FlightCarReviews 76

Sadly this awesome concept is a huge disappointment. There is nothing "iffy" about the execution - it is downright horrible! My experience with them started out well enough. I made arrangements for them to pick up my car (a low-mileage Lexus) after I had already left town - what they call the "honeymoon" period, I guess.

I listed the car for a month with plans to pick it up 31 days later. But when my flight home got pushed up a few days, I decided to take advantage of my 4 "rent-back" days/month by picking up my car early. Unfortunately my car was not available and as promised they made another car available to me for the four days left on my rental listing. All of this was reasonable enough. That is where reasonable ended however.

The substituted vehicle was examined closely upon check-out, or at least the exterior was and pictures of the damages were sent to me. This whole process took almost 30 minutes because the FlightCar rep was alone and interrupted about six times while I waited.

By the time I left I was late and rushed and didn't notice the condition of the fabric interior which was stained and dirty, front and back. For four days I decided I could live and then I returned the car the day my car was due back. I didn't realize that the date I was to pickup my car was actually a day later than my rental agreement. So my return was 10 hours late for which I was charged $200-about five times what any other rental company charges.

Also, my small hypo-allergenic service dog was in the car for the short ride from the gas station to the FlightCar location. This was less than 1 mile. She had been crated before that as she prefers to be in her crate when in a moving vehicle. For allowing the dog in the car I was charged $500- two times the penalty documented on their website!

Both of these fees were automatically charged to my credit card before I was even asked to sign a closure agreement and I was told that unless I signed, I would incur additional late fees because the rental would stay open! This experience took more than an hour and again I left in a hurry, forgetting to get my personal belongings which had been removed from the vehicle upon pickup.

I nearly ALWAYS check reviews before using a new service and I guess the FlightCar concept so impressed me that I did not do this diligence. Reading over the reviews here, I feel like an idiot. This brilliant concept is executed with the worst customer service ever. I suggest they read the book pictured below, but then again since they only care about their bottom line and not about their car owners, I doubt even that would be helpful.

Booked a car with them at the San Francisco airport without checking any reviews. I needed a cheap car. When arrived, they told me they are out of cars. I said ok so what to do. They booked me a car on PayLess and took me in their shuttle to PayLess. The shuttle driver didn't even look up the address of PayLess car rentals and wanted to drop me off in the middle of nowhere because he knew in his mind the old address of PayLess rather the new address that he had to look up. Fortunately, I saw that he is dropping me off at a laundromat (or something like that - you get the drill). I said I will not get off here - this is not a car rental. He said it is - I know it. I had to find on Google Maps the address on the booking printout and argue with him to drive me there. This is half of the story.

The second half is that they agreed to pay me the difference between their price and what PayLess charged. It was $87 dollars. Not big money (was renting the car for 3 days), but not small amount either. After finishing my rental with PayLess, contacted FlightCar and asked for refund. This was 12 Apr, 2015. Today is 03 Jun 2015 and I am fighting them to get my money back. Fortunately, there was nice support person named Assia who, while taking all my angry brunt about their business, managed to ask their finance manager to approve my payment. Now, this is second time this "approval" is happening. First time, no refund was provided - they just say "yes" but didn't pay. The second time happened on 1st June, 2015. I am waiting to see what will come out of this. This is the second review I am writing about them. With every "approval", I will write another review. Because I want businesses to care about their customers. It is possible.

When we dropped off our car we were told it was rented starting that evening. Because we had left it for a month we were "guaranteed" a minimum of $250.00. About 10 days into our trip I received an email that said our head lights needed to be rewired and we either paid for that, $425.00 or our car would be pulled "out of service". I said pull it out, that's too much, I have mechanics that will do it for nothing (in our business). About 2 weeks after that they informed me that they had gone ahead and fixed it, and GOOD NEWS it was only $300.00 so we wouldn't be getting any payment for the month. Pissed me off that when I told them not too, they did anyway. An email war began, me in the jungle in Guatamala, and someone on the east coast (or Chicago?) anyway, not what you want to be doing. When we got back we had a very difficult time getting anyone to pick us up, finally just grabbed the shuttle guy who worked for the hotel that they have there office at. Car was clean, all employees were friendly and nice, but I can't rate it any hirer because we didn't get what we were promised, they fixed our car when I specifically said not too, and pick up was quite the hassle. They just started up in Portland, so maybe it'll get better, don't think I'd do it again.

