Dollar Car Hire

[brizzle]

Can I ask who you flew in with? Did you do Virgin?
I was thinking that if Virgin use Dollar then I go with Alamo in November to try and avoid a queue...

Brizzle

[blott]

No, it wasn't Virgin but US Airways so it was an internal flight from Philadelphia and lots of people on internal flights don't rent cars but get picked up by colleagues, relatives or friends.

[KevinT]

Hi Harmony,
I usually find with Dollar that if the rep starts with the "Are you sure that the car you've ordered is going to be big enough sir" line, I counter with the " I come out here two or three times a year, I always hire a Stratus, its always just right , and I don't want anything bigger" and it most times works. I've only once had to resort to "I booked the car on my credit card and it's not too late to cancel and try someone else!" threats. I also find that Dollar are often less pushy about the upgrade if theres a big queue and they don't have time to chat too much.

REGARDS

KevinT

[Lyn]

If they have no cars in your category then the hard sell will be higher as they would sooner you pay for an upgrade rather that give you one free. We always book a 7 seater for 3 of us (we like a lot of space and drive a 7 seater at home) an there is no reason for them to try and sell us an upgrade, but sometimes they do!

[Nostromo]

I agree that Dollar agents have become increasingly hard-pressure salesmen/women, especially with their pitch for 'free upgrades'. We were victims of this just over 3 weeks ago, when we arrived at MCO. We had booked and paid for an 8-seater van and with 7 of us and lots of luggage, my main concern was that Dollar should not palm off a 7-seater in place of an 8. As it was, the agent seemed helpful at first, but he insisted on giving us a 'free-upgrade' to a 12 seater. If I was not so tired and jetlagged, I would have checked this out first; but as it was, I just accepted to get on with it.

It turned out that the so-called '12-seater' was nothing but an 8-seater Ford E-350 van with an extra bench seat for 3 added at the back. Not only was this unnecessary for us, it took up valuable luggage space and we had a lot of problems loading our bags. By then we were all too tired to complain and just wanted to reach the villa.

So, please check out first before accepting what might appear to be a good deal with your car hire.