Cars
Get Free Airport Parking With FlightCar
Have you heard about FlightCar? The company is being compared to Uber, only instead of taking on the taxi business, FlightCar is going after the airport parking / car rental business.
The concept is relatively simple. Rather than parking your car at the airport (for $12+ a day), you can drop it off at a FlightCar location. FlightCar will rent out your car (to a pre-screened renter), and you come back to a car that’s been freshly washed, free parking, and even some money if your car was rented out.
While the notion of letting a total stranger drive your car might seem risky at first, the success of sharing sites like Airbnb have proven that the model works. And since every rental is insured up to $1 million, there’s really nothing to worry about.
FlightCar has been featured on NBC Today, Wired Magazine, NPR, and The New York Times to name a few. It was named by Forbes Magazine as one of the hottest startups in 2013, and the airport peer-to-peer car sharing company is backed by influential celebrity investors such as Ashton Kutcher and Ryan Seacrest.
Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the concept behind FlightCar. They offer an innovative and unique take on airport parking and car rentals, providing members with the lowest guaranteed car rental rates, free airport parking and more!
They’re currently operating in Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, with more locations opening shortly.
If you’ve used FlightCar before, leave a comment and let us know what your experience was like.
Lovish Agarwal
May 3, 2014 at 12:50 am
I arranged for a rental of my car with Flightcar on the recommendation of my friend. The process went smoothly. I rented my car, the drop off was good, they picked me up from the airport as well.
The website says “We wash your car before and after the rental takes place so you come home to a nice, new car. ” . Totally false. When I got back my car, it was really dirty and was in worse condition than I rented. I inquired the staff as to why the car wasn’t washed and she mentioned that there weren’t enough people available to take the car for wash. I was appalled at her nonchalant attitude over this. Even my interiors of the car were dirty and the car carpet was filled with dust. . I have to take my car for a a wash tomorrow now including the interiors. Having said that , I feel the staff was pretty pleasant in general
They definitely do fall short of the promises that are listed on their website. I think this is a great concept,however, they need to iron out their shortcomings which can hurt them in the long term. We do need more such companies in the market so that more competition can lead to better quality.
Sujeet Patel
May 3, 2014 at 3:09 pm
It’s a shame that your experience wasn’t up to par, but like you said, it’s still a relatively new service that has some kinks to be worked out.
Did they reimburse you for the car wash? And did you make good money on the rental while you were gone?
Also, how does the whole gas situation work? Do they bring the car back with the same amount of gas that it left with? Because if they’re going through your gas as well and you aren’t getting reimbursed for it, that seems like a huge flaw right there.
Aaron
May 9, 2014 at 12:02 pm
I’d also be interested in knowing how your insurance company feels about this. Mine (Progressive) says outright that they’ll deny claims made if the car is damaged while being rented or loaned through a service like this.
lovish agarwal
May 9, 2014 at 2:18 pm
Sujeet :They never reimbursed for my car wash and didn’t offer to do the same. No, I wouldn’t rent my car again since the rental cars aren’t handled properly.Mine was 2012 car and it was handled pretty bad. They pay you 0.1$ per mile if you car is new. I think the prices are much lower for old cars.
Yes, they bring the car back with the same amount of gas that’s left in. They were good about this.
Aaaron: Their insurance covers the damages , if there are any done, during the rental period.However there have been cases and those reviews are on yelp and their fb page which stated that the company didn’t pay them for some of the damages done during renting including scraping the car, or wiper being broken during the rental period.
I would suggest great caution while renting from them. There are other services like that like getaround,relayride, justshareit which I think are better. I am yet to try those services out.