This was the worst renting experience I had in my whole life. (I rented cars all over the world, at least more than 100 times).
The problem was that they charged me a extra insurance that was never mentioned before on any contract that I saw in internet. As I have a MasterCard Black Insurance, I asked that since the first contact, not to have any insurance. In all e-mail that I received and I all contacts I had with their staff, the insurance was ZERO.
After returning the car, they charged me 50% MORE in insurance that has never been agreed. I sent them more than 6 e-mails complaining but they are saying NOW that ALL foreigners need to pay it. (something never said before). They have even asked for my local track-record of driving! I send it and they approved it without saying I would have to pay more!
If you rent you them, be aware that you may pay much more than the initial price.

As a car owner I strongly encourage you to think twice about putting your car in posession of this company. My car was in great shape at drop off. I was gone just shy of 4 months and my vehicle was rented out the whole time. 5,400miles were put on my car while I was gone and I made $540. When I picked my car up it reeked of McDonalds, ketchup stains on the seats. They claim the car will be returned as clean as it was maybe cleaner than when it was dropped off. This was not the case. Also my service light was on and no one bothered to tell me. Then I discover damage on my bumper. Took it in for an estimate and will cost about $1900 to fix. To top it off when I checked my mail these "verified" renters racked up $400 in parking violations that went unpaid for months. I keep giving the company multiple chances to redeem themselves. I get that they are a young small company, but this is huge liability and they need to take care of this stuff quickly not let it ride out. Someone said they put a $100 coupon in the mail to get my car detail cleaned, I have yet to receive it, and no one will give me a straight answer as to taking proper steps to repair the car. The before and after photos make it quite obvious that something went wrong. Again these people don't bother to tell you anything. Terrible. This company based and dependent on private owners and their vehicles. With out the private owners cars, there would be no business. I feel disrespected and violated. My car was earning them more money than it was earning me. Worth it to spend the money on monthly parking than to park here.

Upon arriving at airport I called to let Flight car I had arrived. It took about 15 rings before my call was answered and then I was placed on hold for 13 minutes. When the dispatcher returned, he told me they we're going to dispatch an UBER Driver to take me to the car pick up location. 15 minutes later an UBER driver shows up and when we get in the car he asks us where we want to go... We don't know and have to call Flight Car back and have another flight car dispatcher look us up and give us an address of a hotel the driver needs to take us. It takes another 10 minutes to get to an old run down hotel in a really sleazy area. We enter the lobby and have to wait on a hooker to quit talking to the front desk guy before we can ask him where we pick up our flight car rental. He informs he needs to call another guy who will be here in a few minutes... 10 miuntes later a guy show up with a tablet, he asks us to step into a mop closet where he asks for my license and other rental info. We complete his questions and he thens walks us out and asks me to do a walk around with him to inspect a 2003 Toyota Corrolla with 126,000 miles, bearing Arkansas plates. The car is dirty, it stinks, it sounds like it's falling apart. This is the biggest piece of $#*! car I have ever driven, I'm embarrassed to be seen in it and I don't feel safe in it.

I'm 56 years old and this is the worst buying experience of my lifetime.

Oh my goodness... I was just telling my dad about how awesome this new car company I came upon was but he was skeptical so I decided to pull up reviews (assuming they would all be as impressed as I was) to show him! WOW. I now feel VERY lucky I had the experience I had! I arrived at 1AM and they were there to pick me up in a great car with drinks. The check in process could not have been easier (almost too easy as the car did have bumps, dings, scratches and I wasn't able to fill anything out, they just showed me that they already had pictures of the car). I hopped in the car and drove off. The return process was just as simple. I thought it was the best car rental experience I had ever had (and by far the best price I have ever paid). Sadly, after reading these other reviews I am now terrified to rent from them again. If I had showed up and didn't have a car I could have lost a very big account. I also can't imagine the additional gas cost if I had showed up and received a gas guzzler instead of what I actually rented. So disappointed to read the other reviews as I thought I had found a road warrior's dream rental car company :(

I rented and fully paid for my rental on Dec. 14,2014 for an SUV in San Francisco. Upon pick up, we were told that our rental had not been paid for and we were required to provide a credit card for the payment. We were also told that they had no record of our having rented an SUV and therefore were given a sedan, a big hassle that cost us extra expense because we had to rent zipcars on days that our whole family was going places together during our 6-day stay.

Upon return, we noticed that our credit card was charged a second time for $236. I have been contacting flightcar through email and phone calls multiple times to work out this problem. They now know that I was charged twice but refuse to remedy the problem easily. So far they have issued three partial credits back to my card but I am still owed $34.

