car hire desks @ airport

[smg]

have read that these desks are temporarily 'landside'...anyone know if they are due to go back 'airside' any time soon?

Also does anyone know:

who does full/empty policy for 8 day hire?

cost of a full tank? (obviously depends on car, but.....)

 

[clinkham]

Can't get the knack of doing a link back, so here is a copied/pasted repeat of my comment following a visit a couple of weeks ago. There is other info under the 'Record' thread heading. Oh! an the weather was not good either

"The arrivals hall at Palma airport has been changed since our last visit in 2011. The car hire offices are now all situated outside the luggage reclaim area. I.e. you have to exit the reclaim area (with no return permissable) to access the offices.
I too had little problem with queues but from a Do You Spain quote of 30 odd Euros, ended up paying 78 Euros extra for fuel on a full/empty basis for the diesel Fiesta. On a four day hire

I did think of leaving the engine running overnight to get my money's worth, and reduce the profit Record was making on the fuel deal, but Mrs Clinkham told me not to be silly. She was probably right ....

There certainly should be more clarity when these cowboys give you a quote. And a list of tank sizes for every model of car in the fleet so the punter can choose the smallest tank and therefore cost would be a good idea."

 

[Rosie34]

Not happy about this change We have our little system where we get the car hire admin sorted first and then go back to get the luggage off the carousel - usually plenty of time and no queues. But with the car hire now being outside this area, we cant do this

 

[smg]

agree, but there seemed to be a suggestion that this was only temporary?

 

[lollipop]

There are major refurbishments going on inside the airport , If you peep you can see that there are new desks being erected on the other side of the boarding,but have no idea how much longer it will all take. Hopefully the disruption will be worth it. Can I suggest one of you come out of the hand luggage exit just before the baggage reclaim while the others queue for bags.

 

[San Miguel]

Airport

I was in the airport arrivals last night and watched as 4 men removed a large temporary wall in less than 5 minutes. Lots of nice work behind.
I don't think that anyone can guarantee who will be where when they finish, when they are working at this pace. They obviously want to get it finished as quickly as possible.
Currently all the car-hire people are still situated after you leave arrivals.

Cheers!

San Miguel

 

[cumberland8]

The important question is, when all this work is complete ,will the 2.5 hour wait at the dreadful (in my family's opinion) RECORD car hire be reduced ???

 

[smg]

yes, we're trying to avoid Goldcar this year; after many years of happy hiring, queues just got too much, esp when you're pre-booked, pre-paid, & they have all your details on the system, why can't they offer a fast key pick-up for returning customers....( after having shafted you for a full tank, of course)

 

[manda]

Must be all time record. Just got back from short 6 day break and arriving to pick car up last Friday was done and dusted at Goldcar with 10 minutes Admittedly we did arrive there at 10:00 but the normal queue was miles long. Trick is pay an extra 15 Euros for priority booking and it save all the hassle. 3rd time we have done this and now they have offered to wave the fee and give priority booking for free when using a certain email address. Even in summer it only took 20 minutes to get sorted.. Well worth a think about...

 

[lollipop]

While at the airport last night it was a hive of industry,men knocking down walls on the baggage side,others removing the central tour operator e.g Thomas Cook kiosks. New office spaces look very modern . Fingers crossed it will improve the queues.

 

[Rosie34]

Must be all time record. Just got back from short 6 day break and arriving to pick car up last Friday was done and dusted at Goldcar with 10 minutes Admittedly we did arrive there at 10:00 but the normal queue was miles long. Trick is pay an extra 15 Euros for priority booking and it save all the hassle. 3rd time we have done this and now they have offered to wave the fee and give priority booking for free when using a certain email address. Even in summer it only took 20 minutes to get sorted.. Well worth a think about...

Manda - did you book direct with Goldcar? We booked through Carjet and it's Goldcar but no option to priority book so presumably you have to book direct with them? Must admit we have never had queue problems with them but there's always a first time We had originally been 'given' Auriga Carown (who we really liked) but were changed to GC. So fingers crossed for 16 May that most of the work will be done - as it sounds like they are pulling out all the stops

 

[manda]

We have started going direct with GC after using both Carjet and DoYouSpain for years. The prices are pretty much the same but allow priority booking but like all other firms there are some gottcha, like fuel. The fuel cost more this time than the car hire!!!

Although we used most of the hire firms it always seems to take an age going through the registration and payment process. With GC they now see us a regular visitor (only 3 times a year) so have all details to hand, simply give them the credit card and drivers licence and it's done.

Hope they finished all the work as the temporary booths were tiny and could only hold 4 people serving at once.

 

[smg]

any news on whether the hire offices are back 'air-side'?

 

[nadia29]

Does anyone have any more information about whether the car hire desks are airside again yet? We arrive next week and it would be good to know in advance if we can go back to our usual system of me sorting the car while hubby gets the bags, especially since we arrive late with 2 small children in tow. Many thanks

 

[pollensa]

We arrived on Friday & rRcord are definitely airside now & some others were but I'm afraid I didn't see which ones. And we were lucky as we were the only flight in & the airport was empty - no queues at all!

 

[nadia29]

Thanks pollensa. Will keep my fingers crossed goldcar are one of the others