Flydrives

[lawlesslovewdw]

Have a flydrive booked for dec and have got a really good deal with virgin on the car hire, however we usually use our own insurance policy from insuranceforcarhire and go for the full cdw and sli etc however it now states not suitable for flydrives, so i called them and asked why...their response was that the carhire companies dont make anymoney out of flydrives and are reluctant to take the policy. Help!!

 

[disneyger]

We are doing a fly drive end Nov/Dec we just took the free car for the week and no insurance,when we booked it .We have booked our own car through www.uscarhire.co.uk
We wont be picking up our free car, just the one we hired ourselves. It is so much cheaper to do it yourself well it is for us as we need a people carrier.

Geraldine

 

[MandyJ72]

Im organising our holiday for next year and posted about buying the insurance over here so if you search back you should see the replies to it - basically it could end up a lot of hassle with the paperwork etc.

I did email Dollar & Alamo to ask if they accepted the policy - Dollar said no and Alamo said yes, but would prefer you not to use it.

However, when you say you got a good deal on the car hire with Virgin - have you compared it to the likes of yescarhire and usrentacar - their prices are INCLUSIVE of all the insurances + the car hire price and most of the time it works out way cheaper than the Tour Operator insurance + upgrade costs if you want a bigger car.

 

[lawlesslovewdw]

We normally do it ourselves, however virgin upgraded the "free" car to a pacifica for us free of charge due to other areas of issues we suffered on our last flights with them, so to payout £400 for 3 weeks car hire is still more expensive than the £125 charge for 1 years worth of insurance which will cover us for next years holiday as well.

 

[MandyJ72]

Here's the thread I had posted on the subject in case it helps you http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1876567&page=1&highlight=

We've decided not to risk it and go with one of the online companies.

Rather than have a free upgrade on the car with Virgin if you have had problems can you not "request" a compensation amount instead? and then use that to put to the car hire? After all, if they have admitted there were problems before and are prepared to "compensate" you with the free upgrate that is not really going to cost them anything so really it's an easy option for them as they know that you will probably have to use their insurance anyway!

 

[Pegasus928]

Just to reiterate what people have already said, we have done 3 flydrives and each time it has worked out cheaper for us to leave the flydrive car and go it alone, sorting out our own hire car.
Insurance through Virgin is so ridiculously high that I think they have a bit of a cheek advertising the flydrive car as 'free' in the first place.
Kenny

 

[spm23]

When we travelled on a Virgin Fly Drive 18 months ago they accepted the full insurance4hire we had.
I suspect they now try it on as they are not making the money they used to out of it but car insurance is car insurance and if you have the same adequate cover that their's provides then how can they say no?


I have the same annual policy and travel in 1 weeks time, so it will be Dollar again. I cannot understand how they can refuse you the policy otherwise Virgin should make it a formal stipulation of having the car that you have to pay their prices.

I am not making any other arrangements so I just trust that if its an issue, the virgin rep will resolve.


As a quick check, if you pre pay Dollar for a car in the UK it works out cheaper than taking the daily insurance prices or weekly prices through the Virgin site and you get a bigger better car for that. 3 weeks hire was coming in at £400, with Virgin, they want £142 per week......so much for "free" car hire.

 

[slackers]

We are in the same position, declined insurance when booking flydrive as it seemed so expensive. I tried to adjust booking online but by doing this Virgin would add on all the additional supplements/taxes that have been introduced since we booked. So we are not taking their 'free' car and will take one from Usrentacar. This will definately work out cheaper than adjusting our booking!
However I'm just a bit concerned as to whether there will be any repercussions from Virgin/Dollar about not taking their car

 

[penlanspice]

I've used this policy quite a few times with no hassle at all, I've used it with dollar, alamo and budget. Don't be put off using it, it's a great deal if you get the free car hire.

 

[bazzanoid]

However I'm just a bit concerned as to whether there will be any repercussions from Virgin/Dollar about not taking their car

Nope, but their accounts department will eat a celebratory choccie biccie when Dollar don't bill Virgin for your car though.

 

[lawlesslovewdw]

Thanks for you replies everyone. Think we will go with the carhireinsurance policy and risk it. Cant find anywhere that they stipulate what insurance is purchased. If we leave the virgin upgraded car for a replacement it will cost between 450 - 500 for 3 weeks hire, however it will only cost me £125 for insurance policy. Will leave it up to virgin to argue with Dollar if they wont

 

[mickg7dyd]

Hi,
I have used Insurance 4 car hire and more recently Amex and had no problems at the Dollar desk. Dollar won't refuse to accept any insurance as anything other than required by law are extras that you are free to decline with the proviso that you the renter are responsible for costs resulting from any accident. I have also read that they "block" $1500 from your credit card although I have never noticed this. I have claimed using my Amex policy and the only hassle I had was contacting Amex for a claim number and filling out a simple claim form. I didn't have to pay any money up front and the whole process was quite painless.

Mick.

 

[gavvy]

I have used that policy many times with a virgin car hire through dollar and never had a problem, the last time was May this year. They never even ask to see the policy.

 

[alisonbestford]

I have used the insurance4carhire policy with the Dollar/Virgin Flydrive.

No problem

 

[Pegasus928]

We are in the same position, declined insurance when booking flydrive as it seemed so expensive. I tried to adjust booking online but by doing this Virgin would add on all the additional supplements/taxes that have been introduced since we booked. So we are not taking their 'free' car and will take one from Usrentacar. This will definately work out cheaper than adjusting our booking!
However I'm just a bit concerned as to whether there will be any repercussions from Virgin/Dollar about not taking their car

We have never had a problem when choosing this, although we also thought we might the first time we decided to do it. We were approcahed by a Virgin staff member when we had collected our bags, who looked a bit put out when we ignored her directions and went to the normal rental desk, but other than that all was fine.

Kenny

 

[fulles]

We have also used a policy from insurance4carhire. We were able to use the same annual policy for 2 trips (one Dollar, one Alamo), so saved quite a bit of money.

A couple of things though:

1) They DO reserve $1500 on your credit card. They don't actually take the money, but they do block it (it comes off your available balance).
2) You will have to pay some local taxes when you pick up the car (from memory this was approx $60).

We didn't need to make a claim and of course, that's were insurance is truly tested but we didn't have any problem with either Dollar or Alamo accepting the policy.

Steve

 

[lawlesslovewdw]

We have also used a policy from insurance4carhire. We were able to use the same annual policy for 2 trips (one Dollar, one Alamo), so saved quite a bit of money.

A couple of things though:

1) They DO reserve $1500 on your credit card. They don't actually take the money, but they do block it (it comes off your available balance).
2) You will have to pay some local taxes when you pick up the car (from memory this was approx $60).

We didn't need to make a claim and of course, that's were insurance is truly tested but we didn't have any problem with either Dollar or Alamo accepting the policy.

Steve

The only good thing is, florida mall will get less