiac6 GT or something similar sounding nice but a bit gutless as usual!

[Twiglet]

I think the day you pick up makes a difference too. When I came home to the UK last time, I ordered a hire car, over two separate weeks, as I was going to Ireland, and then back again, so had two separate pick ups. Both times I was picking up on a Saturday morning, and most pick ups were Friday, so there were no mid size cars left, and I was given people movers instead, at no extra cost, which was fun!

[Tonish]

Maybe the answer is to be at the end of the queue!

Usually we're all figuring out ways to get to the front of the line, or avoid it altogether, but by the time they've sorted out a jumbo full of people, it's much more likely that all the compacts etc will have gone.

I'll try it this summer - instead of rushing, maybe we'll sit down with a coffee for a while and watch the queue dwindle before joining it. Might be more a more relaxing way to start the holiday in any case.

[Madabouttigger]

Peter I must admit that I am now thinking along the same lines as you - better for the blood pressure too!

Diane.

[chrizzy100]

We always book a tiny 2 door...never upgrade but still get keys to a four door upgrade...this is going 5 times a year for 2 years...we looked for the 2 doors a few times and never saw any....

[GarethP]

We booked from uscarhire.co.uk - just the two of us. Nice little 2 door compact would do us for the 10 days or so.

Guy @ dollor tried insisting that we upgraded - he could do us "a new Dodge Durago for only $5 a day extra". I stuck by my guns and didn't as I didn't need to.

Got out in the lot only to find I ended up with the Durago anyway. A huge 5.7 litre V8 jeep that seats 7 cost me an extra $20 in petrol for the holiday! People did seem to get out of the way of it on the road so it was worth it!

My assumptin was that they had no 2 door compacts and were desperate to try and recoup some of the lost income by me having to hire out a bigger car. Interestingly it was registered in PA not Florida so I'm guessing someone hired it on a 1-way trip too!

No complaints about the service though

[orlandobabe]

I've only ever booked with Dollar and on the few occasions that we have gone for a 2 door economy-we've always been given a chrysler neon-which I quite like and is a decent size or bigger-like a stratus.

I'm wondering if other companies carry smaller cars.