Have a confirmed reservation, show up for the rental car.... no car.
- Thread starter mrsilv04
- Start date
GON
$100 Site Donor 2024
My status trumps pre-pay every day of the week. Pre-pay is a "suckers bet" in my experience and humble opinion when is comes to rental cars. They have your money, you have zero leverage. Can't "walk away" when they can't deliver with a pre-pay.
There are numerous strategies when it comes to having a rental car available. Pre pay is absolutely not one I would utilize- ever.
Always better to owe someone then to have them owe you.
GON
$100 Site Donor 2024
Hertz/ Dollar/ Thrifty all the same organization. They are in bankruptcy. The Hertz of today is not the Hertz of yesterday.
I am on a plane right now, when I land I will post multiple pictures of Hertz lots and people waiting. I only have two on my notebook that I am posting now. Beyond scary. My organization sometimes books Hertz for me. I take a picture of the Hertz waiting line, empty lot. Next I use my Avis app and my name is on the board with a car space to go to.
Hertz is ugly at this time, real ugly. I have a stack of unrequested vouchers from Hertz giving to me for free for them not being able to deliver. These vouchers give me free rentals on Hertz. I just use them for scrap paper. I won't take a Hertz rental at this time even for free. I value my time.
Prepaid for most rental agencies means that they will have the vehicle allocated for you a day ahead of time. In a rental shortage like this that is important. The pre paid rentals are their biggest obligation, you will most likely always get a vehicle even when they are sold out of cars.
My way of life is it’s better to have people owe me than I owe them.
GON
$100 Site Donor 2024
Thought important to set the record accurate. Information in this thread could get people set with a false expectations.
Ford was also heavily involved in Budget car rental. I remember Budget having a never ending sea of Ford Taurus and LTD sedans.
www.google.com
Ford Plans to Acquire Budget Car Rental Firm
Autos: Price is not disclosed. Antitrust regulators must OK the deal because auto maker already owns market-leader Hertz.
www.google.com
GON
$100 Site Donor 2024
BTW, a TTP (Tip, Technique , Procedure) to have a best chance of having a rental car available to you.
Don't pee, don't pickup your luggage, and hustle your dupa to the rental car booth as soon as exiting a plane. Narrow body mainline aircraft have a capacity of 150 PAX plus. Some of those PAX are renting cars. They will stop to pee, wait for their luggage, etc. They will be behind you in the rental car line if you follow this TTP.
When you get off the plane double time it to the rental car booth. It is a TTP that will give a decided advantage in a industry currently having challenges. Of course, the best TTP is to have a membership like AVIS preferred plus, where you already have a car assigned to you with a stall number before one gets off the plane. There is no rush then. But don't have a car assigned when one gets off the plane- mad dash to the rental car counter.
Don't pee, don't pickup your luggage, and hustle your dupa to the rental car booth as soon as exiting a plane. Narrow body mainline aircraft have a capacity of 150 PAX plus. Some of those PAX are renting cars. They will stop to pee, wait for their luggage, etc. They will be behind you in the rental car line if you follow this TTP.
When you get off the plane double time it to the rental car booth. It is a TTP that will give a decided advantage in a industry currently having challenges. Of course, the best TTP is to have a membership like AVIS preferred plus, where you already have a car assigned to you with a stall number before one gets off the plane. There is no rush then. But don't have a car assigned when one gets off the plane- mad dash to the rental car counter.
Ford was also heavily involved in Budget car rental. I remember Budget having a never ending sea of Ford Taurus and LTD sedans.
Ford Plans to Acquire Budget Car Rental Firm
Autos: Price is not disclosed. Antitrust regulators must OK the deal because auto maker already owns market-leader Hertz.
The purchase fell through. Budget merged with Avis. They generally operate together and may even share inventory. Once I rented Avis Budget. Nobody was at the counter. The agent at the Avis counter told me over and handled my reservation.
I never said Ford bought Budget. Just provided an article showing their involvement with Budget at the time, which was quite significant.
I was just indicating the plans mentioned in the article fell through. I made no assumption about your understanding of their relationship.
GON
$100 Site Donor 2024
You have to wait, and wait, ad wait for the a car to be available.
One example, and I am sure many like it " Enterprise agency refused to issue a refund because I “walked away” from the reservation." Fortunately, I had used the same card to pay for the second car reservation, so the Chase agent could see what happened on my account. All was eventually resolved, but only after contacting a manager at the Enterprise corporate office to explain the double reservation and waive the first charge.
So you may get a refund, after a lot of phone calls and emails. Days, weeks, months......... Or may never get a refund because you walked away- even though no cars were available.
Common misconception about rental cars is that making a reservation means a vehicle will be set aside for you. In reality, a reservation guarantees the advertised rate, but not that a vehicle will be available for you to rent. Surprisingly, this is true even of prepaid reservations, and while prepaying should give your priority over someone who hasn’t paid, it still may not guarantee availability. Rental car companies can overextend their fleets with impunity, since they don’t have the same obligation as airlines to compensate passengers for overbooking. The end result is that there’s little reason to pay in advance.
Here is a recent picture I took of people waiting at Hertz, for three, four, five hours for a car. Some of them pre-paid. Made no difference. What a horrible start to a vacation/ trip. Nobody is giving a pre-payer there money back on the spot, maybe after a huge fight after the fact. Also included is a copy of the typical voucher they pass out after a few hours if waiting.
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Yeah, the rental companies sold at the low point, and are trying to buy at the high point. No wonder they have money issues and / or go bankrupt.
I was just telling my wife last night that I hope we don't have this issue on or upcoming trip, then I see this thread! We are flying into Raleigh-Durham next month then driving to Norfolk. Hope and pray we don't run into this issue. It would destroy the whole trip.
GON
$100 Site Donor 2024
That can be done. Likely weeks to months to get a resolution. Your word against someone else word. And the someone else is not going to respond, will be a computer operator in a call center.
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