Gary Coughlan

Hi,

I'm Gary Coughlan the Customer Service Manager for Sixt U.K. I've been an active user of Flyertalk since February this year.

I have read some posts that highlighted the problem that you did not always get the best possible price through your airline status when booking with Sixt. I raised these concerns with our head office. Now, we have created new discounts to improve the benefits.

The new discounts are up to 20% off the rates available to the general public. The discount that you can obtain is dependant on your status with the Airline that you are with or on your status with Sixt. The discounts do not apply in conjunction with any promotional rates. I have detailed a brief description of the discounts below:

Gold Card - Up to 10% on all offline and internet public rates.

Platinum Card - Up to 15% on all offline and internet public rates. Free upgrade subject to availability.

Diamond Card - Up to 20% on all offline and internet public rates. Free double upgrade subject to availability.

Airmiles will be credited to you as usual, look out for extra promotions.

The new discounts are available to all, even if no formal partnership exists between your Airline and Sixt you can still obtain the benefits, but this is by arrangement only. If this is of interest to you or if you have any questions then please feel free to ask. I will do my best to answer your queries.

The above discounts are in place now and have been since the backend of April. I am not sure how well this has been communicated to the various airlines and thought it might be a good idea to get the information out in this forum.

Best regards
Gary Coughlan

BMK

Cool thanks Gary.

ninjalad

As an unhappy Hertz customer I thought to give Sixt a try but having registered for a platinum card the prices doubled and then add tax. This is as of today

Per Voegerl

Dear ninjalad

Its Per from Sixt UK, I'm a colleague of Gary
our rates for platinum customer should be below our internet rates.
I really would like to check if we have an error in our system and would appreciate very much your help.
please email me the details of your reservation request to [email protected]
I please need as well you Platinum Sixt card number.

many thanks in advance
Per

Gary Coughlan

Hi Nijalad,

I just want to reiterate Per's comments. I'd really like to look into why you are getting a higher price. I have sent you a private message, it would be great if you could send the details on so we can see where the problem is.

Best regards
Gary

ninjalad

Many thanks to both of you for your help.
The bug is now fixed and the prices for platinum card holders have gone down to the promised level.
I must say I am most impressed with speed and effort that Per and Gary have put into fixing this

Guy Betsy

I've been a Sixt customer since 2006 but I have honestly never booked with them cos I have always found Avis, Europcar, and even Hertz to be cheaper, and the customer service better. I tried to rent a car in Hamburg once and I was given the 'who do you think you are' attitude.

Anyway, can someone please PM me the corporate ID number for Lufthansa Senator? I can't seem to find it on my profile.

I thought I'd give Sixt a chance again in northern Norway this month.

Gary Coughlan

It would be great if you did try Sixt again and I'll be happy to help arrange the hire or in answeing any questions that you might have. My e-mail address is [email protected], feel free to get in touch.

Do you have a Sixt Platinum card through your Lufthansa Senator status, if not then I can take of this also.

Best regards
Gary Coughlan

pititom

Hi Gary,

I appreciate that you follow our threads on FT and that you try hard to provide the best possible price for frequent flyers. Unfortunately, your efforts don't seem to bring the expected results.

I need a car in Dublin Airport from Thrusday 16th of September to Monday 20th (actually sunday evening but that's 4 days anyway). I picked a PDAR for comfort ;-) As a frequent flyer, I have discounted rates with most rental companies there. Mine with yours bring up a "LOYALTY PROGRAMS 2". I am sure you will understand better than I do what it means.

I ran the search on the official website of each company. Once with no discount at all, once with my FF discount. Here are the results :

SIXT : 374€ without rate, 233€ with rate
HERTZ : 221€ without rate, 159€ with rate
AVIS : 287€ with or without rate

So my opinion as a customer is :
- you are doing good in providing a FF rate (35%), better than Hertz (30%) and of course better than Avis who doesn't seem to take their FF discount very seriously. But you can afford this 35% because your original rate is so high,
- your value is not good. You are the most expensive company of all 3 without discount. With discount, you match Avis, but you still don't even match Hertz without discount.

So I will again go with Hertz. Especially when you add the convenience of the car ready in the airport parking (Gold sevice) and the generous 800 miles for 4 days rental (500 miles for both Avis and Sixt).

I published this on the forum to share my test with other FF. But I will also email you personnally, maybe you can match (-ie- do better) than Hertz, and then I'll be more than happy to go with Sixt.

Regards,

Tom

Gary Coughlan

Hi Thomas,

The reallity is that Sixt cannot always be the cheapest, our Partner in Dublin Airport is a Franchise and we can not dictate the price to them which is calculated also according availability.

I will contact our pricing department to check the prices, we would like to remain competitive and we would like the prices in Dublin to reflect this.

I have replied to your e-mail in more detail and again would like to thank you for making the effort to contact me.

Best regards
Gary

sindjic

Hi Gary,

I think most of us here at FT, since you joined, appreciate your responses, suggestions and real willingness to help with all of the SIXT related issues but there is one inevitable fact that SIXT has been cutting down its fleet size ever since economic downturn began, and as a result of it prices have been going up and car availability and choice going the other way...I would say as a non-expert that competitive advantages that existed just couple of years ago are evaporating fast lately...to me even once bewildered US rental car companies in Europe are really making ground in both quality and service.... in Germany where I rent the most nowadays, I have to resort to coupons, vouchers etc to be even considering renting with SIXT...

Example:

WE rental Fr 12PM – Mo 9AM (all quotes were done for DUS non airport locations)

SIXT offer was a Fiat Panda for 67 euros with 900km – smallest car
Europcar offer was VW Passat wagon for 70 euros with unlimited miles – ended up renting and received a VW Tiguan

I have a SIXT platinum but did not login because for me rates are always more expensive when logged in (SIXT IPhone app prices are horrendous) and for Europcar (no status), I used LH Senator link from their homepage…
@:-) some time ago I even considered looking at possibility of finding travel agent rates, been accredited for last 2 years, but did not see anything to suggest there are some better rates for travel agents.

Would love to hear your comments...

Cheers!

zerbib

Hi Gary,

Thanks for being so active on the sixt threat. I wish we had the same with Europcar!
Ayway, I wanted to give you also my feedback on my sixt platinum card experiences that I have had for many years.
I moved back to the uk 7 years ago and as I was trying to move my card, that service was not available at the time, I went on to becoming Europcar VIP elite status and the rates are the best wherever I go in Europe.
Each time I try to compare your rates , they ended up far more than the Europcar 35% rates that I get for a higher model.
The service at Europcar is questionable at most times, but they are IMO the cheapest on elite status and the most important thing we use at the end to make our choices, although desk attitudes to clients vary, it will play an important factor and it seem that sixt in the uk has not always had that of decent customer service.
I rent the better of 45 cars per annum throughout Europe and finally this year, Europcar has offered a dedicated services for elite member which allow to accumulate your rentals throughout the continent..
The service has drastically improved. I get dedicated call from station managers now, which really helps as it breaks the expectation of getting a poor service at the desk!
I would be happy to review your rates.. I will email you..