FlightCar

Negative stars! These guys SUCK. Do not do business with them. They cancelled my rental I booked weeks in advance WITHOUT TELLING ME until after I showed up in Boston after an exhausting cross-​country flight with my 3 year old. No apology. Nada.

Disorganized and dishonest scam. I tried to cancel a reservation, and they not only wouldn’t refund my rental fee, but also charged me $ 75,00 cancellation, neither of which is on their website. I called three times to try to get it resolved, and the different customer service agents kept telling me different things, i.e. «you will be refunded», or «the cancellation fee is $ 25.00»…etc. etc. Long story short, I had to open a dispute via my credit card company to try to recoup the fraudulent charges.

By far the worst rental experience I’ve ever had. And I travel often… First, I didn’t know flight car was a peer to peer service until after I booked. The rental I received had 63,000 miles on it, driveshafts/​steering that popped while turning and an old dead battery that left us stranded several times. I ended up buying jumper cables and had to use them at EVERY restart. Flight car management offered me a 10% refund but clearly that does not begin to cover the inconvenience nor the cost of jumper cables!

I felt compelled to write FlightCar a nice review because my experience was so much better than what I expected based on the negative reviews I read here (almost didn’t book a rental with them because of those!). They are a new start-​up company so they’re a bit rough around the edges, but I highly recommend renting with them because their rates are fantastic and the car I was given was perfect for my needs: only 28,000 miles and much nicer than my own car. For 3 days I only paid $ 36! How can you beat that? The only issue I had with them was that they tell you to call them when you land, which I did, but had to wait at least 5 — 10 min on hold before someone finally answered. Meanwhile, that person gave me info that could have been emailed or texted to me upon confirmation of the reservation (she just told me where to find the shuttle that takes you to the rental place). Also, they don’t have the Hegenberger address or phone # printed on any of their documentation, so they had to write that info by hand. Also, be aware that the shuttle to drive you back to the airport only leaves once every half hour, so factor that in to your drop-​off timing. But obviously, none of these details are a big deal at ALL. The important thing is that their rates and their cars (at least the one I drove) are great. I don’t need a brand-​new car when I rent, so I’ve always hated renting from Enterprise or Avis or one of the better-​known companies. This place offers a fantastic alternative. And the service was friendly and courteous as well.

This review is for both experiences at sfo and oak airport. I have dropped my car off at both location and while getting dropped off to the airport was a smooth transaction, I have had issues with getting picked up. I always find myself having to wait for 30 minutes or more. Customer service for passenger pick up needs to improve drastically. Simply having the call center apologizing does not cut it.

Thought I’d give flightcar a try. Will think twice from now on.
Reserved a 2009 – 2015 compact car and got a 2008 pt cruiser.
Car was in very poor condition. Vibrates at 50mph and greater. Brakes were squeaking. Drink stains everywhere. Overall dirty feel inside the car.
Not impressed with quality control. I found myself worrying about the car breaking down and leaving me stranded the whole time I had the rental. Would go with traditional company in the future for peace of mind.

We reserved a car and arrived at their office to pick it up. Nobody is in their office, nor answering to our calls so we can’t even reach anybody. We are waiting since 15 minutes and still nobody. We are late now for our appointment, this is the worst experience ever.

I was definitely hesitant at first to use flightcar. The idea of driving someone else’s car seemed so foreign to me. However, I’m on my third week using the car and I have to say I have been so impressed with it all.
I just moved back to California from living overseas for 3 years. My partner and I didn’t have any jobs lined up, we were in the process of shopping for an apartment, and we were also car less. I got offered a great position that required a lot of commuting. Not being prepared to purchase a car right away, my only option was to rent a car.
I did my research. Zipcar was crazy expensive and really more for people who are driving only once in awhile. Rental cars from Hertz, Enterprise, Budget all ranged from $ 40+ a day not including insurance. I found Flightcar and it was only $ 16 a day to rent out and I was able to secure a car online.
When I got there they didn’t have any economy cars and only had a few options. I really wanted an economy car that wouldn’t kill me on gas. So I politely told them that I would shop around before I committed to flightcar. This was the one downer. You don’t really know what car is available until you get there. Warren (Flightcar employee) was very patient and understanding. He also recommended that if I am looking for a particular type of car I could go to the SF location as they have more choices. He even organized one of the shuttles to drive me to the rental car are at the oakland airport. When I shopped around the rental car area, I went back to Flightcar as it was by far the best price.
Warren made sure the car was clean and full of gas for me. The process of walking in and driving out of the lot was seamless. I highly recommend.
I got a 2013 Chrysler 200. I gave it one less star because on their website it says an economy car is available but it wasn’t.
Hope this was helpful!

I have used these guys 4 different times with each time getting progressively worse service. This past trip I left my car and got to the airport no problem. When I returned I called for pickup and was put on hold for 30 minutes with no response. I called the hotel directly to get a pickup and got there to find that nobody was at the desk and my car was there but no key. The hotel staff was indifferent to the fact that I needed to get back home and this was at 11pm at night. I was able to locate my key in their lock box behind the counter and take my car. My car was left dirty and with half a tank less gas then when I dropped it off. I sent an email to support 3 days ago with still no email response to my concerns or request for reimbursement on car wash and gas. I will not use them again.

