c_d

Hello fellow FT'lers,

I am pretty interested in the Wild Car concept of Thrifty, it sounds like fun. I would like to rent a wild car at thrifty with a good set of insurances, such as CDW with no excess, etc. However, all I see at their web page are thre risk limitations pictures and nothing I can get an actual monetary quote on?! What is up wth that? How much of a premium are the insurances?

Thanks for replies :-)

jackal

The cost of coverage varies from location to location and, yes, by vehicle size. While it would be nice to post what the costs are or integrate them into the booking engine like some other sites (National, Alamo, and Avis do, IIRC), Thrifty.com's system isn't that sophisticated.

You can often find the cost of coverages buried in the reservation terms and conditions, but if not, then the best you can do is try to call.

Unfortunately, most corporate-owned locations do not publish their direct phone numbers (though some sophisticated Google sleuthing can sometimes turn them up), and the national reservation agents (who are now based in the Phillippines ) can really only see the same details you can glean from Thrifty.com. They may, however, be able to transfer you to someone at the location (they do have access to the direct phone numbers to individual locations). But between the language barrier and whatever rules their call-center managers have imposed, it's not always easy to get in touch with someone at a specific location.

You may have better luck trying to reach someone in the USA and asking them; they may be able to research and get you an answer or be more willing to transfer you to the location directly. If you play around with the phone tree, you can usually get to someone who is a bit more helpful (even if it's not their primary job description). If it hasn't changed, the trick I use is to call 1-877-283-0898 and then push 2 and then 0, asking after that to talk to the "on-rent desk" or "help desk" (or to a supervisor). During CST business hours, dialing that number and pressing option 4 will get you to USA-based customer care, who may also be able to help you (even though it's not their specific job description to deal with pre-rental questions).

You can also try emailing [email protected]--expect a 2-3 day turnaround time on that email, but they may be able to look it up.

Depending on where you're renting, though, it may not be that big of a deal. As best I understand your question, you're concerned that if you end up with a larger vehicle, the coverages will be more expensive--perhaps prohibitively so. That's not usually the case. At most corporate-owned stores, as I recall, the cost of coverage for a large SUV is the same as for an economy car. At the places where it differs, it's usually only a difference of a couple dollars per day--ther worst I've seen is about $9 more per day for a premium/SUV vehicle (for the full package; each individual coverage item is a lesser difference).

So, I wouldn't sweat it--and if you end up with a nice vehicle and have to pay a few bucks more, count it as a worthwhile expense!

c_d

jackal, thank you for your impressive reply. You are right, all I want to know is on how much to expect to pay as a premium. I travel to SNA, CA for leisure so I need some stability in my financial planning. It's only a 10 day trip so $10 a day is not much of a burden. Again, thank you for your input!

jackal

Just to be clear, that $10/day is the [potential] DIFFERENCE between small car coverage prices and large SUV coverage prices. The actual cost of coverage will probably between $40 and $50 per day (though it could be a little more than that), depending on which options you purchase.