I finally got tired of trying to resolve this problem with them directly and filed a dispute with my credit card company because I have already spent hours on email and phone calls with them. I understand that others might have had a less painful experience than mine. But when they do screw up, they do it ROYALLY! We will never rent another car from flightcar.com. The San Francisco site is a zoo run people that have no idea what they are doing.

At the end of September 2014, we prepaid our rental car for December 26th at LAX. On the night of Dec. 26th upon our arrival to LAX, we called the phone number we were given and a shuttle picked us up. When we arrived at FlightCar counter, SURPRISE! Our car was given away to somedoby else. They only said "Sorry but there was some overbooking". WHAT? This is a steal. After 6 hours of back and forth to some other car rental companies but there was no more car to rent on such a busy day. We did not have the choice but to sleep at an hotel close to the airport. The cost: $150. The next morning we were able to rent a car from another car rental company but it cost more than what we had prepaid at the end of September. Since our arrival, we did not stop sending e-mails to them and also to Economy Booking who did the booking. Today is January 18th but our case is not settled yet. My advise to you: Do not EVER rent with FlightCar. It is Worth it to pay a little more but to rent with a national car rental company.

bookingbuddy.com sent us to a site for car rental called "SU." It was the cheapest rental we can find, and since we did not know what SU is, thought that would be another new offsite car rental company like Sixt or Firefly. We know that there's offsite car rental and they send a shuttle to pick you up at SFO.

When we got to SFO, no one even know the company SU. That was my first indication that maybe something is wrong. The phone number (the *******6013 number) provided by bookingbuddy did not work. It goes to a voicemail. After trying many different things, and wasting more than an hour to get a shuttle, we finally decided to just take a taxi over to the site and eat the cost.

Taxi driver was completely baffled about where they were located. After
Several turns, we found a small garage that said "Flight Car" matching the address of 323 S Canal St, South San Francisco.

The contract is one page. We were given 100 mile per day for mileage.
The vehicle is a private vehicle owned by someone who is traveling at the
Time. I am not even sure if the company is actually operating legally, but
Since we have a contract, we took the vehicle. It has a scratch on the
Door. The alarm system, and remote on the car doesn't work. Only one key
Hole on the driver side door. We prayed very hard that the key would work
All through the trip or we would be SOL. They gave us a Mazda 3x.

The attendant also told us that if we exceeded the mileage
Allotted. We will be paying 45 cents per mile. If we wants additional
Mileages, we can contact them and book additional days at the same
Rate. When we contacted them to add mileages, we were told they do
Not honor the contract and additional day are 94.86 per day instead.

We will never rent from them AGAIN. If you contract with them, I
Think you should forewarn your customers. That was something else. First time for everything. I am not even sure bookingbuddy.com knows about this. We wrote them already. Hopefully they will figure out.

Rented a vehicle from Flightcar Oakland. Took them longer to pick me up at the airport than it did to fly from San Diego. Also took about 10 minutes to reach the Flightcar dispatcher. The phone rang for 4 minutes, no answer; tried again, and again and on the third try (10 minutes of ringing total) the dispatcher answered. The dispatcher said a vehicle was on the way but after thirty minutes and another long-ring call, he said he would try again to get a vehicle. The vehicle arrived after one hour and unbelievably, the Flightcar site was about 5 minutes drive from the airport. A very high school like operation. Unprofessional. Avoid.

Unless you want to end up with a Ford F150 V8 when you order a Sedan, do not use FlightCar. One of the worst customer experiences in my whole life from start to finish.

Summary:

-- We ended up with a 2007 Ford F150 truck with a V8 engine(!) when we ordered a car in the class "2009-2014 Sedan"
-- The additional gas milage on this car would about double the price of the trip we had planned
-- NO heads up or communication of this was given in beforehand so we could have checked out other options. (Coming from Europe we had limited options to use the 3G network because of $$)
-- It took MONTHS for them to refund our prepaid amount after we decided to use another service.
-- Ended up loosing a whole day of our vacation thanks to FlightCar's planning systems and lack of care for their customers.
-- All in all it is a good concept, but a terrible experience in practice. Don't use it unless you want to risk getting a completely different car than the one you ordered and not get your money back until months later.

The story:

While I love the idea of FlightCar, theory did not come close reality when me and my girlfriend tried their service in San Francisco. We were coming from over from Europe for a road trip and had booked the car long in advance. After all, a car is fairly important when you're going on a road trip.

