Would upgrading car class be cheaper when out there?

[martyn7836]

I could only drop to the smallest car with basic insurance but that’s cos it was a fly drive. Still saved £££s doing it that way.

[youre-nicked]

I was in a similar boat, got the Rav4 as standard and wanted something a bit bigger, Virgin were quoting a lot so thought I would go directly to Alamo, they said that they couldn't upgrade me in the UK but could out there, the guy said not to do that as it could be expensive, his off the record advice was to offer them a tip in the garage to try and upgrade

I then kept looking at the Virgin website by doing dummy bookings as the car hire fluctuated, when it came down to what I was willing to pay, I rang and upgraded.

To get a Full size SUV cost me £249 for the fortnight, at points they had been asking for closer to £400

[Gemini157]

The past few times OH and I have travelled to the States - Orlando and Boston, and to Canada, we have booked the 2nd smallest type of car (I forget what it's called as the car is the only bit of booking and planning I don't do!)
Each time we get to the car hire desk they say (in both countries) 'Oh that's too small you won't get all your luggage in'. How much luggage to they think 2 people need, with an entire back seat free?
Every time we insist No, the size we booked is fine. We don't need bigger and we are unwilling to pay any more.
Then down to the pick up part of the car hire garage we go, and are shown a row of bigger cars than we booked. One of which in Canada OH said was far too big for her to drive!
If we had paid extra as they wanted us to we would have got exactly the same car as we ended up with.

Just my experience (3 times) and a little off topic but I thought it was worth sharing.

[r2001uk]

Originally Posted by welshmum

You should save quite a bit then. Go on live chat with Virgin Holidays and they will tell you exactly how much you will get back. Let us know how you get on.

See more...

Well I made a booking on DFCH the other day and it's turns out the deadline to pay was today - the same day we were planning to go see Virgin!

We popped into the branch and she immediately said she can cancel the car but will have to charge us. I had the foresight to screenshot their website that says no charges whatsoever but she ummed and aahed and said the only way she'd be able to make the change would incur a cost, but she gave us a number to call that could probably waive the charge.

Lo and behold the number was 'closed' at weekends. I started getting worried and considered cancelling the DFCH booking as we wouldn't be able to talk to Virgin until Monday.

Now we're sat in Starbucks and I figured we'd try a different Virgin number. We got through, they gave us ANOTHER number to call, but this one actually worked. The lady was great, she cancelled the car, no fees and we're getting £510 back.

DFCH is only costing us £388 for the next class up! Bonus spends

Huge thanks to Andy at DFCH for patiently answering my questions and thanks to this place for recommending him!

[ClaireNJ]

Great saving well done

[Mickie]

Glad it’s all sorted now. I noticed you wanted to upgrade to an Edge. I’ve picked one up just parked in the Intermediate line-thought it was a bit bigger and better equipped than usual