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cheap car hire from Geneva

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
wrongsideof30, take the exit to Ferney-Voltiare (?), lots of petrol stations, just follow airport signs through the border.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Helen Beaumont wrote:
wrongsideof30, take the exit to Ferney-Voltiare (?), lots of petrol stations, just follow airport signs through the border.


Wow! quick reply

I mean when taking a car back to the swiss side Smile presumably FV turn off is to the french side?
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
wrongsideof30, sorry I think I meant Perly rather than Ferney-Voltaire for the swiss side.
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Gosh - this thread has "rekindled" recently!!
I still havent booked our car... will do it over the next couple of days... and will check out this discount code
Suddenly thought of a (probably stupid) question.
I kinda get the message that I ought to be booking the car from the Swiss side.
But how do I get to it? Confused
I get off my plane from Gatwick that just says its going to "Geneva".... How do I know I'm booking my car in the right sector.
.... Oh boy I must be soooo dim. Geography was always my worst subject and it extends to airport navigation
Embarassed
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
jayne durham, your plane will land in the Swiss sector. The car hire desk is in the arrivals hall, can't miss it, as you exit the baggage collection, it is ahead of you and to the left a bit. Only flights to and from France operate in the French part. Choose Switzerland as the country, and Geneva SWZ as the pickup location.
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Quote:

sorry I think I meant Perly rather than Ferney-Voltaire for the swiss side.

Yes, but it's also really close to go to Ferney, where there is a petrol station just a hundred metres or so past the border post. This is also good practice for any time when you want to go into the French sector of the airport, which is signposted immediately after the border post (having not been signposting AT ALL until you get there). There are also a couple of useful supermarkets for self caterers in Ferney, one a Lidl.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
pam w, I can never remember the directions until we're actually at the roundabout.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
On the French side there's a Texaco about 200m straight on from the border post after the tunnel (where you'd normally turn left to enter the French side of the airport) not 24 hours though.

I tend to go via St Julien border crossing (avoiding Vignette charge 'cos you get caught at the motorway border) where there's plenty of stations just over in to the Swiss side, then take the risk and get straight back on the Motorway to just past the airport - never been caught in 9 years - just follow signs to Ferney... Easy(jet).

More info on avoiding Vignette etc here:
http://www.latania.co.uk/resort/transfers.htm#car
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Just thought I would revive this thread as I've just used the Virgin discount code for about the sixth time.

Travel Supermarket quote for car hire from geneva to tignes with Holiday Autos came out at £179
Price for same Holiday Autos booking with Virgin discount code came out at £91

An amazing saving of £88 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shocked

Thanks agin to rob@rar, for posting it - it's saved us hundreds snowHead
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marmalade wrote:
Just thought I would revive this thread as I've just used the Virgin discount code for about the sixth time.

Travel Supermarket quote for car hire from geneva to tignes with Holiday Autos came out at £179
Price for same Holiday Autos booking with Virgin discount code came out at £91

An amazing saving of £88 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shocked

Thanks agin to rob@rar, for posting it - it's saved us hundreds snowHead


I think I'm being dim, but can't see anything about a 'Virgin discount code' on the Holiday Autos link..... Puzzled
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rob@rar wrote:
I normally check a range of car hire prices but invariable use Holiday Autos (using the Virgin One Account discount code)


or, unscrambled... http://www.holidayautos.co.uk/cgi-bin/liveweb.sh/QSearch.w?ctryref=GBR&lang=EN&aff=xOneAccount
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
marmalade wrote:
Thanks agin to rob@rar, for posting it - it's saved us hundreds snowHead


Glad it's saved you some cash, although I have to say that I really can't claim any credit for the link. I think it was PhilipStanton who originally posted that little gem.
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
kkev wrote:


I tend to go via St Julien border crossing (avoiding Vignette charge 'cos you get caught at the motorway border) where there's plenty of stations just over in to the Swiss side,


The motorway police are based at Perly and reguarly wait for folks like you at the motorway junction. You are probably unlikely to get caught doing it just once.

It is actually easier to get to the French side. The Swiss car hire is based at P51 and the road can be very busy at peak times. For the French side you take the exit road, turn right at customs back into Switzerland then directly onto the motorway after going under the airport runway. Assuming you have a vignette. If you don't then it is not convenient as you have to drive across Geneva or the outskirts unless you are heading to Annecy. In that case at Ferney head to St Genis then the free autooute to Bellegarde, from here you can pick up the new Geneva Annecy motorway by either heading back to Valerie / St Julien or hacking across to Annecy.

The French tend to limit km.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Sorry if it off topic (slightly).
Car hire for Switzerland ???

Is it cheaper to fly there (going thursday so will be quite cheap) and hire a car for 2 week or to take your own car and on the Eurotunnel + pay the French motorway tolls or Swiss motorway tax.

