Virgin Flydrive

[pauldents]

I have a Virgin Holidays Flydrive booked for the 23rd September.

Is it possible for me to ditch the car and book it elsewhere? i.e. Airline Network.

Has anyone done this before?

At the moment I have a compact car booked with Virgin which has been upgraded to the next level (frequent Virgin). I asked them how much the platinum package and a Grand Cherokee would cost for the duration (9 nights). They quoted me £459 (I can book the same package through the Airline Network for £292).

Thanks.



Paul

 

[bubblefactory]

You get a voucher for the car to exchange at dollar - just don't.

we have booked with airline network for dec. and will be doing this.

 

[pauldents]

Sorry, but what do you mean by "just dont"?

Dont give Dollar the voucher I get from Virgin?

 

[gilld]

Precisely that. Don't prepay the car insurance, when you get to the airport, just don't collect the Virgin/Dollar car.

 

[pauldents]

Originally posted by gilld
Precisely that. Don't prepay the car insurance, when you get to the airport, just don't collect the Virgin/Dollar car.

Sounds good to me

Has anyone actually done this though?

I got charged a £40.00 "admin fee" from Virgin Hols for not taking their rip off insurance a couple of years back. I tried to explain I had the AMEX policy, but they didn't wan't to listen.

I just dont want to be lumbered with a bill from Virgin for rejecting their car.

 

[Hilary]

If you're going on 23rd Sept, surely you've already paid for the fly drive - or do you mean 2005?

If you have already paid then I doubt you'd be able to deduct the cost of the car insurance at this stage.

If you're talking about 2005 then you should be able to decline the Virgin insurance package and make whatever other arrangements you like. We have the NatWest US CDW / LDW policy and use this whenever we go and (touch wood!) haven't had any problems doing this with Virgin - we do take the car though, so it's a slightly different scenario from your query.

 

[pauldents]

Originally posted by Hilary
If you're going on 23rd Sept, surely you've already paid for the fly drive - or do you mean 2005?

If you have already paid then I doubt you'd be able to deduct the cost of the car insurance at this stage.

If you're talking about 2005 then you should be able to decline the Virgin insurance package and make whatever other arrangements you like. We have the NatWest US CDW / LDW policy and use this whenever we go and (touch wood!) haven't had any problems doing this with Virgin - we do take the car though, so it's a slightly different scenario from your query.

Yes Hilary, it is this year.

I have paid for the flydrive, but not the car insurance.

What I dont want is for them to hit me with a bill for declining the car/insurance.

Thanks for the advice.

Paul

 

[Goofyish]

I book flydrives with Virgin Holidays - mainly to allow me to book earlier than the 11 month normal booking window for flight only.
We stay at WDW so never use the 'free car'. I just don't bother picking it up from the airport, but just use a towncar transfer instead

 

[snookhams]

I booked a flydrive with Virgin and we travelled out on 6th August this year, and I had no intention of collecting car (that was offered free for a week - I eclined insurance when booking so it hadn't actually cost me anything) and I booked our vehicle trough airline network and everything was fine. I just went to the normal dollar desk and not the virgin desk.

 

[DisneyBB]

Snookhams - Are you sure that it won't work out cheaper to use the car with the flydrive and purchase the Natwest insurance at £99? We do this all the time and it always works out cheaper.

 

[snookhams]

noway - virgin quoted me £800 + for a 7 seater for 22 days and with airline network all inclusive £602

 

[pauldents]

Originally posted by snookhams
I booked a flydrive with Virgin and we travelled out on 6th August this year, and I had no intention of collecting car (that was offered free for a week - I eclined insurance when booking so it hadn't actually cost me anything) and I booked our vehicle trough airline network and everything was fine. I just went to the normal dollar desk and not the virgin desk.

Thanks snookhams,

Thats exactly what I wanted to hear

 

[scoobie's m]

When booking a flydrive, do you have to pay for the second weeks hire ( I think i am right in thinking the free car hire is only for 7 days) or can you just say you want the car for 1 week, and then not pick it up?

 

[poet123]

I was told that if you dont take the car for the second week then an "indepant week surcharge" was payable of £30 pp which for us came to £150 and the car for the 2nd week minus ins was £50. In the end I booked flights sep through virgin atalntic and will book car hire sep saving meover£250 just on the two elements.

 

[snookhams]

when we booked the flydrive, we just booked the car (smallest they had) for 7 days and declined insurance, we have booked exactly the same way for next August, we just did not collect the car, not sure if we got the flights cheaper, but were certainly able to book before the 11 months before, for flights only so it was a plus to get the day and time of flight that we wanted

 

[keith&carol]

Another vote here for Nat West insurance. We always book Fly-drives with Virgin, take the FV upgrade on the car, pay a few £ extra for the extra days we need the car over and above the week , always decline their insurance with no problems then just have to pay the airport taxes etc when we pick the car up. It has saved us an absolute fortune over the years.
Carol

 

[DisneyBB]

Could someone explain how the pricing of VH car rental works? Snookhams said that it would cost £800+ for a 7v from VH's. I worked out, from the broucher that it would be £295. This must be a cheaper option if you use the Natwest insurance at either £75 or £99. Does the £800+ include the insurance from VH's?

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Originally posted by keith&carol
Another vote here for Nat West insurance. We always book Fly-drives with Virgin, take the FV upgrade on the car, pay a few £ extra for the extra days we need the car over and above the week , always decline their insurance with no problems then just have to pay the airport taxes etc when we pick the car up. It has saved us an absolute fortune over the years.
Carol

We do the same, but use American Express travel insurance (which includes cover for car hire in the US). Like Carol, this has saved us a great deal of money over the years. We've always found that a flydrive plus independent insurance is cheaper than flight-only plus seperate car hire (or ignoring the 'free' car hire and booking seperate car hire). It's always a good idea to price up all the options and go for whichever one suits you best.

Regards

Rob

 

[snookhams]

yes Disney BB it did include insurance - out of interest I have just prices up a 7 seater for our trip next August again for 21 days Virgin including insurance quoted £821 and airline network again including insurance £538 a saving of £283. I also discovered this year that the near the date of hire you got before you booked it the cheaper airline network got, if I had waited I could have save approx £60 this year but I would rather book the car and know that its Booked - I will wait and book for next year around about may and see if it's any cheaper. Don't you need to bank with nat west or have an ammex card to qualify for these car insurances though!!

 

[DisneyBB]

You can either have a Natwest credit card, no bank account, and use it to pay for the car hire or pay £24 more to get the insurance without the card. So it would be £75 if using a Natwest card or £99 if not. I got the free week with my flydrive and paid for an extra week. Also the insurance is annual so it is covering two trips in 05.

Thanks snookhams for answering my query, I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't missed something.