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Car Rental Review – Hertz Newcastle Airport (NCL) – Ford Puma

Florian Buechting Other Transportation No Comments

Hertz Newcastle Airport (NCL)

Hertz Newcastle Airport (NCL)
3.4

Rating

 3.4/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Effective check-in
  • Very good car

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Limited opening times
  • Weird phone service provider

For a Rock of Ages trip to Sunderland, a marathon in Newcastle forced me to take a more remote hotel – and do the travel by rental car. For that September 2022 trip, I had a two day booking with Hertz at Newcastle Airport (NCL). Here is an overview of my experience.

 

Hertz Newcastle Airport (NCL) – The Rental

I had a weekend rental, Friday to Sunday at Newcastle. The class of cars I booked was the car I received. As my flight to Newcastle (NCL) was significantly earlier at Friday than the Sunday return, it counted as a three-day rental. The rental price, including a 1000 GBP excess CDW and TP, was 164.57 GBP.

 

Hertz Newcastle Airport (NCL) – Location & Office

The directions to the main rental car desks close to the (international) arrivals and the exit to the Metro are clearly given in the airport terminal. The terminal is also not that large that you can in fact miss them. During my rental (and also at other flights to and from the airport), these office desks were not manned. Instead you have to directly head to the car hire parking, where additional office containers are located. It is a some five minute, partially covered walkway to the North of the terminal building, crossing the Premium Fast Track Parking lot.

The opening times of Hertz at Newcastle Airport (NCL) are very limited. At the time of publishing review (similar to the time of rental), Monday to Friday times are 8:00 to 16:00 and Saturday ones 9:00 to 13:00. You can of course return out of office times (which became an issue later), but cannot rent on late arrivals or Sunday flights. The only rental car company providing Sunday services at the time of my rental is Avis, by the way.

 

Hertz Newcastle Airport (NCL) – Receiving The Car

My Eurowings flights from Dusseldorf (DUS) was delayed, so that I had to hurry to the desk and hurry on to the rental car office – I just made it around 16:00 (the likely would have waited). The

 

Hertz Newcastle Airport (NCL) – Returning The Car

As there was no Sunday service, I just returned the car to the parking lot and dropped the key to a key box / key slot at the terminal rental desk.

I had an issue with the car as on a gravel parking lot, a stone obviously hit me and I got a small scar which you may spot in the picture below. As I was aware that there is no office available at Newcastle Airport (NCL), I called their service phone at that time. The experience has been an absolute mess. I have been thrown off the line multiple times, even during calls, but they did not call me back.

Finally, I did not get any instructions whether they need a police report or not. Hertz did not charge me, but as the number was not toll-free for foreigners, I overall had costs of some 50 EUR. For the United Kingdom, Hertz did change the service in the meantime, though – I had a flat tire with Hertz at a later rental from London City Airport (LCY), which worked out much better.

 

The Car – Ford Puma ST Line

The Ford Puma ST has been a really good rental. I just had to take some short routes and it was very easy to drive, even for somebody who is not used that much to drive on the left hand side. The mileage of the car has been very good as well, some 11,000 miles at the time of rental. The car also featured a GPS, which was nice (still better than using my own one…)

 

Hertz Newcastle Airport (NCL) – My View

Overall, the rental experience with Hertz would have been a good one. The rental with a small damage however showed me that, especially if you are a foreign customer, you might feel uncomfortable with returning the car on an non-serviced spot and drop the keys in a box. The service on the phone at that time was terrible (if I got someone, they were nice, but the technical issues were unbearable…). Glad that they obviously changed the service provider.

 

Newcastle / Tyne & Wear on Flyctory.com

Here are all my postings about Newcastle and the Tyne and Wear Metropolitan Area:

 

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