Hire car question

[wilma-bride]

We have booked a flydrive with virgin Holidays and we are choosing to take the car (rookie mistake - entirely my fault ).

Anyway, the insurance we have paid for only includes one driver. Although I am the lead on the booking, will there be any problem with DH being the driver for the car? Do I just need to make sure he is the one who goes tot he rental desk at MCO and signs the paperwork? Never done hire car through Virgin before so would be grateful for any help on how it works.

TIA

 

[wicket2005]

Hi Joh, usually the person who is lead passenger is the person insured to drive the car. I got caught out one year but realised before we went and had to get the booking amended, even though when I booked it I had told (Going Places) that my husband was going to be the driver.

I would give Virgin a ring and just check, otherwise it could mean paying for an extra driver when you get to the car rental desk.

 

[wayneg]

Joh, how long you going for? is it not worth getting a price to amend your booking and cancel the car, I know there will be a fee as you will be turning it into flight only but might be worth doing.
I have just booked full size car for 2 weeks at Easter any driver and tank of gas with Dollar same as Virgin. £251, Virgin want over £400 for the same rental.
If you are sticking with Virgin then I think you will need to ring them to tell them your husband will be the driver, other option is to add the platinum cover (again with Virgin)to get additional driver and tank of gas included, a 2 week holiday will add about £50 for this(double other companies but will be cheaper than adding a driver in the airport)

 

[saratogagirl]

Jo, I always book the holiday in my name, and Ian drives, I have never had a problem with this, but perhaps as others are suggesting you would be best to check.

 

[tttessa]

Hi,
we have the same situation (I don't drive, but I do book holidays!) , I rang Virgin, they said it didn't matter, the paperwork for the driver gets done the other end - hence the queues I guess.....

Let us know if you get the same answer!!

Tessa

 

[Miffy2003]

Joh - just to echo Wayneg's comments! It's worth looking into the difference as it may still be worth cancelling and paying an admin charge?

I made the same mistake years back and although VH charged me £150 to cancel I saved over £400 in the cost of rental and insurance so I was up £250 (IYSWIM)


Or what about one of the annual policies you can get?

 

[ARE WE THERE YET]

Definitely cheaper to hire independently. I have just booked 7 seater with Gold insurance for £297 and Virgin wanted £488!! Could you see if they would cancel the insurance - tell them you have purchased your own policy? See if they would still make a charge and what it would be? As previous poster said, you could find that it would still save you money.

 

[wilma-bride]

Thanks for the replies. Basically, cancelling the car is not an option as, unfortunately, I made the mistake of admitting to VH when booking that we wouldn't want the car. They then tried to impose the 'supplement' for not taking the car (£30 each or something stupid like that) so we ended up paying the extra £140ish to take the car for 2 weeks instead of 1. When I called the other day, I was going to cancel the car for the extra week and then just book one somewhere else but was told there would be a £50 admin fee.

To cut a long story short, taking into account the admin fee, it would have been about the same cost to hire a 7 seater elsewhere as it ended up costing us for the insurance on the Virgin car (plus, we get an 8 seater with Virgin). Call it a lesson learned for next time and I won't be bothering with their car in future. I am going to phone them today, though, just so they know that DH will be the driver of the car and keep my fingers crossed that it all works out that end

 

[disneyger]

Hello we are new to this board
We were reading this thread with interest. We have just booked fly drive through Virgin Hols for 3 weeks. We plan on not collecting the free car for the reasons you have all stated. But is anyone aware if this will cause a prob because the actual car and ins. pkg we have rented is with Dollar via another Hire Co. Many thanks

Geraldine
x

 

[wayneg]

Welcome.
No problems at all, many of us have done it. Just don't tell Virgin or they will charge you a fee as you are turning your FlyDrive into a flight only.
Dollar are still getting your business one way or another so they don't care.
I wonder how much Dollar get and how much Virgin pocket from a car rental.

 

[Pinklepurr361]

I wish I knew about this board BEFORE I booked my VH holiday this time last year! As a complete novice I stupidly booked the VH fly drive to include their insurance package. Luckily, later on I was able to cancel off the insurance and maybe it was pure luck, but they didn't charge me an admin fee (I kept very quiet)!. We've now booked a bigger car with Platinum Insurance thru Airline Network, all for less than the insurance alone was costing with VH.

I am not sure how it works but our new car is with Dollar too so I am guessing that when we go to the car hire desk they will see two bookings for us?

IF we ever book again then I will do everything independently when the VA or BA flights come up for sale and not panic buy with VH over a year in advance.

 

[wayneg]

I am not sure how it works but our new car is with Dollar too so I am guessing that when we go to the car hire desk they will see two bookings for us?

They are seperate desks, Virgin is on the left, indepenant bookings to the right. They dont know about each others bookings as far as I know. I doubt Virgin bookings even have names on their computers until you arrive and hand over your voucher and License.

 

[disneyger]

Welcome.
No problems at all, many of us have done it. Just don't tell Virgin or they will charge you a fee as you are turning your FlyDrive into a flight only.
Dollar are still getting your business one way or another so they don't care.
I wonder how much Dollar get and how much Virgin pocket from a car rental.

Many thanks. I thought as much . Also thx for the info on dollar express as we have now joined so hopefully the queues when we arrive at MCO will not be a prob.

Geraldine

 

[lawlesslovewdw]

We booked a 3 week holiday in dec with vh and kept the "free" compact car. Would it be cheaper to upgrade the car with dollar (we did this last time by bypassing the virgin desk and using the dollar one) or just book a car else where?