After arriving in San Francisco we were pretty dependent on FlightCar - 1) to pick us up from the airport and 2) to get us the sedan that we ordered. The pick up was an hour late but they got us to the FlightCar carpark which was in the middle of nowhere.

After standing in the huge parking lot with all our luggage for a little while, a car is coming over towards us. My first thought was that it must be the cars they are hauling tools and other large stuff with because it is humongous. The surprise is mildly put big when the FlightCar employee steps out (or rather down) and tells us that "This is your car".

An explanation and discussion follows when they tell us that they don't have the car in the category we ordered and we have to make due with the gigantic fuel gobbling F150 with a V8 engine. The gas alone would about double the price for the service for the trip we had planned.

So there we are in the middle of nowhere, with a totally different car than we ordered (which has not been communicated), with all our luggage and limited options to research other rental companies. That they not have systems in place to avoid putting their customers in $#*!ty situations like that is just mind boggling and shows a lack of integrity as a company.

Ultimately we got them to drive us to a different rental company which helped us out. Then it took them months(!) to pay us our deposit back. Only after contacting them multiple times we got the deposit that they owed us.

One of the worst customer experiences I've had in my whole life from start to finish. Do not use this service.

I listed my car for rental with flightcar... a huge mistake. They say they will take photos of your car after each return and contact you if there are any issues (accidents, dents, dings, etc.).

So, I go to pick up my car after renting it with Flightcar for a couple of months and its sitting on the lot ready to go with every corner of it bashed in; seriously, bumpers destroyed and lights busted out. I asked the agent about the damage and he replied 'oh, you didn't drop it off wrecked?" Three months later and I'm still waiting on reimbursement for the damages I paid myself to fix.

Despite their assurances to monitor the vehicle after each rental, not once had they taken any photos or contacted me about any damages. The repair shop indicated the vehicle was in AT LEAST 2 accidents during the rental based on the damages. Then, I had to find a repair shop on my own, get estimates, get them approved, drop off my car, pay for the damages and wait and wait for reimbursement. They didn't even offer a rental car during the repairs.

SAVE YOURSELF A HUGE HEDACHE AND DO NOT LIST YOU CAR FOR RENTAL WITH FLIGHTCAR. This business is a joke and half. Horrible experience.

SAVE YOURSELF A HUGE HEADACHE AND RUN, DON'T WALK, TO ANOTHER CAR RENTAL COMPANY. After reading similar reviews in other markets and watching other issues other renters were having while I was there at the location, I would be highly skeptical of the positive reviews as they are potentially publicity produced by the company itself. This company is not transparent on their process, does not give you proof of condition of car PRE rental, nor original odometer, nor original gas level prior to driving off the lot unless you dig in and demand it. They act like you are crazy to request such things. THEN they tell you "WE have a copy of those things". Great -- make ME feel comfortable and give ME a copy of those things before telling me to drive away in the car. THEN when you return the car, they ask you to sign something that says they can contact you up to SIX MONTHS LATER with damage claims! If they weren't so serious, I would think I was on hidden camera being punked and this was a joke. Their business IS a joke. They try to work off tablets which don't seem to work and they expect you to sign away all your rights as a consumer. OH, and to top it all off, I returned the car an hour EARLY and they hit me with a $40 late fee. Company was founded by teenagers and it shows. Interesting idea for a business but RENTER BEWARE.

It has been more than 3 weeks and yet I have not received any check/communications from flightcar about my listing.

The employees at the lot were quite clueless when asked questions. The software kept crashing.

I had not listed it as smoking (being a non-smoker), however, one of the renters probably smoked in the car, which is very annoying for someone who does not smoke. My car was neither cleaned or vacuumed. No one even cared to mention that somebody smoked in the car let alone offer any service to get it cleaned.

One of the renter had an minor accident broken mirror on the drivers side. The car was given to a body shop. I had to pick up from the shop my self and no one at the Boston lot even cared to return my calls. Except for the insurance person (Wendy Dubois), the communication at the call center also was very poor. They were annoyed that I was calling them, trying to get numbers for the lot to get my car back. The car was ready in the body shop, however, no payment was received for 4 days so they would not release the car. I was not notified that my car is still in the body shop. The replacement car given to be had a check engine light on, that I noticed a day later. I left the replacement car at the body shop as there was no one to drive me there. The lot employee said that is what the office told her to do.

It felt that no one really cared as it was not their car or for that matter they were invested in this business.

After this kind of experience I am not going to myself sign up again let alone referring others.