mikebg

I Rented a 7 seater Citroen Grand Picasso (manual) from Avis at Heathrow T5 for 8 days. I am a Presidents Club member so am guaranteed an upgrade at airports and railway stations. No upgrade. The only thing they could have offered was an automatic version of the same car and they were out of them. They took my details and said they would phone the next day. They didn't. When I phoned them they were very apologetic and said they couldn't locate one. I told them not to bother any more.

On returning the car my usual petrol station was closed. I had only a half tank of petrol and was prepared for a hefty charge. When I arrived at rental return I mentioned that the petrol station was closed, and that I should have received a guaranteed upgrade but that it didn't happen. I asked if that could be allowed against the fuel charge. They agreed! I have no idea what they would have charged for half a tank of diesel, but the difference in price I had been quoted between the manual and automatic versions of the car was Ł50. Probably roughly the same as the fuel charge would have been ...

AutoSlash

You are not guaranteed an upgrade from a Minivan. They didn't even have to offer you an automatic version. The rules state it's a one-car upgrade and is not eligible for vans, luxury and Prestige cars and rentals longer than 14 days. As a PC member, you hope you're treated a bit better than the huddled masses, but this is entirely discretionary.

Glad to hear you were treated well on the return though. That was certainly nice of them to waive the fuel charge as it was not required. Happy it worked out for you.

mikebg

Are you sure a Grand Picasso is classed as a "minivan"?

AutoSlash

The class it generally falls under in the UK is IVAR in the ACRISS specification with the second letter of "V" denoting a Van. This class type of vehicle is also sometimes referred to an MPV (a Multipurpose Vehicle), but is never considered a car, and thus is not generally eligible to be upgraded. It's not even clear what you'd upgrade to from this class. While you might consider a Mercedes S class (to use an extreme example) a significant upgrade, it's not really an apples-to-apples comparison as it's not the same general class of vehicle for better or worse.

mikebg

Avis call it a "People Carrier" and the confirmation says "Rate code: IC" - whatever that means.

AutoSlash

Actually SVAR as opposed to IVAR. I stand corrected about the category, but Van nonetheless for type:

https://www.avis.com/en/cars/vehicles/gb

https://www.avis.com/avis/media/us/en/international/AvisPassport_Layout10.pdf