I booked a car hire at Heathrow through Holiday Autos on a visit to the UK and provided my flight number as requested.

My flight was severely delayed, and when I reached the car hire desk, I was told I’d been marked down as a “no-show” and that my car had been rehired.

Under duress, I was forced to hire a larger car for twice the price, and was told I would not be refunded the original £185 hire fee.

Since then, the car hire company has told me to complain to Holiday Autos, and vice versa.

BF, Australia

The terms and conditions of your contract state that a definition of a “no-show” is a customer who arrives late because of a flight delay without having provided a flight number. You had provided your number, so the supplier would have been able to verify your flight status, but neither party would accept this when you complained.

Holiday Autos tells me your car was no longer available owing to “operational constraints”. But you had prepaid, so there was no financial loss to the hire firm if it had held the vehicle until your arrival.

It insists that cars cannot be held indefinitely even if flight details are provided, but it did not mention this in the terms.

Holiday Autos says an upgraded vehicle was offered instead, without disclosing that you were forced to pay handsomely for the privilege.

The company has, however, performed a magnanimous U-turn.

“While the additional charges were agreed directly between the customer and the car rental supplier, we recognise the impact this experience had on the trip,” it says. “As a gesture of goodwill, we have refunded the costs of the original rental plus the additional upgrade and insurance costs incurred.”

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