Avis – Traveling Mark

I Picked Up Hitch-Hiker, She Stole My Laptop

The worst of my nightmares – one I could not even comprehend became reality. I went to the Dominican Republic to just enjoy myself without doing anything for a week and became a victim of ugly theft. I rented a car and picked up a hitch-hiker who stole my laptop. This is the lowest form of low – you do someone a favor, you help them out because they are asking for help and they abuse the privilege and use it to steal from you. What a horrible experience. This is what happened:

My first trip to the Dominican Republic was in January of 2009. I had great time and thanks to smart timing, the trip was very inexpensive. That time I also rented a car – I picked it up at the Puerto Plata airport and spent my 7 nights stay along the Dominican Republic’s north coast. I started in Puerto Plata, went through Sosua, Cabarete, Cabrera, Rio San Juan all the way to Samana peninsula where I wanted to go whale watching as that’s where whales come to mate from January till March each year, making for a unique opportunity to see a mother whale with a newly born whale calf. I enjoyed my time in the Dominican Republic so much, I wanted to come back and this time explore other parts of the country, mostly along the south coast as well as the beautiful beaches on the east (Punta Cana and Bavaro).

I was purposefully waiting until January, because it’s a great time to travel to the Caribbean. Prices are sky high in December with Christmas season and New Year being popular times of year when many people travel. Then come January, prices drop right down to a level that’s ridiculous compared to December. So basically, instead of going in December, wait a couple of weeks and go in January. You get the same weather, same everything, but for a fraction of price. Plane tickets that cost $850 + fees and taxes at the end of December drop to the $85 + fees and taxes level at the beginning of January. This is the best time to take trips to popular “sun vacation” spots. I learned that trick in 2009 and wanted to take advantage of it again in 2010.

I have patiently waited until beginning of January and kept keen eye on plane ticket prices to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic since mid December. For some reason, unlike in 2009, the prices retained their December levels for near two weeks in January and then they dropped overnight to 1/10th of their previous level. The moment the return ticket was below $100 + fees and taxes (which happen to be quite high for the Dominican Republic – over $300 making it the most expensive destination as far as airport taxes are involved after London UK from what I have noticed), I have immediately purchased it and proceeded to make a reservation for a car rental with Avis as well.

It was a last minute purchase, I had three days until departure but that was fine with me. I’m ready when I need to be ready. Because on my 2009 trip I took over 3000 pictures (Dominican Republic was truly amazing that year), I have decided to take my laptop with me so I don’t have to compromise with storage space. I also thought I’d use time in the evenings to do some writing as there is not much to do and it gets dark shortly after 6pm (that’s how it goes close to the equator). I travelled across South East Asia with my laptop without problems and those were the countries much poorer than the Dominican republic, so I didn’t see it as a big deal.

Everything seemed to have gone wrong right from the beginning, though. I got to Punta Cana and waited at the conveyor belt for my luggage which never showed up. Frustrated and desperate, I went to file a lost luggage report but first had to wait an hour until they have found the Air Transat representative who somehow disappeared even though their flight have just arrived and should be available for the passengers.

So there I was, back in the Dominican Republic I was looking forward to whole year but things were not turning out the way I had hoped. I picked up my rental car and went on to have an adventure I could not do. I had an itinerary in mind but it was all put to halt because of lost luggage. I was still wearing clothes from Canada where it was cold, so I was in long pants, heavy boots and long sleeve shirt, yet I was in the tropical climate with scorching temperatures. I had no personal hygiene products on me, nothing to brush my teeth with or rub into my armpits to make them more fragrant. It was horrible.

Photo: White Suzuki Grand Vitara Rental Car I Was Driving When I Had My Laptop Stolen

I drove back to the Punta Cana airport the following day with hopes that my luggage would have showed up in the meantime. Air Transat representatives were half helpful, half not. They all seemed to blame everything on me. The lady I spoke to said I should go and do what I had planned without waiting around for my luggage. I told her she had no right to be telling me what I should or should not do as she doesn’t know what I can or cannot do without stuff I had in my missing bag. She proceeded by calling their central to find out that there was no trace of my luggage whatsoever. None. Nobody knows where it is, what happened to it, whether it went on a different plane or whether it’s still in Canada – no trace of it whatsoever. Like it doesn’t exist. And that’s 24 hours after it was lost. Great news.

