I am from the Republic of Panama and visit the US very often. On Feb. 6 I arrived at KISM for a 5 days visit to Disney’s World.
I previously had contacted Kissimmee Jet Center (KJC) to arrange for them be the FBO I was going to use. Unfortunately my experience was a very bad one. Here are the issues that made my staying extremely unpleasant:
I was told by a KJC representative that they do not answer emails or faxes. Everything is handled via telephone. Therefore there is not written proof of anything, even if I had sent a fax asking for information.
I rented a car from Enterprise. I was told by KJC that since I had a foreign driver’s license I had to pay an extra charge. I was using, as I always do when renting carts, my Panamanian Driver’s License. This is the first time someone brings this charge to me. It caused me an extra charge of US$ 10.00 per day. This “policy” sounded very particular to me.
I told KJC that I wanted to decline the Damage Waiver, DW, insurance because my credit card covers it. I was not allowed to do so. It caused an extra charge of US$ 19.99 per day. The ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS, point 17, states that the purchase of the DW Insurance is not insurance and is not required to rent vehicle.
I have to mention that I was told that KJC was not going to rent me the car unless I accepted the extra charges mentioned above.
I am an AOPA Member and asked to get the discount I am entitled on car rentals. I was told by KJC that they do not honor the discounts provided to the AOPA Members on car rentals.
I was told that in order to refuel my aircraft I might have to wait 2 hours before the process could be started. I have no idea why this process should take so long. I have gone to other FBOs that are really busy and the refuel process is really fast.
You can ask yourself: Why did not you go somewhere else? The answer is simple. I was with my whole family, wife, kids, and daughter in law and my 1 and a half years’ old granddaughter and changing plans with this scenario is very difficult. The above mentioned points regarding KJC were very negative factors on what I thought would be the start of a marvelous trip.
My personal conclusion is that I will not use KJC ever and I share my negative experience with all the organizations I belong in order to save them of such bad experience.