CFFrost

We had to make a similar choice regarding Krueger and were totally happy that we chose to go to Kwandwe (outside of Grahamstown, ~1.5hr from PLZ) rather than making a trip up to JNB and out to Krueger. It is a magical place and an experience I will never forget. It was expensive - but worth every penny, and our one "splurge" on a trip that was otherwise booked on points. It is also all-inclusive, so once you're there you have zero additional expense.

All of our other stays were at chains, as they were all on points. If I were paying cash I would have stayed at independent hotels - but you can't argue with free. In hindsight, I think the only time I wish I was staying somewhere else was when we visited the winelands, which would have been much better with 2-3 nights spent in Stellenbosch. Instead, we had to make it a day trip.

So, if I were doing it again - 2-4 nights at Kwandwe, 2-3 nights at the Conrad Pezula, 2-3 nights somewhere in the winelands, remaining time at a chain in CPT. That would balance your time at more expensive independents vs. chains.

Re: insurance - I think if the card offers primary coverage it will supersede any insurance purchased at the rental counter, though I don't think that will get you out of paying the insurance through the rental agency. You may be able to find an agency that will wave the insurance, but I wasn't able to in my planning.

Happy

Is the park you referred to the Elephant Sanctuary?

Given we are driving from PLZ, we would definitely stay at some indies on our way to CPT.

No, the ONLY condition that you can enjoy the credit card rental coverage is you MUST decline ANY insurance coverage offered by the rental car companies. Once you accept even the least expensive plan, you VOID the bennie from your card. This is virtually UNIVERSAL from all cards except Visa is vague on this - they dont exclude Australia and NZ like AMEX and MC do, because insurance is mandatory in these countries (No Fault is a law). Visa told me it would pay the "excess" - that is the equivalent of the deductible.

Upthread a guy said he was charged $20K for declining all insurance, He said he had no problem with that. I know our PLAT would have no problem on that either should it be charged $20K... AMEX probably would promptly turn it down... Seriously, the PLAT card was tested with 25K charge amount by a chat rep and it was instantly approved.

In Sept when we picked up our Hertz at Rennes, France, the agent who handled our rental (she was the only spoke fluent English at the agency at that time) told me she understood our need to decline all the insurances as she had a client who bought the basic one (cost 250 euro and still carried a 1500 euro deductible when I peeked at it) and then damaged the car. His card refused to pay because he did not decline insurance from Hertz. But then he only needed to pay up to 1500 euro... blah blah. And she said, you realize you would be responsible for the whole value of the car? Yeah, only if we total the car... We declined everything. And that is the FIRST thing AMEX claim form wanted to make sure.

Happy

A simple google turned up a post on MMS blog in 2012

I dont even think you need to subscribe the Premium coverage plan on that because international rentals automatically become primary since your home car policy only covers rentals within US. When we had the premium coverage plan, AMEX did not charge us a dime on the premium on a rental made in France. I was surprised not seeing the premium charge which usually showed up together with the rental car bill (which triggered the premium), not on the rental in France. I concluded that since international rentals were primary coverage anyway so there would be no premium, else would be erroneous billing,,,

But read below:
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Frank | August 1, 2012 at 9:36 am |

I am not sure if it’s all AMEX cards, but I suspect so, that offer for a small fee full primary coverage, called Premium Insurance. This is something you have to buy – For example, I have signed up my SPG card and for $17.50 per rental up to 30 days I am fully covered. This is great for long trips, particularly in foreign countries (though some countries are not covered) as it is per rental rather than per day.

An example: last year I rented a car from a car rental company (which I won’t name here, but it begins with “A”) in South Africa for just over 3 weeks, cost of insurance was $17.50 on my SPG card. I had lost a couple of hubcaps and, worst of all, after completing the damage form at the rental company when I returned the car they subsequently added some extra “damage” after I had left (this is a common thing in some countries – happened in Costa Rica later in the year too, except this car company’s name began with a “B”). Of course their computers were not able to print my receipt and (as they well know) I had a plane to catch.

