Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Priceline for car rentals.....never again!

Rented a car in PWM Friday night for the long weekend. Delta cancelled my flights (after very long weather delays) and thus I could not get up to PWM until Saturday midday. Hertz would not honor my reservation and said that if I didn't get to Hertz by midnight of the same day of rental, I would lose it....even though I prepaid through Priceline.

I am furious. Yet I have learned one valuable lesson. I will never use Priceline for car rentals ever again.

Priceline is pretty touchy for car rental unless you are really saving a bundle. You must arrive on that day, as in your case, and you must never ever go over your return time even by a little bit or expect to be hit with a hefty extra charge. The only time I did a car with PL I happened not to be flying first. I was already in NYC and renting a car on a Friday. I ended up picking one up at LGA (PL can only do airports as I recall, at least back then) for something like $28/day vs going rates of something like $70/day from all the sources I checked. (Those were rates for the *cheapest* cars!) Even figuring in getting to/from LGA from Manhattan it was a way better deal. The car came from Hertz, and they gave me a Mustang even though the rental was for subcompact. (Still a crummy car, but hey, normally it's an upgrade I think.)

ot, Mustang is a Class D (standard) car, so you got a double upgrade (Class C, intermediate, is next). Compacts are usually Class B.

Analise: Have you contacted PL? According to info posted on their site, Hertz was in violation of the terms. It seems like you are owed a refund. For as much PL bashing goes on, I've had good results from their customer service the couple times I've needed them on hotel problems.

Copied & pasted from the PL Frequently Asked Questions:

"Delayed or Cancelled and Rescheduled Flights:
Priceline's rental car partners will hold your reservation up to 24 hours after your scheduled pick-up time if your flight is delayed or cancelled and rescheduled.

Rental days are calculated on a 24-hour clock, but that clock doesn't begin ticking until you pick up your car - so if you arrive late due to delayed or rescheduled flights, the rental car company will automatically extend your rental by the same amount of time.

Cancelled/Not Rescheduled Flights:
If your flight is cancelled but not rescheduled, please call our Customer Service Department at the toll-free number listed on your Priceline Rental Car itinerary. Be sure to have your airline name and flight number ready when you call."



[This message has been edited by Steph58 (edited 09-03-2003).]

i would dispute the charge with my credit card company as well as with priceline.

Thank you everybody. While Priceline does not answer their phones, I did email them. I also will dispute the charge when my Visa invoice comes out.

I've always had bad luck with Priceline. Next time you guys rent cars or book flights, you should check out Orbitz. I've never had any problems with them. They give out great promotions also. Just a thought.....

Steph58 is right, Priceline has already covered your situation, Analise. And it should never have happened! But it seems to me the fault was with the car rental company, not with Priceline. If you had had a regular reservation with this particular location, would they have held a car for you? I suspect not. You are better covered by Priceline's terms and conditions, probably.

I have done a few Priceline car rentals and had very few problems at all. But things have gone wrong whether it is a Priceline rental or not. Luckily in my case, most of the problems have been minor and the rental car company has usually been quite accommodating.

I hope you will let us know what happens with this. And what did you end up doing for a rental, by the way?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Abby:
I hope you will let us know what happens with this. And what did you end up doing for a rental, by the way? </font>

While waiting for my flight, I called Hertz and was told me several supervisors (I never believe the agents when told bad news) that my reservation would be lost if I didn't arrive by the time they closed. I was furious. Hertz said it was priceline's policy, not theirs. BS. I called Priceline but could not reach a person. But this story is just the beginning.

I should probably write up a trip report to answer your question. I ended up not going to Maine at all last weekend. I was on Delta Flight 6161 to BOS (Atlantic Coast Airlines) which was delayed and delayed. Finally we boarded at 10:15pm and then was told we had to wait for three pax to board from a flight due in at EWR at "any time". We waited 45 minutes for them---a woman and her two sons (ages 2 and 4). Then we get on line to taxi (2 hour delay at that point due to weather). At about 12:10am, we start smelling smoke. The plane had only 30 seats. The FA did nothing. She sat there and said that we should just relax as she needed to get to Boston just as much as we did. People asked her to tell the pilot; she refused. Finally a woman in 3A stood up and said if the FA didn't tell the captain, she would. At this time, smoke was thick and it smelled of exhaust fumes. The FA said that if the woman did not sit down, the FA would call the Federal Marshalls. Some guy in the back said "good, at least that will get the door of the plane opened and filled with fresh air." The FA got on and told the captain that an 'intoxicated' woman was causing problems due to a little smoke problem. The FA asked the passengers if they wanted to continue the flight and just bear with the airline or did they want to go back to the gate and force yet another long delay. People clearly wanted to go back to the gate as many were coughing nonstop. When we got to the gate, they opened the doors and we walked off with the fire dept and ambulances nearby. The captain said that the smoke came from an overburned air conditioning pack. The inside of the plane was thick with smoke.

