Was flying into Belfast City Airport at 9:15pm on BA, which has a curfew at 9:30pm. This means rental car companies close at 9:30pm and you can't book a car after that, but we booked for 9:15pm which was the time our flight landed.
However BA flight was delayed, but they were granted dispensation from curfew and were able to still land at 9:50pm.
So when we went to pick up our car, and Europcar wanted to slug us a 60 GBP after hours collection charge, as it was past 9:30pm, which almost doubled the cost of the rental (which was 60 GBP for + 24 GBP for cross border fees to take from UK into Ireland). After some dispute we decided to cancel entire booking, and instead booked a car with Budget which we picked up the next morning. In retrospect, although we didn't consider it at the time we should have just collected the following morning instead, but it came a matter of principle combined with some jet lag (or tiredness) that clouded thinking.
But I've never encountered this sort of fee at an airport location before, which typically accommodate late flights.
However BA flight was delayed, but they were granted dispensation from curfew and were able to still land at 9:50pm.
So when we went to pick up our car, and Europcar wanted to slug us a 60 GBP after hours collection charge, as it was past 9:30pm, which almost doubled the cost of the rental (which was 60 GBP for + 24 GBP for cross border fees to take from UK into Ireland). After some dispute we decided to cancel entire booking, and instead booked a car with Budget which we picked up the next morning. In retrospect, although we didn't consider it at the time we should have just collected the following morning instead, but it came a matter of principle combined with some jet lag (or tiredness) that clouded thinking.
But I've never encountered this sort of fee at an airport location before, which typically accommodate late flights.
