Car hire cancelled due to delayed flight

[lilypad99]

I was due to pick a car rental up from the airport last night at 23.30 but the flight was delayed so we didn't arrive until 01.30 and the car rental desk was closed.
We had to get a taxi which cost us 65€. I rang the rental company this morning and they said the booking is cancelled and we will need to call the airline for a refund (I highly doubt the airline would refund?)

Has anyone been on this situation before and what did you do?

Why would the airline need to refund you? Did you book the car hire through them?
Did you attempt to inform the car hire company that your arrival would be delayed and to check the impact on pick-up?

Not exactly the same; we had a flight cancelled recently because of bad weather. We ended up driving in the end, so obviously didn't need to pick up the hire car.

We did alert the car hire company but they refused to refund the money. They didn't tell us to claim from the airline, but to use our insurance. Very annoyingly, our insurance company told us that if the flight had been delayed, we would have been covered. But as it was cancelled we were not.

We disputed this, but didn't get anywhere with it.

So in your situation, if you have travel insurance, you might be able to claim on that, seeing as it was a delay that caused the issue.

Also - presumably you had the car booked for a bit longer, do you still need a car hire? I'm not sure why they wouldn't honour the booking and just let you collect this morning.

Contact your travel insurance company. They'll advise on what's covered and what to do next eg if you organise a new rental and it's more expensive will they cover the additional cost etc.

That’s really weird and crap of the rental company! You’re still paying for the car so it shouldn’t be an issue you’re collecting it late. And surely this must happen all the time in an airport. Do they have another car available for you?

Do you still need a car? Try to reach state booking? Claim the £65 taxi cost and car hire costs under the travel delay part of your travel insurance?

Thanks everyone.
Car hire saying booking has been cancelled so would need to make a new booking and would need to go to the desk to see if a car is available- not doing that as would be another 65€ to get back to the airport in a taxi.
Tried to call travel insurance but told to call back tomorrow as claim lines not open on a Sunday
Tried to call airline a keep getting cut off.

Think I'm just going to rent another one from a local office here and try to claim for the first one under the insurance but not sure I'll have much luck!

How ridiculous! They always ask for flight info so they'd have known your flight was delayed. Can I ask which company so I can avoid them in future? What an absolute nuisance, I ry do feel for you 😕

It's gold car

Oh dear - I regularly read pieces in The Guardian's consumer champion pages about Gold Car.

This was one recentl yhttps://www.which.co.uk/reviews/car-hire/article/car-hire-comparison/best-and-worst-car-hire-companies-aj00t0W8yvO2 saying to avoid at all costs

(Which I realise is no help to you right now!)