johnash

We have a car booked to pick up at OMA on Saturday after a long flight from Madrid to DFW, connecting to our flight to OMA. We would be due to get in not long before midnight and the Hertz office closing time.

Based on others' experience, I wonder what would be the best way to deal with any flight disruptions? Try and contact the local Hertz office or the central reservations people?

(I don't have great faith in the central office people having changed a drop-off point with their agreement, the local office then claiming that the car was lost and had not been returned). I digress, sorry!

It would not be a disaster if we arrived late to find the Hertz desk unmanned as we have a hotel booked just off the airport and could collect our car the next morning. However, it would be nice to know they would be there for us.

There are air traffic control strikes coming off in Europe which is the reason I thought I would ask this advice. Thanks!

lmsalman

Looking at that location's website they're open until 01:00, but the Gold counter closes at midnight. That said, some locations will have somebody stay late if there are still flights coming in after their regular closing time. Please remember that each location will be different, but arriving shortly before midnight, even if slightly delayed, this location should still be open.

johnash

Thank you for taking the time to look that up for me!

I suppose I am more concerned about the flight from Madrid being delayed causing us to miss the connection to OMA which could mean our not arriving till the next day. We would somehow have to communicate this with Hertz.

cestmoi123

Aha, so you aren't talking about flight 123 arriving late into OMA, but rather that you're not ON flight 123.

OK. If this isn't a prepaid rental, you can just call Hertz and change the reservation to reflect your new arrival time/date. If it is a prepaid rental, I'm not sure how they handle that, you'd need to call and ask.

Dave Noble

If you miss the connection, can you not go online at the airport/hotel and simply rebook the hire car for the nexr morning

If it is a prepaid rate and would be a loss of money, you should , I expect, know before 01:00 that you will not be getting to the airport and be able to make a telephone call to the rental office and let it know that you will collect in the morning

Often1

Either way, make sure that you call if you are going to miss the pickup. If there is a misconnect causing you not to make it to OMA, your travel insurance ought to cover both the hotel and the extra day on the rental (if it's prepaid).

ALARISstl

Make a second reservation for the next day.

johnash

Thanks for the updates on this.

I had never thought of the idea of simply changing the existing booking or making a new one. However, this a a prepaid rate, booking made many months ago in GBPounds (since declined vs the US$) and I suspect would be a lot more expensive now.

I need to arm myself with the contact numbers and be prepared.

Thank you all.

Firstboss

There shouldn't be any problem with collecting a car later due to a late flight.
Just call Hertz location if your first flight arrives late and tell them to keep the booking open / your new pick-up time. The reservation will not change in price.

sokolov

I would *check* how the price changes if you moved the reservation to the next morning. Depending on your hotels location, there may even be an off-airport Hertz location (generally cheaper) that would pick you up from your hotel.

If it's the same price or less, I would get the car the next morning.

johnash

We do very much appreciate all the advice.

As it happened, despite our connecting flight leaving DFW late, we picked up our car more or less ontime.

Before that, I have to report that I got great service from Hertz. I had an Email address for UK customer service. Things did not bode well when I got an automated response saying that my Email should be attended to within 14 days! Then I got a copy of an Email from them: they had sent mine onto someone in the States. And I shortly got an Email from Jeffrey who, I guess is the manager at OMA, reassuring me of their attention and copying his Email to his relevant staff.

We kept in touch with Jeffrey as our journey progressed and he advises me our car was waiting and that Barbara would look after us on arrival. It was raining when we got there and Barbara kindly went and brought the car to the terminal door.

A big THANK YOU to Jeffrey and all his staff at Hertz, Omaha airport. Thank you all, here and there. We read quite a lot of criticism of Hertz here so it is nice to be able to balance that out a little bit!

rove312

Hoping it fits in this thread: we'll be arriving at SMF at 11.30 p.m., and the Hertz closing time is listed as 12.30. With baggage claim and the shuttle, we may be pretty close to that even with an on-time arrival. This is Gold Canopy; I'm thinking we'll have the board showing our car with the keys in it and, based on my limited experience, at an airport this size, there will be someone on hand at all hours to make sure we're authorized to take the car. Do I have this right? Under what circumstances would I need to call about a late arrival?

AutoSlash

#1 : Make sure your flight information is in the reservation. Though Hertz doesn't have any official published verbiage, they're much more likely to hang around and wait for a late pick-up if they have a flight number and know it's delayed.

#2 : As long as you can get on the car rental bus by about 12:15a or so, I think you should be fine (keeping in mind the shuttle may not run very often that late at night). If your flight is late enough that is in jeopardy, try calling Hertz SMF (either immediately after landing if before 12:30am, or before your flight departs if the foretasted arrival is later than that) at 916-920-6400, though be aware that most of the phone tree options there will simply redirect you to the centralized call centers. Still, someone at the reservation center may be able to contact the location directly and confirm someone will be able to wait. If you have checked bags, skip the carousel, go get the car, and come back for the bags. (It may be obvious, but I'm always shocked how many people don't think about that option.)

#3 : I don't know that I'd count on someone being at Hertz at all hours. Some locations do keep the exit gate staffed 24/7, but not all do. That said, typically, the exit gate attendant is there a good bit later than the counter staff. Still, I would aim to get there before closing as much as possible, and if you can't, then I'd go to the Hertz lot anyway in hopes that the exit gate is still staffed. (FWIW, I recently rented from PDX very late at night--I arrived at the lot a few minutes after they closed, but someone was at the exit gate and was able to let me out. He looked like was making preparations to close up, though--the Gold Board had been turned off, but fortunately, I had gotten my stall on my Carfirmation text and email. After pulling out of the gate, I parked my car along the side of the driveway to go back inside and get my checked bag; a group of distraught-looking people were staring at the empty Hertz counter, so I did my good deed for the day and told them a Hertz rep was still at the booth in the parking lot. I'm sure he hated me for that. )