I rented a car from Alamo through Netflights for pick up at Tampa Airport for nine days while I was in Florida during an amazing road trip. I flew to Tampa Airport with British Airways on BA2167 which I searched for using Skyscanner but I booked directly on BA.com.
Netflights offered zero excess insurance as part of the booking, without any surcharge so it was a no brainer for me. I would recommend checking various sites before you book your car and also check if zero excess is included or not. In my experience Netflights sometimes offers zero excess at no extra cost so I always check it before I go to the US.
This was the second time I rented with Netflights – the first time I picked up a car from Boston – again through Alamo Car Hire. In Boston I rented a Nissan mid-range car which was also pretty good. I also made sure to rent full-to-full as I’ve got stung a couple of times in Spain renting full-to-empty unknowingly.
Picking Up The Car At Tampa Airport
The flight arrived on time at Tampa Airport and once I went through the customs checks I walked across the road to the car rental center. It was the Spring Break so the queue at the Alamo Car Hire desk at Tampa Airport was massive. I had to wait about half an hour to see a representative.
Anyhow, the receptionist was very helpful and offered some driving advice in Florida. He even looked at upgrading my car at a small cost but they were sold out. So I stuck with my Hyundai Accent. It was a little nifty car, when I put the pedal down the car sped up pretty fast – no complaints.
This wasn’t the first time I rented from Alamo – another time I got a Mustang in California from them but this time I decided to get a cheaper option. Not to mention the fuel cost far less with this car than with a Mustang.
If you don’t want to upgrade or get the extra insurance at the desk, it is worth reading my other two articles about this subject. I’ve titled them:
- How to Avoid Getting Stung By High Insurance Excess Costs and
- How to Avoid The Hard Sell Tactics At The Pick Up Desk.
Problems After Pick-Up
Although I walked around the car and checked everything was fine 20 minutes after pick-up it turned out that everything wasn’t right. As soon as I drove away I noticed there was something wrong with the front left wheel. The moment I drove faster than 40 miles the car started to make a weird clunking noise. I thought maybe some small rock was inside the tire and wondered if it would ever fall out.
Well it didn’t and I didn’t want to get on the freeway with that noise so pulled over to check. It turned out the plastic guard around the wheel came loose and it was flapping when the wind got stronger!
So I had to turn around and swap the car. Luckily I had zero excess so they simply swapped my car but it added nearly an hour to my trip. I was on my way to the synagogue for the evening Purim service so I got there 15 minutes late because of this.
The Alamo Car Drop Off In Tampa
After I spent the week driving around Florida I dropped the car off without a scratch and received my deposit back. The drop off process was much faster than picking up: all I needed to do was park up in the garage, the clerk scanned the car in, checked the fuel gauge and that was it.
Watch this video below to see where I went at the end of my Florida Road Trip: