A few months ago I hired a car in Germany for ten days through BA on what seemed like quite a good deal (beware of ‘good deals’) as an extra with our tickets. BA offered 50% off what would have been a reasonably standard price, with CDW, TP, local tax unlimited mileage all thrown in. I compared this with what I had been able to source myself through Europcar as usual and choosing my own insurances and recovery options through my normal providers, and the BA option seemed slightly better (my first mistake).
All went well, Avis supplied a reasonable car for the four of us and agreed it was in good nick when we returned it. No claims required.
A week later there arrived an invoice from Avis for an extra 293 euros. The hire price was not the same as previously agreed by them with BA and the BA voucher did not fully cover it, so I had to pay the difference and also an extra admin fee of more than a hundred euros. Ouch.
I’ve been in phone and email correspondence with the polite but unhelpful “Customer Relations Executive” at BA for the last month with no luck, effectively receiving the brush off each time, even though according to my legal advice the documents they supplied me were perfectly clear, while in reality they actually misled me (LIED). There is no way they are going to admit this, despite it being in plain print, and their legal team would run rings around anything I might find or could afford. So I don’t expect any redress.
Moral: Organise one’s own car hire as basic vehicle only and be prepared to pay for mileage - do NOT take CDW, TP, Recovery, Excess, or extras of any kind through the hire company.
Take along unambiguous documentation explicitly to cover the class of car for the areas of the world to be visited. And take along one’s own sat nav; I refused Avis’ generous offer at only 15 euros a day! I can buy a sat nav for that.
Arrange all these oneself through one’s normal providers - back in March these would have cost me an extra 56. My total car hire cost arranged by myself back then would have come to 210 euros. In total, Avis charged 664 euros of which BA only paid 371.
So now the gloves are off, and I’m also contacting Which and Rip-off Britain with this cautionary tale, relevant since they have been covering similar cases recently. I doubt anything will happen as a result, but I’ll feel better.