I’m a Budget Fast Break member. Supposedly this means a car will be ready for me when I get to the rental car place, I go and pick my car up…and leave. WELL…when I rented a car in March…it took almost an hour to get out of the airport because my name wasn’t listed on the board, and the Budget counter was actually closed. The Avis people handled it…but geez…what a mess. I received a coupon for one free day rental.
Then a rock hit the windshield of that car. Budget gave me a lot of misinformation on how that was to be paid for…and I got another one day coupon.
In both cases…only one coupon per future rental experience.
Well…yesterday, I used them again. I rented the cheapest car they had…a mid size…and my week rental cost was estimated at $560. I about puked. But that was not my issue. I got to the budget counter, and I again wasn’t on the Fast Break list. The text I got did not include a UPC code either and told me I had to go to the desk…which I did. The counter person claimed they didn’t have my CC number which is BS since they had just billed my CC for the windshield.
Anyway…it took a while, but she assigned me a car, and told me to go to E4 to pick it up. So I did. I opened the back door to put my stuff in the back seat. Imagine my (and the other person’s) surprise when a nice woman in the drivers seat said…”what are you doing”. We both had contracts but her was from avis…for the same car. So…back in I went and they had to give me another car.
When they cleaned and drove the car around, I mentioned to the Avis person who delivered the car that this was the worst rental car group and I wouldn’t be using them again. He asked for an explanation and I told him what had happened. He asked for my contact…and reduced my week cost to $418! Yay for him (and me).
I gave up on Budget last year. Now I rent exclusively from Hertz.
I was in Virginian for 4 days at the beginning of the month. I flew into Reagan in DC and went to the counter to complete my reservation. I rented a Camry for $280. They upgraded me to an Infiniti for another $20 total. When I went to the garage to pick up our car the poor guy couldn’t find it. He apologized, and 2 minutes later he drove around in a beautiful Volvo XC90 SUV. He said, “Here you go, sorry I couldn’t find your car.” LOL! No problem at all my friend. What a nice vehicle that Volvo was.
If the CEO of Hertz knew the guys in the garage can randomly hand out luxury SUVs on a whim he/she would likely have a stroke.
If you travel frequently, there are some good credit cards. My Amex Platinum gives me enrollment into Avis, Hertz and National premium programs. You can also sign up for primary no deductible coverage for about $20 flat for up to 42 days. This came in handy for S on cross country trip with friends when they got a rock that cracked their windshield. It was relatively hassle free, with the main hassle finding a windshield place along I5.
I think the annual cost on that Amex Premium is more than I want to pay…but it’s a thought.
I should add…when the first car was already taken by someone else, they offered me a minivan or a pick up truck at no extra charge. That was a hard…NO.
$200 Airline credit you can use for baggage fees and other incidentals
$240 in digital entertainment (Netflix, other streaming services, NYT and WSJ)
$200 Uber credit
Free access to Centurion Lounges and Priority Pass lounges
Free Global Entry or TSA Pre
$189 in CLEAR credit
Free cell phone coverage (damaged or stolen) if you pay your wireless bill through Amex
Hilton and Marriott Gold
There are also periodic offers from various vendors, including dollar credits. Many are for specialty retailers, but sometimes you see offers from Home Depot, Walmart, Neiman Marcus or other regular retailers. My wife gets a discounted Platinum Card and the 2 kids get “free” Platinum cards which is a good unlimited emergency card for them, plus for those cards, they get access to the lounges (but not the cash credits) and they can sign up for the various hotel and rental car memberships, including the primary insurance coverage for rental cars.
We have a chat group among my friends where we will text the group of any good offers that come up.
We had used Budget for years- until they charged us $200 for smoking in the car (we have never smoked in our life). It took months to get the charge removed because the manager was out for sick leave for her family. From that experience I learned that each Budget was run differently (owned differently?). But, never used them again… except in Iceland it was the only rental company at the time- that went well.
I have used Enterprise and if needed National and it has worked fine.
I frequently rent local through Costco, so the only two choices are Budget/Avis or Enterprise. I will choose Enterprise over Budget every time, unless the cost difference is too large, or if I need a one-way rental. (Our local Budget does not charge an extra one-way fee, even to our airport, and usually better than an Uber).
The difference in service between the two is incredible, even at multiple locations. Enterprise has always been professional, polite, and helpful. I cannot say the same of Budget.
On two separate occasions, when I reserved a one-way rental, Budget did not have any car available at the last minute, nor would any other local Budget office provide one. One basically confided that they were all independent, and don’t make any money on one-way rentals. At least I know the day before the flight, and have plenty of time to arrange an Uber.
I have Budget Fastbreak too. It’s saved me a ton of time for many visits to see my son’s performances at college (music major).
Recently we rented from Budget in a new city. Fastbreak didn’t work so had to go to the counter. They were understaffed. There was no car in the space they sent me to so back to the counter. They disappeared for a minute or two and then sent me to a different space and said to tell the guy at the gate that they said it was ok. Asked guy at the gate about it since my receipt had the first car I was assigned to. He said I would get an email and we went on our way. Never got the email. When we returned the car a week later I wanted to make sure it was checked in correctly since the checkout seemed sketchy. They were understaffed on this end too. It took forever. We had been assigned to the first car (that we never even saw) the entire time. They could not figure out how to reassign me to the car I had been driving for a week so that it could be checked in. I wasn’t leaving until I had a receipt that we had returned a car. We almost missed our flight trying to get it handled. So glad we didn’t get in an accident with the car we weren’t on record as having. A friend commented afterwards that this is how Hertz ended up in bankruptcy.
A few weeks ago we rented from Budget again in a different city and it was smooth, easy, no visit to the counter, everything handled correctly with no fuss.
Maybe it’s location-dependent.
I’ll be exercising caution on all my car rentals though.
I once did a Hertz one way rental, with a per-mile charge (not a bad deal for my 150 mile trek, with corporate discount). Had to drop it off at a gas station near Danbury, CT. Imagine my surprise when I got the bill later for 900 extra miles. Pretty amazing since I had the car for less than 4 hours. Evidently somebody at the gas station borrowed it. Luckily I was able to contest the extra charges and pay the correct fee.
On the subject of rental cars, has anyone ever used Fox Rent-a-Car? I’m planning a trip to Austin in April for the total solar eclipse and I guess I waited to long to reserve a car, because everything is super expensive!! Anyway, the least expensive rental I could find was through Fox, which I’ve never used. I usually use Hertz with my AAA discount, but their prices were really high, as were most of the more familiar car rental companies.
