European leaders in car hire, Europcar, and Germany’s Air Berlin have joined forces to offer airline customers the best available rates on vehicle rental. Since the beginning of 2008, Europcar has been one of Air Berlin’s topbonus partners, and now it has become a Premium Partner. This means that the car rental giant will be part of Air Berlin’s booking process, offering passengers the cheapest deals on car rental available to members of the public.

As part of the new deal, Air Berlin will be promoting Europcar’s services in airports, at its check-in desks and at ticket counters. Air Berlin customers will also be transferred to a Europcar reservations call centre by staff taking ticket reservations over the phone.

Europcar International’s global sales and marketing director, Guirec Grand-Clement, said that since becoming one of Air Berlin’s partners on the topbonus program, the car hire firm and the airline have become stronger, not just in Germany, but internationally. He added that now Europcar had been given the status of Premium Partner, even more Air Berlin customers would have access to the company’s international network.

In celebration of its new status with the airline, Europcar has announced that it will be offering a promotion entitled ‘Drive Bigger, Pay Less’ to all Air Berlin Passenger. The deal will mean that participants can take advantage of better deals on car hire at airports including all major hubs within the UK.

In addition, all topbonus members booking a car hire online before October 1 will now receive double the award miles they would usually be given.