If I fly myself on business, or pirvately for that matter, I will always tell the truth if asked. If they give me the “flash ba***rd look” I patiently explain that most airlines have stopped first class these days and I think that hiring a private jet is a little too ostentatious for one person. They usually look very confused and drop the subject:)
I had reserved a hire car from a large international airport that’s near my hometown in the UK (most convenient pick up point even when not flying in commercially). When picking up the car they wanted to see the boarding pass I used to fly in with (some new policy of theirs which made no sense) before they gave me the keys. I said I don’t have one, and this is roughly how the rest of the conversation went…
“Okay, do you have a booking confirmation or anything from eurotunnel or a ferry or however you got here?”
“No, I flew, I just don’t have a boarding pass or anything”
“How can you not have a boarding pass if you flew?”
“I have a pilots licence, I came on a small aircraft”
“Whoa… so, like, you came on a private jet?”
“No, a small single engine plane with only a few seats”
“So a private jet then?”
There was a bit of this back and forth before he called head office to ask what he should do. I offered to send them a copy of my PPL (as “ID”/proof of how I could’ve got there), to which they accepted. After seeing the copy the guy behind the desk was disappointed that it wasn’t a driving license style card with a photo. In the end they refused to give me a car so I had to go to another branch and book one last minute at triple the price.
Needless to say I haven’t used that company again!
What ? It is outrageous they wouldn’t give you a car because you don’t have a boarding pass. Someone should warn AOPA and such.
Jujupilote wrote:
What ? It is outrageous they wouldn’t give you a car because you don’t have a boarding pass. Someone should warn AOPA and such.
I suppose the company wanted the boarding card for statistical and/or marketing purposes and either their computers were set up so that a rental couldn’t be registered without entering the boarding card data or the rental company guy was simply afraid of not following instructions to the letter.
One of “Ryanair airports”? You are not supposed to get boarding pass on bizjets neither 
Most rentals at airports may ask for flight number to check arrival, maybe distinction between renting to a passenger or a “local” is they don’t pay airport charges when they rent to locals, but the guy should have just charged you that extra and move on with it?
Reminds me of buying a magazine at Munich or Heathrow… Them: “we need to see your boarding card” me in reply: “no, do you want the money or not? them: “that’ll be 12 € £”
Airborne_Again wrote:
So it is incorrect to say that they were sued for having high prices. They were sued because they did not inform the customers in advance of prices that were higher than the customer could reasonably expect.
However, their counter argument was that had they not traveled by plane their customers would have to pay even more for the time their precious lawyers were wasting traveling, paid at regular lawyer hourly rate which apparently is very expensive.
Dimme wrote:
However, their counter argument was that had they not traveled by plane their customers would have to pay even more for the time their precious lawyers were wasting traveling, paid at regular lawyer hourly rate which apparently is very expensive.
That might very well be true, but nevertheless the issue was about transparency and not the high prices as such.
Airborne_Again wrote:
I suppose the company wanted the boarding card for statistical and/or marketing purposes and either their computers were set up so that a rental couldn’t be registered without entering the boarding card data or the rental company guy was simply afraid of not following instructions to the letter.
From what I remember it was something to do with people showing up claiming they had arrived off a flight (with a return sector booked) and then somehow stealing the cars and taking them abroad. I remember being surprised with the reason but apparently they had had a lot of fraudulent people stealing cars and their way of protecting themselves was demanding a boarding card. I can’t remember enough of the details to be able to explain it properly but it was something along those lines.
Ibra wrote:
One of “Ryanair airports”?
Well, Ryanair do fly there but they’re very low down in the list of total movements.
Slightly off topic but I was in Luqa = Malta recently and thought Ryan Air must have bought it, there were so many Ryan Air aircraft there! I would guess on the day I was there about 80% or so movements were Ryan Air.