The end result was some large amount charged to my SPG card, but when I got home I completed AMEX’s insurance form and they immediately removed the contested amount from my credit card and I never heard another word about it – nor did my regular auto insurance company.

Best $17.50 I spent. I believe that’s the California price and it is a bit more elsewhere. We do get something for our high taxes …

Actually we get quite a lot for our taxes: one thing is gift cards do not slowly decline in value if not used in a certain time.

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CFFrost

No.

There are several private game reserves outside of Grahamstown. I was referred to Kwandwe from others here. It is a 54,000 acre private game reserve. I'm sure others are good as well - but I would not hesitate to give a 100% recommendation to anyone who is considering going.

http://www.kwandwe.com

As for the insurance, I guess your best bet is to call around and see if you can find a rental company that will rent w/o coverage. Barring that, call AMEX and see what their take on the situation would be (though that would diminish the value proposition).

Happy

Insurance is compulsory in South Africa by law. What I am not sure is, the insurance seems to be INCLUDED in the rental car rate and not a separate item.

How was the insurance being billed on your rental car contract?

Yes I would chat with AMEX on this topic as their bennie is silent on situation like this, plus South Africa is not on the excluded countries list.

Roger

Happy, I do understand about using points. That's a steal! At that rate, I'd stay as long as possible.

I stayed there just after it opened. (I don't remember the name then.) President Cllinton was in town with it was said 600 staffers and 800 journos. They'd taken all the available rooms and B&Bs for miles around and it was the only place my SA colleagues could find for me. I enjoyed every minute. I remember breakfast outside looking at the ocean. Memories ...

CFFrost

From my experience, they are compulsory but not inclusive of the base rate. I booked with Thrifty - but in the handful of companies I looked into, it was always calculated that way.

For example, I just did another dummy booking on Thrifty.com - The base rate for a basic economy car for one-way CPT-PLZ including drop-off fee for a week is R1285. They then add a "vehicle protection fee" of R66.50 and "loss damage waiver" of R378. Add in the other taxes and fees and the total comes to R2144.28 - nearly double the base rate.

Keep in mind that you need to click through all the way to the last screen before you can book the rental to see these fees.

What I didn't expect was that when I got to the counter there were, at least ostensibly, "options" regarding which insurance to select. The only difference in the two options, however - was the deductible. The agent wasn't really interested in telling me about the two options - she said everyone just selects the lower cost, higher deductible option. Not like in the states where they break out each option separately and have lots of different packages and options, and try to hard sell you on each one.

Happy

Well, domestic rentals would always double the basic rate when the taxes, airport concession fee, license fee, environment whatever, all added... Nothing new here when you said the final amount almost doubled the base rate - this is the same everywhere in the world including US and Canada.

My understanding from the research is, the QUOTE you see are itemized, but on the actual bill, i.e. the contract and the final bill, the rate is inclusive - this is the information I found on a travel forum. i.e. the quote shows all the items, but then on the contract, the RATE shown is inclusive of all the extra and just show it as one rate according to the poster. Of course I have no way to be sure this is the case.

Another poster said that Eurocar (National) agent half-way thru wanted to see his "insurance proof" else the agent would charge him a obscene amount. The poster said, you go right ahead and I just simply dispute this charge with AMEX. The Eurocar agent backed down.

What you describe the different options are very common in many international locations, including the No Fault countries Australia and NZ - basically you can "buy" down the excess (deductible) to just a few hundreds by paying a higher premium on the insurance. If South Africa is covered by CCs, then there is no point to "buy" down the deductible because the CC would cover the deductible,

Since you have already done rental car in South Africa, my question is, exactly HOW you see on your rental car contract and the final bill, versus what you see it online?