So I’m in the Dominican Republic, sweating in the same heavy clothes from Canada, stinking, dirty, desperate and devastated over this bull$hit but the worse was yet to come. I could not take a grasp of it. I had just returned from Asia from a flight which took 3 transfers and more than 24 hours to complete, including a stop over in Seoul, South Korea, yet my luggage got to me at my terminal destination. And here I took a direct flight – no transfers, one single flight from point A to point B and they managed to lose my luggage to a point that they have no trace of it whatsoever.

Since this was not the first time my luggage was lost during my travels by plane (I also had it lost on my return flight from Cuba to Canada in December of 2008), I already knew that one should never check in valuables. Hence I had the bag with my camera equipment and my laptop with me. I was still in the same clothes from Canada, but had my camera and my laptop so even though excessively stressed out, my expensive possessions were still under my control.

Unfortunately, since there was no trace of my bag and no knowing when it would show up, I had no choice but to proceed with my trip in whatever state I was or spend it waiting around for an unknown length of time. I was distraught, stressed out, desperate, stinky and dirty, but what could I do? So I went back to my rented car, started it up and headed out to try to make the best of my time in the Dominican Republic despite this misfortune.

In this weak state of mind, as I was driving through San Pedro de Macoris, on the south coast of the Dominican Republic, headed towards nation’s capital Santo Domingo, I noticed a hitch-hiker on the side of the road desperately trying to stop a car to get a lift. It was at the beginning of the highway leading to Santo Domingo and it was already about 7.30 or 8 pm meaning it was dark so I stopped to pick this young woman up and give her the lift.

Photo: Artistic Structure at the Traffic Circle in San Pedro de Macoris Where I Picked Up the Hitch-Hiker Who Stole My Laptop

I was heading the same way anyway and had room in my car so giving a hitch-hiker a lift was no big deal. But most of all, back in a day when I was in the university and spent 6 consecutive summers travelling through Europe, I used hitch-hiking as my primary means of transportation. When you hitch-hike, sometimes you are stuck for a long time and sometimes you don’t even catch a ride so you have to stay the night and try again the following day. However once you catch a lift it’s fun times. You are always very appreciative of people who help you out with the lift so now that I was in a position of having a ride and saw a hitch-hiker in need of help, I did not hesitate to return the favor and stopped to pick her up.

There was a major issue with communication as she didn’t speak any English and I speak no Spanish. So we spent most of our time listening to awful Dominican Latino music on the radio (every station plays the same awful music, but CDs I brought with me to listen to on the road were in the bag that was lost by flight carrier). As a person who picked up a hitch-hiker, I had the foremost interest that she feels comfortable and enjoys her ride, so when she threw her bag on the rear seat, I didn’t make much of it, thinking that she just wants to have enough room for herself during the upcoming 45 minute long ride. It was the rear seat where I had my laptop rested.

During the ride, the hitch-hiker went to her bag a couple of time – to pick up her lipstick to do the things that girls do, so I didn’t make a big deal out of it again. Then as we approached Santo Domingo, she asked me to drop her off at first turn off from the highway so I obliged and wished her the best of luck. I have impulsively reached in the back seat to make sure my laptop was all right, not because I suspected a theft, but because I thought it may have slid during the course of driving so I wanted to make sure it was safe. I could not feel it anywhere on the seats so I figured it must have slipped and fallen under the seat. I tried to reach under the seat on which I was sitting, but could not feel anything either. I thought it was because I can’t reach very well from a position behind the wheel so I moved the vehicle up to the gas station on the corner, parked the car and walked out to get on the rear seat to take care of my laptop which surely must have slid in some hard to reach spot.

My heart was pumping like crazy as I was sneaking at every possible spot in the car where a laptop could have slipped but it was nowhere to be seen. I turned the car upside down while other cars were coming and going as they filled their gas tanks up and as security guards stared at me because of my frantic behavior yet there was no laptop. I slowly started to realize the unthinkable – I was robbed. I had my laptop stolen by that hitch-hiker. It was the most horrible feeling ever. Within seconds I realized what terrible loss this theft puts me through. I had many things stolen from me through the course of my life and my travels, but this laptop was hands down the most expensive piece and as if the price was not the only loss, the laptop had everything of value to me on it, including all of the pictures from my travels so far, meaning that I would not be able to continue with updates for my blog because I have no reminder of my adventures anymore. What an awful experience. How could someone do it? How could someone you offer help to abuse it to steal from you? What kind of world do we live in?

