Hi all,
We get a lot of queries from customers asking if it is better to upgrade their USA Car Hire before they depart or to do it locally upon arrival.
Upgrading your car rental means to pay additional money to move to a larger or more specialist vehicle. Below I will highlight some of the points to look out for when making your decision.
Upgrading before you go
One of the major advantages of upgrading your vehicle before you go is knowing exactly what you have spent, budgeting your USA holiday at these times can be very important.
The other main factor is that on average it is cheaper to upgrade in the UK before you go than upgrade locally. The reason for this is simple, for example when you purchase your florida car hire from usrentacar.co.uk you are buying everything as part of a package, all your insurances (CDW, SLI, UMP) are all bundled together and most importantly, you’ve prepaid the tax associated with the rental.
When you upgrade locally you are not buying as part of a package and you have not prepaid your tax, so on top of any per day amount you will have to take in to consideration airport tax and state tax plus any concession fee’s.
Also remember the guys and girls on the counter work on commission so it’s in their best interest to charge you the most they can for any upgrade.
Upgrading when you get there
The best times to try an upgrade locally, are off season. You will not get a good deal on an upgrade in peak times, May, June, October and November probably hold your best chance of getting a bargain.
The reason being, it makes no sense for a supplier to have vehicles doing nothing on their forecourts, so making a little bit of cash on top is obviously better than none at all.
There is one trick that apparently works, usrentacar.co.uk does not endorse this or state that it works however…
$20 Dollar Tip Trick
Is it urban myth or does this really work?
The idea is to not offer the $20 bill directly to the counter agent but just flash it to them. If they do provide an upgrade you can than hand them the $20 bill. This ensures that you will only have to pay $20 if you get an upgraded car.
Now there are many reports on many websites that this works, but again if it doesn’t you could end up having to pay an amount that could be up to 50% more than if you’d upgrade in the UK.
Remember if you upgrade locally your contract is with supplier and not usrentacar, we cannot obtain refunds for customers if they have signed locally agreeing to the local terms. Please read everything carefully before signing.
Over to you guys
What are your experiences of upgrading locally?
Tell us about your bargains?
Tell us about your mistakes?
regards,
James

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