I am surprised given the "sizable" hold on your card, you would not remember the ballpark figure of the hold. I am not even sure it is a hold or an actual charge. In NZ if you dont buy down the excess, the full amount of excess would be immediately CHARGED to your card and only refund it when you return the car without any blemish - it is stated in the fine prints of both Avis and Hertz. Also they DO examine the returned car very carefully. But then, the extra insurance (on top of the mandatory) in NZ is not too outrageous and we normally would buy it because road conditions often inflict small chips on car body when you travel in South Island,

CFFrost

I was able to dig up the old contract to confirm my recollections. The contract was itemized roughly as follows:

Daily: 3 @ 300.00
Weekly: 1 @ 1,471.00
One Way Fee: 1 @ 438.59
Vehicle Protection Plan: 10 @ 8.50
Contract Fee: 1 @43.86
Additional Driver Fee: 1 @ 175.44
GPS: 10 @ 43.86
VAT: 14% - 497.35
Standard Cover: 10 @ 85.08

Total: 4,900.64


This was for a 10 day, midsize, automatic.

I was also required to put R6,500 hold for the car plus a separate R1,000 for the GPS. These were authorizations only, not charges, and from my recollection dropped off the card before I returned the car.

Happy

Thanks a lot for the details.
Which rental car company you used? reasonably enough for the duration and car type you got.

so the GPS is not a built in system but a added device?

In Sept we had 8 days Hertz rental in Brittany, France, for a C-Class (Compact). It was a Renault and the car came equipped with Navigation system. Paid similar amount if you subtracted the standard insurance, with a manual compact car. BUT, with the price of the gas, we were very glad to receive a diesel which in France was the cheapest and we got 45 miles per gallon equivalent even driving many many 3rd grade country roads. (very little freeways in that part of France).

The hold at R6500 is not too bad for a 10 days rental. Many hotels in Europe would withhold more than that, (like 50 euro per person per day ...)

I will call AMEX rental car insurance to hopefully find out what their stance is, and then update the thread for future viewers' reference.

Happy

Talked to a very helpful rep at AMEX insurance. They will cover South Africa for all the deductibles despite the standard insurances are mandatory, as long as it has deductibles, AMEX would cover it. The reason why Australia and NZ are not covered is, according to the rep, AMEX does not have a contract with those countries which do not allow AMEX to provide coverage. Hence the 2 are on the excluded countries list.

On top of that, the rep request a Letter of Coverage to be sent to us (already rec'd it as PDF) that can be used to show to the rental car companies.

I think I would request the same Letter of Coverage again next Feb before our actual trip.

Hope the above info would help future viewers when searching info on South Africa rental car insurance because it took me tremendous time to try to find information.

CFFrost

I used Thrifty - only chose them because at the time I booked the car they had a location at the Hilton Cape Town. Of course that changed by the time the rental began. Their rates were reasonable, but I think you could find better.

Please update if you are able to convince a rental company to waive the insurance requirement!

Happy

you cannot as it is mandatory by law. You can, however, turn down all the "enhanced" coverage and only take the minimum required by law.

The Letter of Coverage is intended to inform the rental car companies that the customer indeed has other coverage so hopefully there would not be a outrageous amount of hold on customer's card - I have read a guy had $20K put on his card and from another website a guy said National agent tried to charge him the full insurance and he said he would dispute that charge immediately with AMEX, and the National agent backed off.

With the Letter of Coverage, hopefully the agents would not try to pull a trick on you.

Our preferred companies would be either Hertz or Avis, followed by National as the Plat card offers elite status for all three as part of the Plat card benefits. Also Hertz tends to have better equipped cars of the same class. We have had very good experiences with both Avis and Hertz in France, hope their counterparts in South Africa would be reasonably good. Our trip starts from Port Elizabeth towards CPT. We will arrive JNB in the early afternoon and plan to stay overnight at IC JNB after 2 longhaul flights before the next day early morning flight to PLZ. Driving on the right is not a problem.

thijsseh

I can promise you that driving on the right in South Africa is a BIG problem.

And more on topic: I generally use Avis in South Africa (in JNB that is as in CPT I have my own car) and I find them very good.

dkc71

Im here in CPT now and had a car rental reservation. I cancelled it. I'm not a skittish driver at all (boston!), but the combination of the other side of the road with the crazy driving and people constantly running out in front of cars was enough to deter me. They do have Uber in CPT - which is a super cheap alternative to taxis.