Car hire at MCO

[Margaret]

Hi another question regarding car hire(sorry) How much time should I allow from the time we land until we are ready to collect a hire car? We will land at approx 15.20 on the 23rd August and we fly back(sob) at 19.45 on the 6th September. What times would we need to book the car ? I haven't booked yet as I'm still waiting to see if Roger can do his magic with U-Save!!! What do other people think, am I safe to wait a bit longer, we would need a 7 seater.
Thanks to anyone who can help. Margaret

[CERICROWLEY]

I tend to always put the pick up time about an hour after landing. There shouldn't be any problems as I think you are normally calculated from the actual time you pick up the car on the signed paperwork

[blott]

There's an explanation of car pick up and drop off time calculations here. http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/topic_43484.asp

What you need to calculate it on is your drop off time on the return journey really because, if you go over that, you'll get charged for an extra 24 hours of rental.

With your arrival time, I think I'd probably make it something like 16.00 or 16.30 for pick up. Remember you can pick up the car later than the time you've given.

This means that you need to return the vehicle by that time on your return home, which is about right as there's usually a three hour check-in period anyway for your flight back to the UK. If you have time to spare, you can always have a wander around the airport shops or grab yourself either a snack or a meal.

[becbecs]

If your flying direct into MCO I would say around 1 hour. If your indirect bia another US Airport I would say 1/2 hour as you will have already cleared immigration with just your bags to collect. But I don't think they are going to complain if your slightly early & I would expect them to be prepaired if your flight happens to be delayed.

[ShirleyD]

I have often forgotten to change the default 3pm and never had a problem, even though I haven't picked up til an hour or so later [msnembarrased] I think the car is timetagged to when you collect it. I do put my flight arrival details on there though. As Blott says, just make sure you drop off by the collection time to avoid charges

[MarkJan]

I always put 30 mins after arrival time as the booking time as my thinking is the car companies plan their fleet depending on the bookings in the system plus a certain number of walkins.

[Fourdents]

One good thing about booking with this site Car Hire is you will get a car [msnsmile]

I have never had to wait. I always book it for 30 mins after landing time.

[canarypam]

We did have to wait once for a convertible, booked from this site, they upgraded us to gold hire because we had to wait though which was good[msnsmile2].

[berni_richards]

Blott is right it is more about when you go back to the airport and to make sure you are back in time to avoid further charges. Your timings are such that there should not be any problems

[brendawilliams]

The returning process is very simple with both Dollar and Alamo at MCO and I don't think we have ever waited more than a few minutes before we were checked in.