The shuttle to the airport only departs every thirty minutes in the morning. I was lucky that I came right on time for one, but this is not mentioned anywhere when I signed up to drop off my car. Very short sighted on flightcar, I think. Imagine someone running late in the morning, the only way to get to the airport is to get an über

SFO location is way better. Oakland location begs for better staffing and location. Specifically the drop off and pick off for which they piggyback on the Econolodge service which is every 30 mins. So if you are dropping off your car at say xx:31, you are out of luck and have to wait half an hour. Same applies for pickup. I can walk to the airport from this location in less time!

Zero stars given. Reserved Honda Accord or similar. They tried to give me PT Cruiser with 116K miles. The car was smelly, dirty and with signs of repairs after significant accident — non matching headlamps, big gaps in front hood etc. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Worst! Omg made reservations, had my confirmation number, showed up and no car! Was shuffled off to Fox because they have an «agreement». While that worked out for the better, they are unreliable and also want a 300 dollar deposit

I’d give the Oakland location 0 stars, if it were possible. My experience has been negative and lacking any sort of customer service at EVERY turn. I have to admit I am surprised because I have had good experiences at the SFO location.
Long story short: the OAK branch is in a dingy hotel, they send you to the airport in the hotel’s van instead of the promised town car, and the guy driving the van watched me struggle to get my heavy bag on the back of the van without even offering to help. In OAK, the app for requesting a pick-​up doesn’t work, and the phone based operators are clearly not trained in customer service/​are nothing but apathetic. It took us 20 minutes+ to get them on the phone to ask for a pick up– they then told us to just look for the hotel shuttle. And that was just the first round of issues.
The real kicker is that my car came back with scratches they couldn’t explain and «oops, we don’t have the photos because I accidentally took the camera home» is what the guy behind the desk said. They promised a follow up which never came and when I responded to their text message auto request for feedback I got called by a specialist who again PROMISED me a follow up with photos and a claim by that Wednesday. Since he was the first person to take any sort of responsibility for all of this and had some customer service ability I was hopeful, but that was two weeks ago… he dropped the ball too.
In short, while the San Francisco location isn’t perfect, things function and they do a good enough job. I wouldn’t trust the Oakland location with a beat up old bicycle.

This is for my experience both as someone who has left a car at the OAK location and as someone who has rented a car (well, was supposed to, more on that later) from the OAK location.
I’ve left my car with FlightCar at their OAK location on a monthly basis, and it has been an incredible hassle dealing with the shortcomings of this location. I have tried thrice to stop by for various issues — such as the fact that they never gave me my registration and insurance papers back when I left the car with them, and support via phone or email was useless in trying to get those returned — and they weren’t there. Ever. As in, this location is not staffed on a consistent basis. Mind you, I was stopping by during normal business hours. It’s also super creepy to get leered at by some of the older, and I’m assuming longer-​term, male occupants of the EconoLodge where the OAK FlightCar location is housed while waiting in the lobby for an excessively long time on the phone with support to find out if anyone is ever planning on showing up (consistent answer: no).
This lack of staffing included when the third visit was for a RENTAL I had scheduled. Like, there was straight up no one there at the scheduled pick up time. I needed a car, so I waited 30 min for anyone to show up before calling support. When I did, I had to fight to hold my ground on a 20 minute back-​and-​forth call (most of which was spent with me on hold while various conversations were being held between people on their end), during which I finally told them that if no one was able to come meet me at the OAK location, they needed to send an Über to me to take me to the SFO location so I could get a car from there, and then I needed to be assured that I could drop the car I picked up from SFO at the OAK location. They agreed, but the time involved for all of this to finally result in my having a car was insane. From when I got to the OAK location to pick up the car to when I finally got to my final destination (a 15 minute drive from OAK), 2.5 hours had passed! So not ok.
Trying to be assured before returning the car that someone would be at the OAK location to take it back was equally frustrating, which resulted in me finally just sending emails to several FlightCar founders/​team members, letting them know that a non-​negotiable for me at that point was that someone needed to pick up the rental from me when my rental period ended the next day. A customer should not have to go through such blood, sweat, and tears for what should be a simple experience.
I can only hope and pray that my car is returned to me in the same condition in which it was dropped off (which, as a car with less than 10k miles, was pristine inside and out, save a few minor scratches on the back bumper), lest I have to engage in yet another exasperating experience with this company as a result of anything less being returned to me.

Why hasn’t anyone reviewed this FlightCar branch?
Oh, that’s why.
I’ve used FlightCar before out of SFO, and I became a fan.
You could tell they (the SFO site) had some work to do in terms of cleaning up their process, but it’s overall a really great service if you’re willing to loan out your car and not pay for parking!
When I realized an OAK branch was opening up, I was so excited to try it out!
I make my reservation on the website, take out all my belongings, and get there around 7:30am, wondering if the process was similar to SFO.
The email said «Look for the Econolodge hotel.»
Uhh, Flight Car is actually inside the hotel.
No one was there at the FlightCar desk.
But the gentlemen at Econolodge said «drive to the back, enter in this pin, park your car, then come back in and drop off the keys.»
Dude, this is not my dry cleaning, this is my CAR.
And I thought SFO was bad?! At least you check in with someone before you see them drive away with your car.
The company has so much potential, but clearly only the SFO location has their shit together.
FYI, my go to for car parking is always Park and Fly out of OAK, as I think they’re usually less expensive than the others, speedy, and convenient. AKA on top of their shit.