personal finance

Firms cash in when a delayed or cancelled flight means you’re not on time for a booked hire car


If you have booked a hire car for your summer holiday, beware. Although rental firms know full well that flights are subject to delays and cancellations, some are profiting extortionately from passengers who arrive later or earlier than expected.

The sorry tales below suggest that, as with flight tickets, it can be best to avoid third-party brokers and book directly through the hire company so you can liaise directly.

My easyJet flight to Barcelona in September has been cancelled and I’ve had to rebook a flight that arrives two hours earlier.

I already had a reservation with Europcar made through Enjoy Car Hire, and I told the latter of the earlier arrival time. A prompt reply informed me I would have to pay an additional £590.46 (three times the original contract price) to make the change. Thus, to save waiting for two hours, I would have to pay £4.92 a minute for 120 minutes!

Enjoy advised me to contact Europcar direct, which I did. It confirmed I would have to cancel and rebook to make the amendment, but it couldn’t help as I’d booked through Enjoy.

Obviously, I will not pay this absurd amount and therefore face wasting two hours in the Europcar office waiting for the magic hour.
DH, London

Enjoy declined to comment, but its response to you explained that if a customer changes the time on a reservation, the entire booking is recalculated at current prices, which means your deal soared from £198 to £786. Its T&Cs state amendments can be made for no charge, unless they are “a material change to the booking such as its duration” or if the hire company changes its rates after the original booking.

A two-hour alteration caused by a cancelled flight ought not to be deemed “material” for a company that operates from an airport, and Enjoy’s FAQs on cancelled flights makes no mention of extra costs.

Europcar’s response would appear to bear out Enjoy’s stance.

However, Europcar insists that it makes no charge for changes to collection or drop-off times within a 24-hour period provided the number of booking days remains the same. “As he did not book direct with Europcar, the company cannot comment on the rental broker’s response to his request,” it says.

After the Observer stepped in, it agreed to make the amendment at no cost.

We booked our hire car with Goldcar via Holiday Autos to be collected from Antalya Airport. Our flight was delayed by an hour and the hire desk had closed when we reached it. We tried Holiday Autos “24/7” helpline, but no answer. We therefore had get a taxi to Antalya and scrambled around to find a hotel. The next morning we took a taxi back to the Goldcar desk where we learned that our car had been given away as we were down as a “no show”, despite the fact that we had supplied our flight number when we booked.

Holiday Autos insisted there was nothing that could be done at their end and it was down to the local rental company to resolve.

Goldcar eventually said we could pay extra to rent a higher grade vehicle, and we reluctantly agreed so we could get on with our holiday.

Holiday Autos refused to refund the extra cost and pointed us to its Ts&Cs which state that if the vehicle is not released due to a late arrival, no funds will be reimbursed. This is crazy, as I am sure I am not the first person to have a delay to our flight!
JL, Cardiff

Holiday Autos did not respond to a request for a comment. Goldcar blames the fact you booked through a third party and claims it could not get in touch with you when you were delayed because, bizarrely, brokers do not pass on customer contact details. “This is an ongoing industry-wide issue car rental firms are looking to address, particularly with late-night bookings when offices are closing,” it says.

The firm admits it had your flight number so would have known you were going to be late, but that didn’t stop it voiding your reservation.

Goldcar has form on this. I reported in May the experience of a reader who was denied his hire car and a refund after he forewarned them his flight had been rescheduled.

Goldcar, recently taken over by Europcar, admits there is a problem with its policies and its customer service, but seems to class delayed flights as rare events. “We recognise that our existing terms and conditions do not adequately deal with this specific situation,” it says. “In February we announced a programme of change to ensure that our leading low-cost offer is matched by good customer experience. The scale of this overhaul should not be underestimated. Clarification of our T&Cs is a part of this ongoing change programme.”

After pressure from the Observer it agreed to refund the upgrade – but as a “gesture of goodwill” rather than because it failed you.

If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Publication subject to our terms and conditions



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