Car Hire Upgrades

[paul357]

Whenever I've booked a fly drive I've always upgraded the car at the pick up point. The agents normally show you a picture of a tiny 2 door car and say thats what's included in the fly drive, and offer you the next size car for a reasonable cost.

Whenever I go to collect my upgraded car the tiny 2 doors cars are no where to be seen, so my question is do these cars actually exist?

Do the rental companies just try to get you to upgrade knowing full well that they don't have the really small cars available anyway?

[jillizzy]

I can't give you a definitive answer Paul but have always suspected this may be the case.

I booked a 2 door sub compact car in January through Dollar as I was there by myself for most of the time and refused an upgrade at pick up.

The car I was allocated was actually a 4 door intermediate. I looked around at all the parks for something smaller and never did see anything.

I suppose you could always just book the smallest, refuse the upgrade and see what it is and always go back to upgrade if you need to, but I wasn't bothered how small the car was.

Jill

[Lynne S]

Hi Paul, why don’t you book the flights and car hire separately then you will get the car you really want straight away without any hassle? Also if you use the link above for car hire it’s always a great price.

[GrahamC]

I have seen some small ones in the Alomo car pak at Tampa. However, I have never seen one driven away.

[wilfy]

Paul,
i reckon they only ever have 1. We sometimes book a 2 dr economy, and always get a 4 door of some description. Depends on when we arrive and if it's peak as to wether it's a 4 door economy or an intermediate. We always decline the 'upgrade'. Even if we got a 2 door, it's still plenty big enough.

[MarkJan]

We've booked a 2 door compact and been upgraded to people carrier. We've also booked 2 door compact and been given one!!! I was gutted. This time, booked the car I wanted and received an upgrade to luxury.

[Clare R]

We always do flight and car hire separately, always book the smallest car on the list (Hyundai Accent) and only once in many visits have we ever been allocated one.

As far as we are concerned it is a well used 'trick' of ours. Admittedly we are just a couple so size doesn't matter too much!!

The other trick is to take a short taxi ride to an off-airport car rental depot of the company of your choice where they will have less of a selection so you are almost certain of getting an upgrade as there will be less choice and you won't be paying the airport surcharge (plus tax) either.

Clare
http://www.orlandovillas.com/villas/1367.aspx

[Cruella DeVilla]

It's the oldest trick in the book!

Generally if they don't have the type of car you booked they have to give you the next size up at no cost, also if they manage to get you to take another size anyway and you pay there will probably be something in it for them.

[jackie greaves]

When I went on my own last year I only needed a 2 door economy, and thats just what I got. I think as I was on my own they didn't bother trying to sell me an up-grade. Mind you after I'd been to Home Depot I wished I had got a bigger one.[msnsmile2]

[pieman790]

When we went to look at our villa for the first time, there was just the two of us and we only had 2 days in Orlando so we booked the smallest car possible. Not sure if we got an upgrade as the car was two door and seemed small compared to the other cars we have had. It wasnt as small as a Mini/Corsa type of car but was on par with an Astra. We were offered a larger car at a special rate but we declined there offer as they wanted almost $25 per day for the next size up.