AVIS and BA - Upgrading Car Hire - Check your price before you call

[RickT]

Originally Posted by Bronzy

Just checked my account on Avis.co.uk and that is showing the same booking reference but with the car group updated and the new cost of £470, I'll phone BA and check with them to make sure everything is sorted.

Cheers!

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Check on My booking on BA website - is it reflected on there ?

[Bronzy]

Originally Posted by RickT

Check on My booking on BA website - is it reflected on there ?

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Just phoned them and managed to get the Tahoe for only an extra £90 including the admin fee so it was even cheaper than what it said online! BA cancelled the original Avis booking and replaced it with a new one, it's showing on the Avis website and on BA manage my booking.

Thank you so much for your help RickT (and everyone else), so glad I noticed this thread!

[RickT]

Originally Posted by Bronzy

Just phoned them and managed to get the Tahoe for only an extra £90 including the admin fee so it was even cheaper than what it said online! BA cancelled the original Avis booking and replaced it with a new one, it's showing on the Avis website and on BA manage my booking.

Thank you so much for your help RickT (and everyone else), so glad I noticed this thread!

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good result.

For info - the key part is the car being present on the BA mybooking page, as thats where you print your voucher from.

[Bronzy]

Originally Posted by RickT

good result.

For info - the key part is the car being present on the BA mybooking page, as thats where you print your voucher from.

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Just checked that and the new group and car is now on the BA booking page and the car hire voucher (I was sent another email with the new info added). Very pleased!

[OLS]

Just to confirm for folks again (as I have rung up this morning again for the 5th time) that the price online is circa £100 more than the phone cost (which will include the admin fee) so what I do is check the voucher cost on page 1 (in my case this was £544) and then go to modify and take the total Price (for instance £888) and deduct my voucher from it, then minus £100 from that final figure and give or take a few pounds that has always consistently been the upgrade price (that's checking 4 different groups on 5 different occasions.

So today, Upgrade from Group D > Group Z. Tahoe showing as £892.32 so -£544 from that gave me £348.32, so I estimated the upgrade cost should be circa £250 so I rung up and checked the price and I was quoted £251 to upgrade (which includes the £25 admin fee) which I couldn't get waived (I tried the whole "I can't do it online so why should I have to pay it" lark (in a polite way!) but no dice)

That is the cheapest I have seen the upgrade as it's been £500 more at some points, the group S & W were nearly the same price as well, infact the S which I was going to go for was £2 less! I will keep checking the prices and if S drops dramatically then I might "downgrade" to it but I couldn't not jump on the Tahoe at that price for 3 weeks!

[catherinesian]

I got my admin fee waived last week. A few months ago I upgraded from a Ford Escape to Ford Edge for £8 reduction in balance. I decided to see how much it would be to go back down to what we originally booked and was quoted £200 refund plus £25 admin fee (so £175). Went to ring up later that day to confirm and the lines repeatedly kept not putting me through.

Cue me ringing every day for a week and each time 'We will not be able to put you through due to extremely high call volumes".

Eventually I got annoyed, went through to the new sales department (who picked up straightaway ) and got transferred internally. New price £180 plus admin fee so £155. Asked why I hadn't been able to get through for the last week to confirm and he said they had been having trouble with the lines? Mentioned that their trouble has cost me £20 in price fluctuations and quite a bit of frustration and he waived the fee

Apart from that, I have managed to upgrade and downgrade my car, so end up exactly where I started, for £188 refund. Bonkers

[thisismickey]

Great thread here thanks

[RickT]

Jut managed to upgrade myself - gone for a group L Suburban from a Full Size SUV group Z.

£3 refund including the admin fee !

The price on the online BA/Avis site to upgrade to a group L was £40 more than my actual voucher cost.

The price of the current car booked if i was to try and upgrade to that car now was displayed on the booking page (page 1 link) at £110 more than my voucher was worth.

Called BA, the cost of the upgrade from a Group Z to Group L was a £28 reduction, so £25 admin fee, plus £3 refunded.

The reason the price on the BA/AVIS site (link on post 1) is to do with the prices displayed not including BA's discount, which from my man maths seems to be approx 13% though this is subject to change as the buy 5 get 7 days offer impacts the price too as this is not factored into the online price either - it seems you get 1 discount applied which ever is greatest.

Im happy overall as i originally booked with a Standard SUV > Full Size > Premium with a very low price cost to change -


As a further compare - on BA website, doing a new Avis booking, the cost for identical car hire is £897.00 or Alamo as a compare is £1900

[mykeyb]

If looking to upgrade one class and the price doesn’t look great, have a look at a higher again class. I was just quoted £210 to upgrade from a minivan to a Tahoe. But to go up to a Suburban it was a refund of £11 after they took the amendment fee off. The price I got on the phone was almost the same as the price quoted online.
I did originally book my July holiday during a sale and got what I though was a great price at the time and didn’t think I would get a decent price on upgrading.
We upgraded our car back in Febuary from an escape to an explorer and got just over £100 back then.

[RickT]

Originally Posted by mykeyb

If looking to upgrade one class and the price doesn’t look great, have a look at a higher again class. I was just quoted £210 to upgrade from a minivan to a Tahoe. But to go up to a Suburban it was a refund of £11 after they took the amendment fee off. The price I got on the phone was almost the same as the price quoted online.
I did originally book my July holiday during a sale and got what I though was a great price at the time and didn’t think I would get a decent price on upgrading.
We upgraded our car back in Febuary from an escape to an explorer and got just over £100 back then.

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Nice one.. Glad this thread has been helpful.

I too go in July, i suspect Avis are pushing group L cars at the moment to balance the demand because in peak season they do run low on some classes. (ie last year zero group z were availble to me)

For info... The mini vans prices were still sky high to upgrade to for me, however that's not a class of car that appeals to me.