iahphx

Just booked award travel for June and I needed a car at the FRA airport for 4 weekdays. Booking through Orbitz, the rate on a compact automatic with Dollar is only 90 euros total for 4 days including taxes and fees! (Thrifty is a couple dollars more).

I've never rented from these guys before in Germany. Orbitz says I can walk to my car. How does the rental experience/cars compare to Hertz, Avis, etc?

Thanks.

encore649

my husband booked dollar rental car through carrentals.com and got a great rate. It did state that you had to show proof of insurance if you waved the CDW. The proof would be a letter from your Credit card company stating that they are providing you with CDW. We called TD Visa and they send us the letter we requested ( full coverage with no deductible) which they knew about and had no problem issuing.
When my husband got to the counter they did not accept this letter saying that the letter needs to come directly from Visa and not from our bank issued Visa. Husband tried to explain that this letter from TD Visa is indeed issued by Visa but they would not accept it and my husband had to add the CDW to his rental contract and it was very expensive and also if something was to happen the deductible would be 600 or 900 euros ( sorry don't remember exactly)

Also be aware that Dollar/thrifty rental desk is in Terminal 2, so if you are landing in Terminal 1 you will need to take the airport train over to terminal 2. It is only inconvenient if you have more luggage with you since you are not allowed to take the luggage cart on the train and therefore would have to unload your luggage and carry it into the train.

After this experience my husband said he would not rent with them again since the price compared with Avis and hertz is not that much cheaper when you have to add the CDW because they wont accept your credit card rental car insurance. We never had any issues renting with Avis or Hertz but can not say the same about Dollar/Thrifty.

Hope you have better luck.....

iahphx

This sounds like absolute bs from the rental agency. If that's what is going to happen, I'll definintely have a backup rez. In fact, I think I'll call AutoEurope's "beat rate" desk and see what they'll offer me from a competitor.

encore649

we always use autoeurope and had them beat many rates before but that time they just could not beat the rate.
Yeah you should definitely have a back up reservation.
If you do try Dollar/Thrifty make sure you have some form of letter from your credit card company for proof of coverage. Maybe they will accept yours... ours was obviously not good enough but even now I would not be able to present them with anything more since we did call TD Visa and they assured us that there is no other letter from Visa they could provide us with.

Good luck and happy travels

iahphx

Right, what kind of letter are you going to get. And, give me a break: I'm sure Dollar/Thrifty of FRA can tell what kind of coverage you get from the major USA credit card companies.

I'll definitely have a back-up rez, and I'll see how close Auto Europe can get. I'd certainly pay more for a more reliable rez with a better company: but if it's going to be twice the price, I'll play the annoying Dollar/Thrifty game.

sindjic

Yes, they keep using that bull all the time. A letter from Credit Car issuer, pleeeease. Avoid them since insurance rates they make you buy are 20-23 euros per day ...

braffy

These guys are still using this scam. The name of the Thrifty/Dollar agent in Germany is Terstappen. They practice questionable business practices -- if you google them you'll find hundreds of consumer complaints.

This past weekend in Frankfurt, we also thought we were booking through Thrifty, who we've never had a problem with in North America. Very similar to the poster above, we read the T&C (which said they would only accept insurance from US-issued Platinum Mastercards or Canadian issued Gold Visa cards) and so we took a letter from our credit card issuer (Platinum Mastercard from Barclays bank). Terstappen said that they wouldn't accept it, because the letter was from our credit card insurer, rather than from Mastercard itself. (I actually doubt that it is possible to get such a letter from Mastercard itself, since Mastercard doesn't provide the insurance benefits on our card). We had no choice but to pay for their exorbitant LDW (which doubled the cost of the rental). Anyway, Terstappen has clearly had this scam going for a long time, and we won't fall for it again. Hopefully the word gets out eventually and they won't be able to continue profiting through their deceptive business practices, abusing the good name of Thrifty/Dollar.

ua653flyer

It seems like its not really only in FRA, even in the US customers are angry over additional charges that are put on even when people decline the options

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/yo...anted=all&_r=0

KRS

I am looking to rent a car from FRA in June for 1 day only; Dollar/Thrifty is way cheaper than the rest (at approx. EUR20 base rate).

If I understand this thread correctly I will have to purchase the LDW at EUR15/day since I do not have one of the mentioned Credit Cards?

braffy

Yes, except their LDW is EUR20 per day, not EUR15.

jely

Not sure about Thrifty but please avoid Sixt. I rented a car from Sixt in Germany and prepaid for everything except the insurance. When I got the car I asked for insurance and was told the total would be about $160.00 – depending on the exchange rate. I agreed. When I dropped off the car I was told there was no receipt and Sixt would email one to me. I got my credit card bill and found the charge for insurance was $355.59! That was on top of the rental fee of $390.00! When I called Sixt I was told, “…the rates shown for insurance online (which would have totaled about $142) are not accurate. Your original rental agreement states we can charge you whatever we want and $355.59 is the charge…” I am disputing this with my credit card but what a headache. NEVER RENT FROM SIXT. THEY ARE THIEVES!

iahphx

Interesting. I have rented from Sixt in the past, but not recently. I had no problems in the past.

I was holding some Sixt reservations in Europe for this summer -- they were cheaper than the competition -- but I priced matched them at Auto Europe and got Europcar for the same price. I like using Auto Europe as you have somebody to help you if things go wrong (or course, I don't want to pay Auto Europe extra for this assurance).

berlinflyer83

I have about 18 rentals with Sixt this year, and not a single problem. They're normally quite good in Europe. As far as insurance, you're on flyertalk...you should have insurance through a credit card! At the very least should've known to read the terms & conditions...sixt always prints them out and hands you a copy that says how much the insurance will be...