Photo: The Only Picture of My Stolen Laptop I Have. Taken at Bungalow Village in Sihanoukville, Cambodia

This laptop theft is the reason why I’m jumping five months ahead of myself and start writing about the Dominican Republic even though I have not yet finished writing about my adventures in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. When you start living your life to the fullest and every day is an adventure, there are so many things happening every day that I was unable to keep up with written reports. Things were simply happening faster than I was able to keep track of them. As a result, I am five months behind with my journal, however I had pictures of my adventures which served as great reminder of everything that happened so I was able to write about it as though it happened yesterday. Pictures recall memories and serve as valuable reminder of time spent.

Unfortunately, my stolen laptop was the only place which had my pictures. With laptop gone, all of the pictures are gone but that’s not all. Stolen laptop also means that all of my emails and valuable contact information I have made during the course of my travels are gone. There was much more than I am willing to admit on that laptop and now it’s all gone because I was trying to be a Good Samaritan. One of the saddest and most devastating days of my life.

STOLEN LAPTOP SPECS:

Model: Samsung Q320
Color: White
Size: 13.4 Inch Screen
Serial Number: ZBBX93ES700101
Stolen On: Friday, January 15, 2010

Description of Laptop Thief:

Young female, approximately 25 year old. Good looking with average size breasts (not too big, but also not small), slender build without big gut, but booty type buttocks. She is on a taller side, perhaps as tall as me, which is 180 cm or 5’11” – on average taller than most girls, but not excessively tall. It was dark already and as a driver, I did not spend my time staring at the passanger, instead I focused on driving and the road, but I believe that her skin color was darker than average Dominicans have. Most Dominicans are dark or darkish, she was on the darker side. She also has very large lips. Noticeably big, plump lips that some women with very dark skin have. These lips stand out big time and are easily distinguishable. At the time of pick up, she was wearing one of those hair gels that give your hair wet look. She was also wearing dark jeans that only reached half way up her buttocks slightly uncovering top of her ass crack. Given that I picked her up at San Pedro de Macoris, she obviously has some kind of connection to the town – maybe she lives there or works there or has other reasons to go there. I believe she was only going to Santo Domingo for the weekend as she was leaving San Pedro on Friday night.

Car Rental Reservations – Advantage of Booking in Advance

When I checked the car rental prices for a decent automobile in the Dominican Republic when I started looking for cheap plane tickets to embark on my worldwide travel, the prices were more than reasonable. I just wanted to get a hint on what to expect as far as prices for different classes of vehicles are concerned, but made no reservations. I did not have the plane ticket purchased yet and deemed it important to have the plane ticket first so I know the exact day and time of arrival in my destination. Without the plane ticket I wouldn’t know which date to book my car rental for so I merely checked prices and left it to deal with it after I have had my flight arrangements taken care of – BAD IDEA!

I went to check the Avis website the following day since plane ticket prices increased significantly overnight and I could not believe my eyes. Car rental prices, even with Avis coupon grew almost twice fold. If I made a reservation today, instead of the day before, I would pay more for Kia Rio than I would have for Suzuki Grand Vitara yesterday. In other words, had I made a reservation yesterday, I would pay less money and have myself a nice SUV, whereas today I would have to pay more but would get a small passenger car which is three classes down from SUV. SUV rental prices grew way beyond reasonable and were out of question.

If I was frustrated with unprecedented growth of plane ticket prices overnight, unexpected growth of car rental prices made it even worse. And then I realized what kind of stupid idea it was not making a reservation in advance, even though I didn’t have the exact day and time or arrival. See, unlike with plane tickets, car rental companies are very flexible with their reservations and making any changes to it, including cancellations is easy and costs you nothing (at least when dealing with companies like Avis). That means that one should make a reservation on the spot when they see a good price, because even if your dates change, you will be able to easily modify it. And if you are unable to make the trip, you can cancel the reservation and the life will go on. There are no cancellation fees.

Don’t be like me. If you see a good price for car rentals, make a reservation. If you put it off till tomorrow to think about it overnight or to find out exact dates – by the time you have returned to their website, the price could be different and you will have missed the opportunity to have a car rented on the cheap. You have nothing to lose if you book well in advance. Not doing it may result in overpaying later.

