Airmiles and Alamo gift certificate question.

[visitingapril09]

We cashed in some airmiles for a couple of gift certificates towards our Van rental. I have heard at Alamo you can just go up and pick up your van if you are an insider member. I assume you go to the teller machine first.....but what if you have gift certificates? Do you give them at the end when you return?

 

[amw]

Did you receive the gift certificates yet?

I ordered a National Gift Certificate, and I was disappointed when it came. It was not a certificate (or gift card) but a coupon instead. I had to apply it to the existing reservation using the code on the back of the "coupon" AND I couldn't add additional coupons to the reservation.

I had hoped to use it as credit against my reservation that had a free-day. Instead, I had to remove the free day to apply it. So, it ended up being a waste of airmiles to me.

We have Emerald Club with National, and because the "coupon" is already applied to the reservation, we just have to go directly to the car. The staff will ask for the coupon at the booth.

Not sure if it's the same with Alama, but the directions for use should be on the back of the certificate.

 

[visitingapril09]

Oh wow, I am so glad you said this. I just looked at my coupon/certificate and it is what you said.........I am so annoyed. That is not the way Airmiles portrays it at all..............That sucks!

 

[poohbear37]

I used Alamo gift certificates or coupons last year for our rental. We signed up for the insiders club and called to apply the coupons and all we had left to pay was the taxes and fees. Because we had called ahead and the coupons had already been applied and I did the check in from home and printed the paperwork all we needed to do was go out to the garage and the attendant out there told us which aisle to choose from and we were done. Gave the cashier our info on the way out. I've never been in and out of the airport so quickly before.

 

[visitingapril09]

I had to call to get them applied ( I had two of them) and had to take off our entertainment coupon which was $30 I think as you can't combine coupons, which to me is the biggest catch. It still saves us but thank you so much. If you hadn't said what you did I would have just assumed it was like a gift card and would have had to pay the $150 we thought we could have taken off at checkout. I actually don't mind having to do it this way ( to me the only catch is to not be able to use other coupons ) We have used Best Western ones before and they will approve the whole amount and then give you a credit when you check out. The only thing is the credit can take up to 7 days to show up on your credit card. To me that is silly as it is a gift card that is like cash and should be taken off from the get go....at least with this, it is taken off from the start.