Making changes to Alamo reservation

LorieR · Feb 24, 2015

I made a reservation months ago for Alamo. For some reason, I had me returning the car four hours later than I actually will be.

My questions:
1. If I make a change on the reservation on the website is there a chance that the price of the rental will actually go up since I am booked for much lower than current rates?
2. If I don't make any changes, when I return the car will the lower price (for less time) be billed?

Thanks!

Ranger111 · Feb 24, 2015

1) When you agreed to the rental terms, you also agreed to a clause that said ANY modification to this reservation COULD result in a change in price. Any easy way to check is to go online and see what a new reservation with the revised hours would cost you. If it is cheaper, reserve it and then cancel your original. Problem solved.

2) No, you will NOT save any cash if you return the car early. In car rental land, if you keep a car for 24 hour and one minute, that is seen as a two-day rental and you are charged for 48 hours, irregardless that you only had the car for 24 hours and one minute.

Indeed there have been cases where rental agencies have hit you with fees FOR returning the car early -- they claim they budget their space and they don't have room or personnel if people return cars early. BUT, in your four-hour situation, that isn't enough to worry about that particular issue, IMHO, YMMV, etc. (of course if you get a weekly rate and then return a car early (like a day early, you really get hammered with fees).

Start a dummy reservation, see what the new cost is -- as Alamo says -- easy peasy.

LorieR · Feb 24, 2015

Thanks for your response.

I did try a new reservation and it is $110 higher than the one I have now. :eek:

I have reserved for one week and three hours so I guess I will see what happens.

PatMcDuck · Feb 24, 2015

I had a flight change, and now I am very worried about my Alamo reservation in late April. I arrive 4 hours earlier than before. New reservations are triple.

I will call Alamo, because once before I had this happen, with a flight change to an earlier time, and they were able to make an adjustment with no $$ increase, over the phone. THIS time, I expect to pay a bit more, because its 4 hours earlier. But not triple, I hope.

Junebugwv · Feb 25, 2015

Once I choose the dates of my trip, I make a car rental reservation for the best price possible. Then I take my time getting airline tickets. I have never had a problem changing the times on the car rental. Go to the "modify this reservation" link and change the times. As long as I do not change the days, it has not changed the price.

LorieR · Feb 27, 2015

PatMcDuck said:
I had a flight change, and now I am very worried about my Alamo reservation in late April. I arrive 4 hours earlier than before. New reservations are triple.

I will call Alamo, because once before I had this happen, with a flight change to an earlier time, and they were able to make an adjustment with no $$ increase, over the phone. THIS time, I expect to pay a bit more, because its 4 hours earlier. But not triple, I hope.

Just wondering if you called and if so what they said?

LorieR · Feb 27, 2015

Junebugwv said:
Once I choose the dates of my trip, I make a car rental reservation for the best price possible. Then I take my time getting airline tickets. I have never had a problem changing the times on the car rental. Go to the "modify this reservation" link and change the times. As long as I do not change the days, it has not changed the price.

Thanks! That was what I was going to do but was afraid it might change the price and then I would be stuck.

LorieR · Feb 27, 2015

LorieR said:
Thanks! That was what I was going to do but was afraid it might change the price and then I would be stuck.

Just tried modifying my reservation and it was showing rates higher than I had so I cancelled the changes. Interestingly though, my reservation is now about $1 less - lol

richmo · Feb 27, 2015

I've found the best thing to do when "modifying" an Alamo reservation is to make a new reservation, then cancel the old one. With their relatively new website, I've found that rate decreases often don't show when doing a modify. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to go thru the motions of doing the modify just to see what the new rate would be...just don't finalize it unless its the same or less.

I'm kind of in the same boat for an upcoming rental, although my reduction is only two hours, not four. Changing the time made the rate go up a lot, not because of the number of hours, but that rates are higher now than when I originally booked. So I'm leaving it alone.

There are cases where reducing the number of hours can change how your rate is computed. An example would be where taking four hours off the reservation caused you to go into a daily rate instead of a weekly rate. In that case, the rental could easily cost more. That is also a case where Alamo (or any agency) might flag you when you return the car. In my case that won't happen since I'm still weekly.

Personally, as long as you're not in the situation where you would be kicked from weekly to daily, I'd hold the original reservation. BUT, there's always a VERY good possibility that rates will go down about 1 to 3 weeks (usually closer to 1) before your trip starts. Keep looking for better rates...chances are you'll find better rates with the correct times close to your trip.

PatMcDuck · Feb 27, 2015

I lost this thread, and made a new post about this. Long story short, if you CALL Alamo, you will probably be able to modify a reservation with little or no increase in the rate. I did this a year ago, with changing the reservation by 1-2 hours (arriving later) and it stayed the same $$. Yesterday I called about my April 23-30 one, now arriving 4 hours earlier. I had $199 all in, for a mid SUV. They said it would go up...... but just $17, and I was happy with that.

It was Costco reservation, which cannot be modified online; making a new reservation was much higher, over $500. The key thing, call ALAMO, not Costco, BJs, etc. They are able to modify reservations without it recalculating at the current rate. (by all means, try online first, does not hurt).

Ranger111 · Feb 27, 2015

PatMcDuck said:
...SNIP.... Long story short, if you CALL Alamo, you will probably be able to modify a reservation with little or no increase in the rate.....SNIP

To paraphrase Clint, considering the T/C you agree to gives them the right to change your rate to whatever suits their purpose, I ask the question, do you feel lucky???

PatMcDuck · Feb 28, 2015

I felt super lucky this last time, with the 4 hour longer rental period....... and here I had a weekly rate for a mid-SUV of $150 plus tax ($199), hanging in the balance. But my point was just that calling makes a difference over trying to modify on your own, online.

Do I think this would always work? No, but it has for me, 2 out of 2 times. They clearly could have just told me I was s*&t out of luck, and stuck me with the new current charge of $500+

greenclan67 · Feb 28, 2015

The last 2 times we have rented from Alamo, we had a late flight home on a Friday night because the Sat flight home on Southwest was high. Both times the flight home on Sat morning dropped the price and I was able to change to Sat morning flight. I didn't change my car rental either time, because when I would modify it, the price would go up. Right now, I have a standard car booked from March 9th, pick up at 10 am, and a drop off of March 20th at 8pm in Tampa. We have changed our flight to come home on Sat the 21st and dropping the car off at 11. So the last twice I have done this, I call them after I already have the car to tell them that I will be keeping it longer, and the price that is charged is what my daily rater has been on my regular reservation. Which I am very happy with. My total for 11 nights is $269.00 all in. including a upgrade from standard to full size.

Making changes to Alamo reservation

LorieR

DIS Veteran

Ranger111

DIS Veteran

LorieR

DIS Veteran

PatMcDuck

DIS Veteran

Junebugwv

DIS Veteran

LorieR

DIS Veteran

LorieR

DIS Veteran

LorieR

DIS Veteran

richmo

DIS Veteran

PatMcDuck

DIS Veteran

Ranger111

DIS Veteran

PatMcDuck

DIS Veteran

greenclan67

Callie35

Share this page

DIS NEWS & UPDATES

New DISboards Threads

Latest posts