The way it works with car rental companies (for the most part), is that you don’t pay your rental fees until you have returned the car. Your credit card will not be charged until after the rental period (this is also in case you cause damage to the rented unit so they can charge you full amount, including the amount to cover for damage you have caused). As such, if you make a reservation online, they will just take your credentials (Avis doesn’t even collect credit card number, just name, email and phone number) and the car is booked for you. You come, pick it up, drive it, and when you are returning it, the representative will inspect it and you sign the papers so they can charge you what you have agreed upon when you were making reservation.

There is really no reason to hesitate with reservations. The fact that you can easily modify or cancel your reservation for no extra fee makes for the biggest advantage of booking your car in advance. I’ve learned my lesson here so from this point on, each time I was planning a trip to a country where I might be interested in car rentals, I’d check for the best prices and if I saw one I liked, I’d make reservations on the spot. Because if I changed my mind or something changes in my plans, I could easily pull back from it or modify it as needed, including change of countries. Take advantage of early booking because there really is nothing to lose. But do verify the fine print. I know for sure it works this way with Avis, but I’m not familiar with terms of service of every car rental company out there.

Best Way to Rent a Car with Avis Coupon

I found the best way to Rent a Car worldwide which I want to share with you. Not only is it the best way to rent a car, it’s also the cheapest. It’s just a simple Avis coupon code that works wonders when it comes to bumping the price of your car rental down. And given that Avis have offices worldwide – virtually in any country where car rentals are possible, this little trick can hook you up with well maintained vehicle for a great price.

I found out about it as I was looking for the ways to rent a car in Iceland but was not willing to pay $1,000+ for a ten day rental. Iceland is a very expensive country and it’s reflected in prices of their car rentals. I wanted to make the best out of my 10 day trip so in order not to waste time waiting around for buses and to be able to also access more remote places, I saw car rental as the best solution. But since it’s so extremely expensive to rent a car in Iceland, I had to work out some magic and find a solution that would hook me up with a car, but prevent me from spending more than a grand for it.

To make a long story short, my research has eventually lead me to the Avis coupon code which can cut the normal price down to near one half of it. It worked in Iceland, it worked in the Dominican Republic, it worked in Canada and will likely work in most destinations where Avis has their offices. How much discount you will get varies from one country to another but I have not found any better way to get less expensive, yet internationally backed up car rental since.

To get to the best way to rent a car, go to Avis.com and select your country of origin from the Country/Language drop down menu (or you can go directly to Avis.ca if you are Canadian). Choose your date and time for pick up and return and then choose your pick up location. This is all pretty standard stuff that will get regularly priced quotes. In order to get much better prices, you need to enter following code in the AWD (Avis Worldwide Discount code) field:

K444404

PHOTO: Screenshot from Avis.ca Website Shows Where to Paste the AWC Discount Code

Previously normal car rental prices will now be slashed into much more attractive level. I have never seen car rentals for better price than when using Avis with this code. Good thing is, that after three different rentals in three different countries using Avis and this discount code, I have never been asked any questions. Nothing. You just paste it in the AWD field and make a reservation. Car will be waiting for you at your chosen location and when you return it, you will be given the receipt with the price you were quoted by the website and that price will be charged to the credit card you have provided the Avis representative with when you were picking your car up. It worked for me in Iceland, it worked for me in Canada and it worked for me in the Dominican Republic. No questions asked. None whatsoever.

Then again, given Avis’ international reputation, I would not expect anyone ever questioning the code or where you got it from. Avis are in it to be a worldwide leader in car rental services. They want your business and will be glad you have chosen them over a competitor. It’s none of employee’s business to question where you got which code from. But most of all, they are there to provide you with a reliable car and process your pick up and return in a courteous and professional manner. They are not booking agents so chances of anyone at the pick-up location questioning the code are virtually nonexistent. Based on my experience so far it is exactly like that but if you think about it, I don’t see how it could possibly create an issue at pick up location so I believe you can safely use the code and enjoy the benefits of great rental prices.

And remember – don’t worry about feeling guilty. Avis is a multimillion dollar company. You are bringing them business that’s profitable for them any way you spin it. The fact that you are not paying the normal price does not mean that you are ripping them off. Far from it. You are just being a smart renter and paying a price that’s fair, not a price that other’s who don’t do their homework have to pay. Each time I see people paying retail prices for travel and tourism related goods and services, I quietly laugh on the inside knowing that I saved myself from being overcharged.