Warning: BA fly drive young drivers

Cocobean121 · 13 Sep 19, 08:29 AM

Morning all

Just a heads up if your lead driver is under 25, our terms and conditions have been changed on our booking, without prior notice!

When booking I included our 23 yr old son as lead driver, this gave the same rate as an older driver, I checked the booking t&c’s which stated that bookings post June 2018 the young driver surcharge was included in the rental rate.

On Monday I gave BA a call to double check they had his date of birth that I’d put in, as there was no mention of it on any of the documents, they confirmed his DOB and said they would call Avis to double check their end and confirm the intermediate SUV was ok for him to drive. 20 minutes later the BA rep came back and advised the car was fine and it would be $27 per day surcharge! I referrred them to my booking terms which when I looked at on MMB had changed! After a lot of arguing and them insisting I was making it up, they found my original voucher which stated the surcharge was included, luckily I had a copy of it stored on my PC too. They called Avis and advised them of this and they have now amended my voucher to say that the young driver surcharge was included in the rental rate, and not to worry!

They wouldn’t send an email to confirm the call! So fingers crossed we dont have a battle with Avis after a nine hour flight.

I’ve run a new fly drive quote through and it does now state that surcharges are payable locally, so no longer included.

Sorry for long post, just a heads up if you have a booking to check your voucher wording on MMB, as despite BA arguing that it hasn’t been changed, it has!

thatdavieguy · 13 Sep 19, 09:42 AM

It's funny you should post this as i'm currently running a BA car hire quote for my dad and this popped up so...

Cocobean121 · 13 Sep 19, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by thatdavieguy

It's funny you should post this as i'm currently running a BA car hire quote for my dad and this popped up so...

This never popped up before! I’m a little angry that they changed their terms without so much as an email, or a flag on MMB, if I hadn’t called we would have assumed as per the original booking that it was all included, and ended up paying $650 in surcharges to Avis! They even denied at first that it had ever been changed.

Becoming increasingly fed up with BA.

thatdavieguy · 13 Sep 19, 10:55 AM

It popped up for me when i was looking at making a booking paying with Avios.

I can see from a standard booking that it's saying that the lead driver of 30+ which is excessive IMO but it's not BA's rule, it's Avis & Budget who are their car providers.

To be honest, when you make the booking you have to agree to their T&C's which are there at the time & if they later change them then it's BA's responsibility to advise you of this, especially if it affects your booking, if they don't then the T&C's applicable to your booking should be the version that was in place at the time of booking.

Similar situation with mobile phone contracts, they are forever changing T&C's but you're (you & the company) bound by the version that was in place at the time of contract being put in place.

fredflintstone · 13 Sep 19, 07:32 PM

If the lead driver is under 30, you just uncheck the box. It allows them to remove the big SUV's that AVIS say you have to be over 30 to drive.

The under 25 driver must be the lead driver, as AVIS do not allow additional drivers under 25, which is why BA AVis fly drive is no good if you have 2 drivers under 25.

I was surprised when you say the under 25 surcharge was included , as a few years ago when we had under 25 drivers the supplement was always payable locally at $25 a day plus tax and BA made it clear it was not included in T&Cs, one of the reasons we would usually hire a car with someone else. Didn't realise BA had changed it to included, if only for a short while, but you are right the included wording was there last Aug and this Apr, but missing for Sept.

13 Sep 19, 07:32 PM	#5
	13 Sep 19, 07:32 PM fredflintstone Imagineer
fredflintstone Imagineer Join Date: Apr 05 fredflintstone's Reviews Hotel Reviews: 2 Restaurant Reviews: 1	If the lead driver is under 30, you just uncheck the box. It allows them to remove the big SUV's that AVIS say you have to be over 30 to drive. The under 25 driver must be the lead driver, as AVIS do not allow additional drivers under 25, which is why BA AVis fly drive is no good if you have 2 drivers under 25. I was surprised when you say the under 25 surcharge was included , as a few years ago when we had under 25 drivers the supplement was always payable locally at $25 a day plus tax and BA made it clear it was not included in T&Cs, one of the reasons we would usually hire a car with someone else. Didn't realise BA had changed it to included, if only for a short while, but you are right the included wording was there last Aug and this Apr, but missing for Sept. Edited at 07:53 PM.