I have been tapping away on my calculator for ages and it "seems" almost the same. Has any one ever worked it out.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Wayne, somewhere on here, ages ago, I did cost this, but prices and fuel will have changed a bit since then. I will try and dig out the thread.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Helen Beaumont,

Thank you Helen. It would be good to see. I have worked that it's cheaper to drive over for the early Dec BASI courses (teach and O Piste) so will be there for 2 weeks. Looked at train which is OK but a real pain. Also I can just load up with extra gear and set off. So (at the mo) will be driving via eurotunnel.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Just a tip and warning, if you do book with Holiday Autos take out their own CDW waiver it is cheaper than the one the actual car hire company will try and sell you when you pick up the car AND last time I booked through holiday Autos and picked up in Geneva (Swiss side) I got an Alamo car, on the way up to Les Gets at 2am in the morning got into a first class blizzard and slid into a bank of snow (which unfortunately concealed a tree trunk!) this put a small dent in to the sill. I thought I may get away with it as it was difficult to see and many times they never check the cars on return at Geneva but as luck would have it the guys spotted it, he started filling out the paperwork, I was late for the flight and he said just sign here. I checked the form and he had put that both doors were damaged as well as the sill and the bill was going to be GBP 1500. I protested and said that the doors were Cleary not damaged, his reply was do not worry you have the holiday Auto CDW cover they will give you all the money back. I refused to sign and after 10 mins arguing I asked to see his supervisor and he agreed to reduce it down to GBP600 which I had to pay on a credit card (but did get back from Holiday Autos) I suspect this could well be a common scam. But I was very glad I paid the extra for the CDW.

Chris
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
globalbagtag.com wrote:
Just a tip and warning, if you do book with Holiday Autos take out their own CDW waiver

If you hire cars several times during the season it might be cheaper to take out an annual policy for CDW. I use this, had claimed once from them without any problems.
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rob@rar wrote:
globalbagtag.com wrote:
Just a tip and warning, if you do book with Holiday Autos take out their own CDW waiver

If you hire cars several times during the season it might be cheaper to take out an annual policy for CDW. I use this, had claimed once from them without any problems.

I've also got one of those policies and it saves quite a lot of money. I did work it out, but I think you're better off after 10 days of car hire.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
davidof,
Is the new Geneva to Annecy motoway at last open then?
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rob@rar wrote:
globalbagtag.com wrote:
Just a tip and warning, if you do book with Holiday Autos take out their own CDW waiver

If you hire cars several times during the season it might be cheaper to take out an annual policy for CDW. I use this, had claimed once from them without any problems.


You might want to check out the 20% cashback available if you buy through the Quidco cashback cooperative, you need to register first, but I have successfully received cashback from many merchants through Quidco. They also offer £10 cashback on Hol Autos bookings that I have successfully combined with the 15% Virgin discount, a bit tricky, making sure the tracking cookies don't get mixed up!


Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Thu 6-11-08 13:59; edited 1 time in total
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
luigi, Top Tip!! What do you do to make sure the cookies register the purchase through Quidco.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
rob@rar, you need to clear your cookies first (to make sure previous visits to HA or other referrers haven't left tracking cookies), log in to your Quidco account, click through to HA, then MANUALLY add the Virgin affiliate address into the address bar and press enter to refresh the page, worked many times, last time in July for this winter's trip. It used to be £11.50 per booking but now only £10, shame!
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luigi, thanks, I shall do that next time I make a HA booking Smile
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rob@rar, hope it still works for you! snowHead
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
luigi, many thanks, it did indeed work. £10 off the Holiday Autos for Virgins discounted price Smile
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
rob@rar, great, well done, it's a bit fiddly to ensure you get the cashback as well as the discount.

The cashback takes a couple of months to get paid, my July 26th booking was paid on 1st Oct. Though, I am still waiting for a £55 British Gas cashback to come through from around the same date.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
I've got a couple of hints on these ones.

1. If your car hire company doesn't supply chains as standard you might be better off buying them from a supermarket when you get to the bottom of the mountain e.g. Bourg st Maurice (managed to save about £40 a few years ago doing this - in fact weather was so bad many of the buses from later planes didn't even make it up the hill to Val D or Tignes that night..... but that's another story). The tyre place on the right near the Super U supermarket as you go out of Bourg up to Val D is also really reasonably priced in case teh supermarkets have run out of stock of the ones you need. You can judge whether you need them depending on the conditions as you get near the resort (although if you've not got them and the weather changes midweek it is a bit of a risk)

2. If you hire at Geneva on the french side and take the car back to the Swiss side or vice versa, expect anything from 150 - 300 euro fee to be charged to your credit card - that one hit a french friend of mine big time.

