# early flight from malaga airport-rental car drop



## Cathy Berg (Nov 18, 2008)

we will be visiting the Marriott Marbella next March and have a 7:30 Am flight from Malaga headed back to the US via Madrid.

How do the car rental companies at the Malaga Airport handle car drops very early in the morning?

Thanks.

Cathy Berg


----------



## hibbeln (Nov 19, 2008)

We also had a very early morning flight.  I remember setting the alarm to get up at 2 or 3 a.m. (we were in Estepona) and being on the road to the airport at 4 a.m.  I flight out was at 6 a.m. (and yes, we had our kids along, hoooo boy).  The nice thing was, the roads were EMPTY at that hour of the morning.  You might pick up a little more traffic heading out a little later, but probably not much.

We rented I believe through the www.carjet.com but they set our actual rental up with Record (a local agency we'd never heard of but it was fine).  We both picked our car up and dropped it off right in the airport (the airport is not all that large).  We were probably dropping our car off by 5 a.m. and it was no problem at all.  Drive into the rental car parking garage area.  Pull into a Record stall.  Sleepy looking attendant came out and checked things over and handed us our receipt.  It took about as long as it took us to unload the luggage from the car.  It seemed like the attendant(s) in the garage area handled all the rental car companies (you did your paperwork inside at the desk) so all the companies were covered.

Does that help?


----------



## Cathy Berg (Nov 19, 2008)

*rental cars at Malaga Airport*

that is exactly what i wanted to know.  Car jet is one of the companies i am looking at to do our rentals.  We will need two cars.

Thanks much.

Cathy Berg


----------



## Ireland'sCall (Nov 19, 2008)

Carjet is a Broker ....very good service . Have used them maybe 6/7 times . 
G


----------



## Cathy Berg (Nov 19, 2008)

*Malaga car rental*

Thanks so much for your reply.  I have been to their website and will probably use them when it gets a little closer to time to book a car.

Cathy Berg


----------



## hibbeln (Nov 19, 2008)

I got the recommendation for using CarJet from many people on this website, and also on TripAdvisor.  I was glad we went with them!  Couldn't believe how much cheaper they were, and LOVED their insurance.....nothing extra to pay and it was full FULL coverage.....it made my husband very happy to know that no matter what happened to the car, all we had to do was turn it in and walk away and we were covered.
When you book with Carjet they tell you the rental company to pick your car up at......of course I had never heard of our company "Record" but found it to be just dandy and very easy to find in the airport.


----------



## hibbeln (Nov 19, 2008)

I should add that one of the days on our trip as we were driving "kind of" past the airport, we did a drive-by of the rental exchange area just so my husband would know where he was going.  He didn't want to make a wrong turn early in the morning when our time was tight.  Turns out it is incredibly simple to find so we needn't have worried.


----------



## Cathy Berg (Nov 20, 2008)

*rental car at Malaga Airport*

thanks so much for all your advice.  I agree at 4 Am in the morning you want to know where you are going.

Cathy Berg


----------



## kwelty (Nov 20, 2008)

If you go with carjet make sure you have all the contact information.  I booked with them for May of this year at the Malaga airport but because of lost luggage I was delayed getting out of the secured area to where the vendors were.  There was no one around for them although a lot of the rental car agencies had stands there.  No one I talked to knew anything about carjet and my confirmation email did not have a phone # or any other contact information. After looking for them over an hour, I gave up and 
rented through Eurocar.  
I'm looking forward to returning to the Costa del Sol, you will have a great time.
Best
Keith Welty


----------



## Cathy Berg (Nov 20, 2008)

*rental car at Malaga airport*

Thanks for the information.  

Cathy Berg


----------



## hibbeln (Nov 21, 2008)

I think where the confusion happened is that Carjet (as mentioned already) is a BROKER.  When you get your confirmation it tells you *what your car rental agency is* and *that* is the rental counter you go to.  It can be a little confusing maybe because not all the names are normal ones we automatically recognize like "Hertz" so you may not automatically pick it out on the paperwork as a rental car agency name.....in fact when I saw we were renting from "Record" I thought "Record?! What is that?" I googled it and sure enough it is a Spanish rental company, the name just struck us as odd and not an obvious name (in English) for a car agency.  So when we got to Malaga we went to Record to pick up our car (there is no Carjet counter, they're just a web entity).


----------



## artlover (Nov 22, 2008)

We too have been happy with Carjet in Spain.  Just make sure you don't miss your plane--we did because DH was taking pixs and had to wait ALL DAY in the Malaga Airport because they didn't have baggage check and we had turned our car in.

We LOVE the Marriott Marbella.  

Have a great trip.


----------



## jerseyfinn (Nov 23, 2008)

Agree that *carjet* is most likely the best car rental alternative as they get the best prices from the agencies. 

If things in the baggage reclaim area look very hectic and busy upon your *arrival *at Malaga airport, consider sending the person who made the car rental straight down to rental desk to queue up for the car. Lines can often be long with waits of 30 to 45 minutes to be checked in. While your party grabs the bags, the other person can be queued for the car. The car rental area is downstairs and the ramp leading to it is astride baggage belt 28, so someone could go down and take a peek and see if chaos reigns or not. It's quite possible that things may not be so hectic in March as it is from June through October.

Be aware that Malaga airport is in the midst of a big construction project ( what airport isn't? ). The car rental companies keep getting bounced around and presently the car returns are in the underground levels of the parking garage which is sort of like a labrinth. There's decent signage to all of the companies, but it's sort of a tedious, nerve-racking experience to wind your way around to find your company's section at that early hour.  We've never seen a human being at any of our car returns for the past 3 years and we self park the car, lock the vehicle, and drop the keys in the safe located near the company kiosk ( we usually fly back on a Sunday morning taking a 7AM flight to MAD . . . perhaps there are attendants on other days). It's also a little confusing in the garage trying to figure out how to walk out to the departures terminal which is in the direction of an adjacent garage. There's signs pointing the way, but in the dark, and mostly empty early morning garage, you pause for a second to get your bearings.

Another thought about your trip. Marriott will send you driving instructions to the resort which offer either the coast road or the toll road. We've always found the coast road to work just fine ( tolls will run 5 to 6 Euros ). This is especially so for the return to the airport as the road is empty at the early hours of the morning and the drive smooth and easy. We've been to Costa del Sol 10 times and have yet to see the light of day when we drive to the airport.

Have a great trip.

Barry


----------



## Cathy Berg (Nov 25, 2008)

*dropping rental car at Malaga airport*

Thanks alot for all that information Jersey Finn.  We are very excited to be going to Marbella.  

Cathy Berg


----------



## hibbeln (Nov 25, 2008)

BTW - here's a link to a thread from 2006 that might give you some good info and answer some of your other questions (even if you haven't thought of those questions yet!)   
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17282


----------

