Sirius XM issues
 

This may just be me having a run of vaguely poor luck.

When I book a rental in the US via the UK site, there is no ability to add Sirius to the rental. The UK site is generally quite a bit cheaper.

On arrival, I ask to add Sirius. No big deal, you may think.

So far this year, I'm 0-6 at my usual destination for the radio activating without a call to ask the signal be sent again. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

PIT, which I fly into every so often, seems particularly difficult. During a recent rental -

- Asked at the counter. Radio not active when I set off.

- Called on the road. Phone agent said car doesn't have Sirius. Told her I was looking at the preview channel. It then bizarrely switched to claims Avis didn't pay the subscription. When I returned the car, the agent said they had no record of anyone ever trying to activate the radio.

I know it's minor stuff in the grand scheme of things, but does anyone else have this level of failure getting Sirius? I wish it was easy as calling ahead, but UK call centre refers to the US one and vice versa.

I am 0 for 39. I have the Avis Sirius problem number in my contacts. They always tell me it's because I have bluetooth turned on on some device. I don't. My last five rentals, I said at the counter, I am 0-3x in actually getting Sirius without calling in again while on the road, will you be the one to break the streak? Please make sure it's activated. Not once yet.

I've never ordered or asked for Sirius XM, but on some fraction of my rentals I get it anyway (without being charged for it). If it matters to you, and you qualify for Select & Go (choosing the rental out of a row of cars), and you have the time, you could maybe try each car to see if it has Sirius XM enabled?

I can't remember the last time I had active XM in an Avis rental. I'm sure I've had it once or twice, but definitely not recently. Too bad; on my last rental it would have been really nice to have it since I did a lot of driving.

-J.

Only half-a-dozen or so rentals, but I've never had trouble getting Sirius activated although I did once lose it half way through a rental. The subscription had run out, so it took three phone calls & a few hours for it to be reactivated.

It's annoying having to ask at the desk for Sirius to be activated - negates one of the advantages of Preferred membership. Maybe one day Avis UK will find out what Sirius is & add it to their booking process. It can be done on Hertz UK's website, but for my last trip they came up with something like £120 for a 20-day rental!

Have you tried on the Avis app? Under "my car", there's an "add rental extras" section where I can add SXM anytime after the vehicle is assigned to me.

I'll try that next time - I've only looked at "add rental extras" on the app before the vehicle was assigned.

Can you share the number? Got same issue on my current rental.
Thanks

This is from over five years ago... I would be shocked if any of the advice in this thread was still applicable.

-J.

I found the right number and talked to really helpful agent.
It is
1800 716 7335