New Zealand Car Hire Upgrades?

[Chrispee]

Off on our Honeymoon to New Zealand soon and we are doing a fly drive across North and South Islands. What are the chances of blagging a hire car upgrade via Avis (booked through a travel agent)

Does being cheeky and just asking get anywhere? We've had success previously going from a Fiat 500 to a Golf because it was Auto only at the airport we flew via and they had no small cars that were auto but suspect that may not be the case here.

Any experience welcome!

Cheers

[motomk]

No idea if it will work!
Maybe sign up to their newsletter for a free upgrade?
https://www.avis.co.nz/en/deals/nz-offers

Cars maybe bigger generally than the UK?
https://www.avis.co.nz/en/cars/vehicles/nz

[Screenwash]

Rental cars are in high demand in NZ these days - all the big rental firms de-fleeted during Covid and have generally struggled to restock and keep up with demand over the past 12 months. They all relied heavily on Toyota before Covid, and Toyota have had supply shortages over the past 18 months…

That said, unless you have booked the cheapest Economy small car - usually a Yaris - you often get a (questionable) upgrade in the compact/midsize classes, eg a Mitsubishi ASX fake-4WD instead of a Corolla.

Road surfaces are generally awful, particularly in the North Island these days, so an SUV with bigger tyres isn’t a bad idea!

[Jader1973]

I wouldn’t get your hopes up. As above, the hire companies are still struggling for stock.

I picked up a hire car from Brisbane airport just over a week ago - there were only 12 cars in the lot and they were just giving out whatever they thought best suited. I ended up with a downgrade but to be fair they charged me less too.

They were turning away people who didn’t have a booking.

[Kenty]

It might not be any good to you but you want to go with Apex car hire,
ferry for the car is included, meaning no waiting at Picton and prices are
very competitive, no one way charges either..
Used them twice now, our third road trip in NZ coming up in January.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Jader1973 said:

I wouldn’t get your hopes up. As above, the hire companies are still struggling for stock.

I picked up a hire car from Brisbane airport just over a week ago - there were only 12 cars in the lot and they were just giving out whatever they thought best suited. I ended up with a downgrade but to be fair they charged me less too.

They were turning away people who didn’t have a booking.

Best way I find is book a class they likely won't have, it's worked a few times for me (Granted at Orlando) we picked executive midsize as it was a good price and way less than what we originally wanted full size 7 seater but if we got it we would have been ok with we know they didn't really have any so when we arrived were told to pick any car up to the executive level so that allowed basically everything