sandbagger2

I just did the three hour rental today and thought I would share my experience:

I landed this afternoon on an intra-Europe LH flight with an overnight layover connecting to a long haul LH flight (F booked with United miles). I was booked all the way through to my final destination and already had my LH first class boarding pass for tomorrow.

I went to the First Class lounge near the A gates and asked the lounge guardians whether they could book the Avis/Porsche deal for me. They took my boarding pass and scanned it, presumably to confirm that I was actually traveling in F (but they did not mention that the program was only for same-day layovers). However, neither of lounge people knew much about the program (other than having the brochure describing it). Eventually, they called over a supervisor who knew all about the program. The supervisor asked me to have a seat in the lounge while she arranged the rental. I let her know that I only wanted to rent the Porsche if it was a 911 (I didn't want the Panamerica).

After about 10 minutes the supervisor found me and said that everything was all set. All I needed to do was go to Avis to pick up the car.

I went down to Avis and they were expecting me. The Avis rental agents only required a drivers license and 1 credit card (they did not ask for two). The car wasn't ready yet, so they asked me to wait for about 20 minutes (fortunately there were some comfortable chairs in the rental room where I could wait).

When the agents finally called me over, they explained that I had 3 hours and 150 km with the car. They also mentioned that I had a 1 hour grace period, for a total of 4 hours (I'm not sure whether everyone gets the 1 hour grace period, or it was because I paid with an AMEX Platinum).

I asked whether it was possible to purchase excess CDW to cover the 1500EUR gap in coverage and they said no. I also asked how many people had taken advantage of this deal and the two agents said I was the first person to whom they personally rented a 911 under this deal.

After they handed me the keys and paperwork, I went to the parking lot and found a jet black 911 Carrera with 2673km on the digital odometer.

I looked the car over (since I had read the thread on issues with the FRA Avis and their aggressive damage claims) and found a fairly deep nick on the hood, along with some scratches. I took a picture and noted it on the receipt, but there was no one around to talk to about it. I figured I would deal with it later if it became an issue (the guy at check-in didn't mention the nick or the scratches).

Although the Lufthansa website mentions that the nav system is pre-programmed with several suggested routes, they failed to mention that if you don't know German, you might not be able to figure out how to select one of the routes. I played around with the car for a bit trying to change the languages (some of the dash gauges were in Cyrillic and the nav system was in German). I eventually gave up and figured out how to select the Avis at FRA as the final destination (so I would know out how to return the car, since I've never driven in the area).

I had a nice drive through Frankfurt and then down to Mainz, testing the acceleration, breaks and handling of the car on the autobahn and local along the way.

I returned the car to the Avis rental lot (I assume you return it to the FCT if you have a same day flight). The attendant checked the mileage and looked around the car (it seemed like he was looking for big dents on the bumpers more than anything else) and handed me a receipt. The only thing he said to me was that I only drove 100km and should have driven some more.

It was a blast to drive and a much more exciting 3 hours than sitting in my hotel room at the airport watching TV.