3. There is a handy little petrol station just off the motorway if your route takes you past the Etrembiere shopping centre very close to Geneva airport and just 200m off the L'autoroute Blanche motorway (A40 / E25) . When you come of the autoroute - i think it is the exit for the D2, go past the entrance the the shopping centre / McDonalds, across the bridge over the river and bear left up the hill about 100m and it is on your left. See google map using co-ordinates 46°10'52"N 6°13'54"E - that will pinpoint the shopping centre.... sorry, directions were never really my forte, but the map will help - the shopping centre has a great big pharmacie sign on the side of it, a mcdonalds out the front and a Migros hypermarket sign too I think. I've not really compared prices between swiss and french petrol prices, but this one is on the french side of the border if that helps.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
luigi wrote:
rob@rar, you need to clear your cookies first (to make sure previous visits to HA or other referrers haven't left tracking cookies), log in to your Quidco account, click through to HA, then MANUALLY add the Virgin affiliate address into the address bar and press enter to refresh the page, worked many times, last time in July for this winter's trip. It used to be £11.50 per booking but now only £10, shame!


Did this last month and the £10 is showing as validated in my quidco account, i see it's gone back up to £11.50 as well now Skullie

http://www.quidco.com/holiday-autos/
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
If you hire cars lots it is worth visiting insurance4carhire.com - for around 50 quid you can insure your excess so you never have to pay either the £2.50 per day from HA or the tenner+ a day that you get charged to reduce the excess when picking up the car. I am about to make my first claim against them as we had a minor incident last time we hired - if there are any problems I will post an update.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
cp1000, I had a claim from insurance4carhire a couple of years ago. They settled the claim without any issues - just a couple of forms to fill out, and a cheque by return of post.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
luigi wrote:
rob@rar, great, well done, it's a bit fiddly to ensure you get the cashback as well as the discount.

The cashback takes a couple of months to get paid, my July 26th booking was paid on 1st Oct. Though, I am still waiting for a £55 British Gas cashback to come through from around the same date.


Just to report that it does work, and I have had 3x£10 from Holiday Autos bookings paid into my Quidco account (and that's booking with the discounted rate using the HA Virgin code). Thanks once again for the Quidco tip.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Hi,
This is steven. I am very interesting about this topic most of the people interest to spend our time for riding car in this days cars are very cheap and they are very fast. I like car racing games. This is very useful for who are searching new cars.
========
steven

New Cars
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For anyone interested Insurance4carhire are still paying 20% back by Quidco, so effectively the £50 annual euro policy costs you £40.

Has anyone successfully combined Quidco and the Virgin Holiday Autos discount recently? I did it several times last year but am struggling this year.

Opodo has worked out cheaper on some my rentals out of Geneva for 2010 and do 10% on Quidco, this quickly tracked, whereas:

121carrental was cheaper on one rental, accessed via Quidco through carrentals.co.uk should have given 5% back but this hasn't tracked yet, but I only booked monday so there is still plenty of time.

Hope this helps someone, and that someone can help me on this years quidco/virginHA problem snowHead
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
car3000 from the swiss side was cheapest i found...£249 for an astra estate with snow chains and rack in feb for a week..i thought that was pretty good..........



okbye
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I thought I would BUMP this for those thinking of looking for car hire this summer - not just in Geneva Smile
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
TimDog, good idea, though none of it's very cheap these days!
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Hi, We are coming from States and having IDP and US driving license. Can we hire a car from Swiss airport. Also, let me know about the drive permit across the EU. Do they have the same access.
used cars for sale


Last edited by After all it is free Go on u know u want to! on Tue 16-11-10 9:45; edited 1 time in total
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Your said "On another note, does anyone know an easy to find petrol station near the airport with easy directions (have got away with brimming the tank about 30miles out on the motorway, but got stung last time as it was a petrol car and it used too much fuel)?"

Coming in on the Swiss side there is an AGIP fuel station just before you turn into the car park to drop-off the hire car; look out just before you take the airport exit and you can see it up on the right, follow the usual route and keep a sharp eye out because it is less clear when you are close to the turn. Its one of those 24 hour jobs with a credit-card doofha - takes my mastercard no prob. Car goes back brim-full and no fuel charge (which can be painful).

BTW Agree that Holiday Autos usually good value - there is a 10% discount if you are SCGB and I found further discount with them via EuroFleetHire. Also seems worth checking with Expedia because at times they are the cheapest around. All seems like a very variable pricing policy. Madeye-Smiley
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Ian Kenvyn wrote:
Your said "On another note, does anyone know an easy to find petrol station near the airport with easy directions (have got away with brimming the tank about 30miles out on the motorway, but got stung last time as it was a petrol car and it used too much fuel)?"

Coming in on the Swiss side there is an AGIP fuel station just before you turn into the car park to drop-off the hire car; look out just before you take the airport exit and you can see it up on the right, follow the usual route and keep a sharp eye out because it is less clear when you are close to the turn. Its one of those 24 hour jobs with a credit-card doofha - takes my mastercard no prob. Car goes back brim-full and no fuel charge (which can be painful).

BTW Agree that Holiday Autos usually good value - there is a 10% discount if you are SCGB and I found further discount with them via EuroFleetHire. Also seems worth checking with Expedia because at times they are the cheapest around. All seems like a very variable pricing policy. Madeye-Smiley


Be careful at the AGIP, the fully automated machine allowed some behind us to fill up( using our creditcard details), even though we had completed the transaction and had a receipt.
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