Should you write your flight number on car rental and hotel bookings?

This summer was full of surprises and this included spending about a month in Austria. Whenever you’re booking a rental car or booking a hotel (near the airport), you have the possibility of writing down your flight number and I’ve always skipped over it thinking that it wasn’t important….

My husband was taking one of the budget airlines from Amsterdam to Vienna. It was severely delayed for reasons not disclosed, resulting in him departing around three hours later than he expected. Given that the flight was supposed to get in around 6pm, we figured that it wouldn’t become an issue. However, his flight ended up coming in around the time when the car rental booth was supposed to close.

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As we were separated, he asked me to verify that he could even get the car, however he was in the air by the time that I called the car rental agency. We had planned almost two weeks assuming that we had a rental car. Similarly, the car was already paid for and the contract actually stated that in the case of no-show, the fee (hundreds of euros) would not be refunded. That’s an expensive mistake!

The rental car clerk told me that because my husband forgot to write down the flight number, they would not make an effort to stay open beyond standard business hours. I was told that some major companies will track the flights of their consumers to stay informed about clients they will come in on time.

However, in the case of a delayed flight, the person behind the desk might decide to stay thirty minutes later (if they’re able to) as a courtesy. Luckily, this clerk agreed to at least stick around if he wasn’t too delayed. but warned that he’d be heading home soon if he was too late.

It was getting close to closing and I got a call from Jacob that he was running through the airport. Almost exactly at the moment that the rental car booth was supposed to close, Jacob supposedly arrived at the booth after sprinting through the airport.

They had a good laugh about it and the clerk was happy to go home, however he warned us once again to always write it down. In case you’re wondering…. we still had an amazing trip through Austria.

The lesson here is that if you’re flying, always write down your flight number on your hotel reservations or your rental car.

Writing down my flight number saved me once before with a hotel when a flight was canceled multiple days in a row due to weather conditions and I ended up coming in delayed on the second day of a conference. However, I had kept the hotel informed and they saw that my flight was cancelled. This hotel even gave me a free night (the night I missed) as they felt badly about the situation and I had kept them informed.

For a small business, it’s okay to keep them informed by email or by calling, however I was told very specifically through the company that we booked the car through that for many companies, if your flight number is not present in the original form, they can’t do anything to help. Similarly, once you’re too close to your booking, you might be unable to edit the form.

Be always sure to give this information to relevant parties if you’re traveling. Of course, it’s still good to have travel insurance, but you don’t want to be on the hook for hundreds (or thousands) worth of a prepaid bill for a hotel or car that was voided as you didn’t show up in time.

You have no idea what can happen, good and bad, while you’re traveling. Safe travels and I hope that this post helps you prevent a bad situation from happening!

Do you write down your flight number on bookings?