Car rental with Alamo

jimbob1982

Hey guys, I'm just looking for heads up / advice here.

I intend to rent a car in Las Vegas Airport in June for 10 days and drop the car in Salt Lake airport.

I have my quote already for something like 1200e which is grand.

I booked with an ordinary AIB Visa credit card. Nothing fancy like a Chase or Sapphire.

The credit limit is 2200 euros.

I have DW and Extended protection included in this.

Now I don't know if this is enough insurance from a legal standpoint.

I think I'll be offered Supplimental Liability Insurance when I get there but have no idea what that may cost.

What has your experience been with Alamo in this situation?

I'm Irish by the way.

I don't wanna get any nasty surprises when I go to pick up my car like I did in Seattle in 2017.

I wanna be ready.

Cheers guys.

Allinall

Is there an insurance excess?

I would ask your credit card provider for a temporary increase in your limit to say €4k.

This will give you added security for any unforseen expenses.

jimbob1982

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118107555#Comment_118107555

It's a good point in fairness. Surprisingly I didn't see anything about a 2,000e hold being put on my credit card for the excess.

It said if I was booking with a debit card and didn't have a return ticket to show that they'd also put 300e hold on the card as security.

I only have the credit card a week. I got it solely for the purpose of the rental car and was hoping the limit would be 5k but hey ho.

They gave me 2200 based on my credit rating I guess.

Hopefully if I don't use the card between now and June, they'll see fit to extend my credit as you say even if it only be temporary.

Good advice there pal.

nibtrix

I don't know anything about the car rental side of it, but if you don't use the card between now and then why would they increase your limit? Same as when planning for a mortgage, you are better off using it and paying it off so that you build a credit history with the card.

I would use the card as much as possible between now and then, paying it off each month before the billing date, and then ask them to increase your credit limit. If you ask without having a history of paying what you owe, they'll probably assume you are going to make one major purchase and then possibly default on the payment in some way.

jimbob1982

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118107856#Comment_118107856

That's a plausible enough argument too but I just wonder would it be better to be honest with them and tell them why I need the limit. It's a good enough reason and once the security deposit is lifted again, they could decrease the limit. I don't know really which is better.

Atlantic Dawn

Rented before with Alamo took out something similar DW and something else which I am not sure if it was extended liability. Thankfully didn't have to use it but the terms and conditions are rather extensive, maybe 10-15 A4 pages worth when you sign on the dotted line, a lot to get through for an ordinary person. I know the conditions stated if you took out no insurance and in the event of a total loss of the car they could seek to recover the cost of the car and any income it was expected to make for a number of months.

It could be worth additionally taking out this cover https://www.carhireexcess.ie/

Out of interest do you plan on driving the car much around Las Vegas? It is pretty much hell driving around in the evenings with traffic, additionally lots of hotels now charge for parking, even those which you are staying in. If you are staying a number of days in Vegas it may be worth just picking up the car on the last day through one of the hotels as the collection point, lots of car rental companies have desks in the major hotels.

jimbob1982

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118107932#Comment_118107932

Thank you very much. I don't intend to drive at all at night in Vegas. I drove there in '17 but it was during the day.

I'll just do my bit of driving in the daylight hours.

I have driven all the cities in the west coast at night and found it okay but is Vegas worse than those at night, do you know? I'll check out that hotel I've booked too regarding the pay parking. Thanks for that thumbs up.

The plan is actually to come into Vegas Jun 4th at night, pick up the car the following day and on the 7th, drive along out to the West rim of the grand Canyon and onto the South rim and onto Salt Lake City but obviously not all on the one day.

Oo and also I gotta find a covid test clinic somewhere in the desert too going from Vegas to the Canyon.

I gotta get tested again 3 to 5 days after I arrive in the states so if you know of any clinic in the desert, that would be a biiiiiigggg help lol.

Atlantic Dawn

It's just very slow on the strip, could literally take 45 minutes to cover the 4 or so miles, you can take the highway that runs parallel with it. I'd forget about collecting the car at McCarran, one of the strip hotels will be easier even if it's not one you are staying in.

For testing I was told this company have various sites around Las Vegas and other cities in the US, it's priced based on how soon you want the results, $90 for 24 hours, $150 for 12 hours, $250 for 1.5 hours. Things are changing so quickly by next year that testing is likely to have changed requirements and pricing again.

https://worksitelabs.com/scheduling/

naughtysmurf

Are you booking with Alamo direct? Assume DW is CDW?

may be worth looking at third party brokers this side of the pond, airlines for example even if not flying with them, they often used to be cheaper than dealing direct with the car rental companies & usually have better insurance packaged into their offers avoiding any upselling of insurance at car collection

jimbob1982

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118109301#Comment_118109301

My dad had a very bad experience with Economy car rentals and I don't want a repeat besides Alamo seems to have been voted one of the best companies. I actually tried a broker and it was Avis car that came up which is strange because they don't seem to have a good reputation in America then how trustworthy that website I found that information on is another question.

naughtysmurf

Well, Alamo won’t let you leave the parking lot unless you are road legal insurance wise & what you getting is pretty basic so it depends how risk adverse you are, the link below is a third party broker I’ve used for Florida a number of times, I punched in some random dates for June 2022 for Vegas - SLC & got prices from €1058 , not Alamo but Dollar & Thrifty. I don’t know what kind of vehicle you have booked,

in their package the following IS included LDW / CDW, SLI, UMP, may be worth a look,

I’ve found them very good to deal with over the years, zero issues

naughtysmurf

https://www.uscarhire.com/

forgot the link