Thrifty Car Rental Auckland Airport

A Thrifty employee refused to let my dad hire a car because he was traveling with his guide dog. Guide dogs are legally entitled to accompany a blind person everywhere they go.This right is specifically protected in NZ by the Dog Control Act and by the anti-discrimination laws in the Human Rights Act (HRA). Under the HRA, if you’re treated unfairly because you have a service dog, this is disability discrimination.The employee said that guide dogs were not allowed in cars and kept referring to my dad’s dog as a pet. Nellie has a clearly visible guide dog harness on as well as an official name tag certified by Blind and Low Vision NZ. The employee refused to recognise the dog’s legitimacy and asked for more proof, including a certificate. This is not a requirement under the law.Thrifty has an online policy which clearly states that service dogs are allowed in vehicles. After reviewing the policy together the employee still refused to let them hire the car. Then he admitted the policy was omitted from his training but still refused them service. At this point my dad asked to speak to management. He had to wait about 35 minutes but the manager never showed up or called them. My dad and stepmum needed to leave due to an appointment in the city. Thankfully, Budget cars next-door were very helpful and they were able to hire a car within 5 minutes.Thrifty Management have still not acknowledged or apologised to my dad. It’s shocking and extremely disappointing that a well known, international business is choosing to operate like this in 2022.

This was such a pleasant experience! I booked a car for two weeks to pick up at Auckland and return to Wellington. I was nervous about picking up the car but it was painless. Scotty is a ROCKSTAR and saved the day twice. First when we started to get out into the city and realized we needed a smaller vehicle for where we were staying, he switched it out for us with “no dramas!” The next day we realized we’d left something in that first vehicle (we hadn’t slept for a long time-!) But Scotty called someone at the yard to find and look through the car and bring us our missing item! Thank you so much!!!

Vergonzoso, nos han hecho pagar 50$ por que nos traduzcan el permiso de conducir. La empleada, Hana, ha hecho todo menos facilitar las cosas.

More than the others...

The booking and reservation system is really efficient and seeing the vehicles you can reserve are easy as.Booked a vehicle for a trip around the Waikato. Meant to be 3 days but asked for an extension and got it easy as over the phone in 2 mins. (See below) The guy who served me from day 1 and at the return. You were awesome and really clear if I wasnt sure about a few things. HoweverThere seems to be some miscommunication between the call operators and the front desk. I was charged twice for the extra day.