So after that experience (and I have skipped a great deal in this story especially about the FA), I didn't want to go on a plane at all and just wanted to stay home. I lost my Priceline hotel too but I had made it for Sat and Sun nights, not Friday night. I made a reservation at the Days Inn and they were fine about not charging me when I called to say I was stuck. After all that I went through, while I was upset about the money for the hotel, it would have cost me even more money to rent a car for the weekend when I got to Maine on Monday so I just stayed home. Had I known that Hertz was screwing me over, I might have rethought that.

[This message has been edited by Analise (edited 09-03-2003).]

Analise, I had a similar issue with priceline
not answering their phones on a problem with a hotel in San Juan PR and adequate disclosure of taxes and fees. I was upset just at the fact that I couldn't get a live person. Here is what I did to get my problem settled as best that I could

I wrote to the BBB in Ct where priceline is and made a complaint against them as well as against the hotel (San Juan) and Westin Corporate (Dallas)

This seemed to get some action as I received a call from Westin very quickly, followed by one from the GM of the hotel in SJU and finally after a couple of months a response with PL.

Too make a long story a bit shorter, the Westin Corporate office and the hotel each credited me with the amount in dispute in less than two weeks after filing my complaint and then PL credited me the amount after about five months of fighting. So yes I was paid three times for the same thing.

However I was not satisfied with the result and told BBB in CT that I did not receive a satisfactory resolution b/c I wanted PL to change their policy to a disclosure of ALL taxes and fees so that the total cost to the consumer is shown AND to ensure that a live person was made available in the event of a dispute. Neither was done and therefore I would not close the case with a satisfactory result.

However you probably can recover your costs through PL by filing a complaint as your main vendor is PL not Hertz. PL would have to recover from Hertz.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Analise:
While Priceline does not answer their phones</font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Analise:
I should probably write up a trip report to answer your question.</font>

I would really like to know the rest of the details, actually. And I bet others would, too. What a day you had! I hope you had someone to give you a hug when you finally got home from the airport!

What else did the FA do? Or not do? I can't believe that she would react that way... what did you think of that? Did they ever get that flight up and away?

You poor thing! I hope this doesn't put you off traveling or using Priceline. And I know you love Portland - hope this doesn't sour your experiences.

It's frustrating that Priceline is not usually going to be available to sort out a last minute problem, but I figure that can happen with any kind of booking. Hertz should have known better!

Keep us posted on the outcome!

(I think we need an emoticon for Hugs!)

TrojanHorse, it might be of interest to you that Priceline has now changed their system so that all taxes and fees are visible before you purchase.

Analise, sorry you had such a rough weekend!

WillTravel, I still use PL on occasion, although much less than I used too. I just find them too difficult to work with unless its a weeknight room that I need at the last minute that the company is not paying for.. then after searching through all the other channels, if I still come up short I might give PL a shot.

Their cust. svc has really soured me on them so it is a last resort for me to use PL, I really need to be desparate to use them.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by WillTravel:
TrojanHorse, it might be of interest to you that Priceline has now changed their system so that all taxes and fees are visible before you purchase.

Analise, sorry you had such a rough weekend!</font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TrojanHorse:
Their cust. svc has really soured me on them so it is a last resort for me to use PL, I really need to be desparate to use them.</font>
I hope they pay attention when they hear this from folks like you. Their C/S has such an awful rep, they should really try and improve that image a bit.

I've also always had a lot of luck with Orbitz. The reservation has always been there when I get to the rental and the rates and promotions are great too.

Analise, sorry to hear about your recent experience as I know you were looking forward to your trip. My trip turned out great that was capped off with a wonderful dinner at the Fore Street restaurant.

Hard to believe that the FA was so blase about an obvious health and safety issue.

Sorry to hear of this, Analise! http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/frown.gif

In a nutshell, I agree with you!

FWIW, please also see this earlier post:

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/Forum39/HTML/000004.html