-
We’ve seen numerous readers saying they are ditching BA/OW and just booking with the best value LCC, however things can still go awry. OH and his dad are visiting Normandy in June, flying LBA-BVA on FR. They also booked a hire car through FR (Hertz) at the same time, as there wasn’t an awful lot of choice, and they foolishly believed this might result in slightly better customer service if something went wrong.
FR have now moved the flight back by nearly 6 hours. OH contacted them to ask where this leaves them with the hire car, as it still has to be returned at the original time and there doesn’t look to be an awful lot to do around BVA for 2 middle-aged blokes (one with a wonky hip), who don’t speak French! FR’s response has been that their only option is to cancel and rebook the car – and prices have now shot up, of course.
Say what you like about BA; when they moved our OPO flight by 8 hours last year they also gave us an extra day’s car hire for free to fit the new timings!
I imagine they have very little recourse here, but any suggestions of activities to fill the car-less time would be gratefully received!
You could try contacting Hertz locally? If unsuccessful, Beauvais is actually quite an attractive town which also has a splendid gothic cathedral as well as the nearby Bishop’s palace that is also home to the département’s museum that has some good pictures. It will also inevitably have plenty of good hostelries. All of which will probably be fine in English or they will have to do a crash Michel Thomas course.
Thanks you, @JDB, that does actually look to be quite a pleasant option. I note there is also a Carrefour in the town centre so I could deploy them to buy cheese, etc. before they fly home!
who don’t speak French!
Get them to learn how to use google translate with the camera option and also offline download the French filee just in case there’s no signal. It got me through 2 months in spanish speaking countries and 15 min chats about football in China. I shall soon be making extensive use of it again in Italy.
Good call, @davefl! I wonder how long before there’s a universal translator like we used to marvel at on Star Trek!
in respect of Ryanair and Hertz, they are totally seperate contracts, completely indepenent of each other
I get that, but I imagine Ryanair get some sort of commission if you book through their site, so I naively thought they might be slightly more helpful!
BA and Avis are also different companies, AFAIK …
Good call, @davefl! I wonder how long before there’s a universal translator like we used to marvel at on Star Trek!
Well it currently handles over 235 languages and in conversation mode it pretty much does that.
I used conversation mode for the 1st time on a guided tour of a Unesco site in Uruguay where the guide only spoke Spanish. In real time it translated 95% of everything she said so quickly that I could even laugh at her jokes.
Including Klingon?!
I get that, but I imagine Ryanair get some sort of commission if you book through their site, so I naively thought they might be slightly more helpful!
BA and Avis are also different companies, AFAIK …
Ryanair and Eze both just back off your request to a company called Cartrawler (based in Ireland) and yes take commission, so you have no comeback just like booking Hertz via Expedia or Rentalcars.com as examples.
BA have a direct relationship with Avis so there’s a little more leverage.
I would never book a car rental via an airline website.
Including Klingon?!
Translate.com does…
tlhIngan Hol vIghojpu’!
That’s quite funny because when I copied that into a search I got “We are just checking you are human” before the page loaded!
@davefl, there are like 2 car hire places at BVA and booking direct wouldn’t have helped with the current issue!Including Klingon?!
If I met a Klingon I think I’d have bigger problems than translation.
It does do Kikongo thouugh if ever your plane crashes in a remote area of the Congo.
When they collect the car, the paperwork will specify a charge if they return it late. Now, this may well be based on the nett rate that Hertz provided to Ryanair so it could be quite cheap.
So what I would do is look at that and when they collect the car say “how much to keep in another six hours” then the agent will quote a price which if acceptable will see them change the paperwork. Worst case is they say no, we need the car back, in which case they spend the afternoon in Carrefour.
And keep an eye on the prices anyway as car hire companies seem to use the same random number generator that Trump found for his tariff scheme.
Thanks, prices have only gone up so far! I’ll suggest asking at pick up. Carrefour plans curtailed slightly for now due to recent ban on meat and dairy from the EU …
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
