Alamo/National Car Problems

[inkkognito]

That's one thing I like about Priceline...our reservation is pre-paid, so I feel like I have a little more leverage than just having a reservation vs. a paid rental in hand. I do know that rental rates have skyrocketed over the past month...we couldn't even get a car Columbus Day weekend because they went up to $99 per day and then to $199 per day! Talk about gouging! For our next two trips, we booked L&M for one (which scares me, but they were the only ones within reason) and got Alamo via Priceline for the other.

We have had issues with the hurricanes on two of our recent trips with Avis. They were out of cars but did not refuse us; we just had to wait. It was 45 minutes in one instance and only 15 in another (on that one, we got an upgrade too). They were apparently bringing them from another location, which was fine with me. I don't mind a wait in understandable circumstances, but I would be very angry if they would not give me a car at all.

Barb

 

[Tiffany]

Originally posted by DebbieB
Did anyone have an Emerald Club or Quick Rent reservation where they went directly out to the garage? As Carol said, I wonder if the garage was actually empty. I've been there when the aisles were pretty empty but there were lots of cars sitting in the return aisles. I'm sure many people would have taken a car that had not been cleaned vs none at all.

I was thinking the same thing and I have not seen anyone comment on this situation that had a Quick Rent reservation. We use Quick Rent and do not even go near the counter so that would have been interesting.

So, anyone out there have a Quick Rent reservation and not get a car????

 

[Lexxiefern]

Wow, that's horrible.

We flew in the day after Jeanne (Sept 27th) and got our car around 11pm from Emerald Reserve (national). There were plenty of cars. And, incidentally, we returned our car on October 6th - the day you needed one. There were about 12 cars in the return area at 9 am.

 

[JeanG31]

[Q w3wUOTE]Originally posted by susie6505 on Wednesday (10/06/04) at 10:00pm at Orlando Airport and went to get my rental car which I had reserved on-line. Got in line, which was long, and was told they had no cars. I was given a letter that stated the cars were taken 1-way and not returned because of the hurricanes. I asked the gentleman that my hotel had an Alamo Rental Car office and if I could get a car there. He stated there were no cars anywhere. So, I waited 1 hour, and was told there would be no cars until Monday, Oct 11. I was leaving that day. They gave me an account number to take to a counter at the end of the terminal for a transportation company to take me to my hotel, which was 12 miles from the airport. I was told the wait was over 1 hour!!! I decided to get a cab. $40.00 included tip. Went to check in my hotel, and started telling the security gaurd my story. She informed me that the Alamo office had a parking lot full of cars! The next morning I went down to the office and I proceeded to tell the agent about my experience and wanted to get a car here. She said no, because I did not have a reservation at this location. She called the manager, and she said no. Needless to say, I was very angry.

When I got home Monday, I went to www.planetfeedback.com and wrote a letter to the CEO of Alamo and stated the above. The only thing I wanted was the reimbusement for the $40.00 and the cab ride to GatorLand for $60.00. Last night I received an email and they are going to send me a check for $100.00!!

I wanted to let anybody who had problems the week of 10/06/04 to 10/11/04 to use planetfeedback and maybe you can get some real compensation for your troubles. Even though I will be getting my money back, I will never rent from Alamo/National again. [/B][/QUOTE] We were at Disney right after Charley and again on Oct 7, both times we rented from Thrifty and we had no problems getting our rental. When we were there Oct 7 thru the 12 we rented a mini van for 168.00 for the week. When there in Aug. we had a neon for 12 days at the cost of 252.00 total both times I found these prices online.

 

[leebee]

I ran into this same problem during a Dec. trip to WDW, right after 9/11. National had no cars available. They had everyone (counter service and EA) waiting in a huge line in the garage and were driving cars up to customers, still soaking wet from the return area. I had an EA ressie for an intermediate, ended up with a compact, price was adjusted downward (DSis got a full size with her intermed ressie, no cost adjustment UP!). National said it was because all their cars were rented out as one-way rentals while the airways were closed, in the aftermath of the attacks. It is too expensive to try to get the cars back, especially with a new fleet due in Jan. I wonder if that's a similar scenario to now, when rental cars are in very short supply...I too have several reservations, depending of #travelling, availability of upgrade, etc., that I'd intended to cancel so I'd only have 1 ressie when I got to MCO. No cancelling now...all I need is to have no car available, we're staying offsite and DH is already p*#$!d off that we are going agiain this year (he doesn't get WDW, brigns up cost of AP for DD and myself every time there is a money issue), no car would push him right over the edge...hmmm, maybe not such a bad idea...JOKING!!!

 

[DebbieB]

Any reports from the past week or so?

 

[RoutemanDan]

I'm here now,we arrived yesterday at 11 am and the cars were abundant. We booked a full size ,but I noticed the emerald aisle was full with plenty to choose from.

 

[susie6505]

I did receive my check for $100.00 today from Alamo (check my initial post). I was impressed with the short amount of time when they said it would take over a month, but I will not use Alamo/National again. I still feel the customer service was not properly informed, and the managers were not handling the situation at all.

 

[msdis]

We dropped our car off at MLB on Sat and the attendant said things were not any better. He said they were still way overbooked. If we were in MCO a shuttle would not have bothered us. From MLB to WDW was a long drive. We had no room to be flexible. Otherwise we would not have minded too much to have helped out the situation. Our plane was oversold too on the trip home. If they would have allowed us to fly into MCO without penalties we could have helped them out too.

 

[cra-z-4-dizney]

I hope they get there stuff together...I booked for Nov 18-Nov 22...and I do not want to be stranded without a car...should I have back-up ressies???

 

[DebbieB]

If you can get a backup at a decent price, I would. When this thread first hit, I booked Dollar as a backup for Dec 4 to 10 at about the same price as I have National ($140).

 

[inkkognito]

We got Alamo via Priceline for this coming weekend. Hopefully this means the situation has eased...I would hope they wouldn't be accepting bids on Priceline if they still have no availability! We had a great experience with L & M last weekend, so I'm wishing we had gone with them instead. Their bad reputation scared me off but I really liked them.But of course you can't cancel Priceline once you get it.
Barb

 

[susie6505]

Originally posted by cra-z-4-dizney
I hope they get there stuff together...I booked for Nov 18-Nov 22...and I do not want to be stranded without a car...should I have back-up ressies???

Yes - Definetly have a back-up!! I would suggest Hertz, Dollar or Thrifty. L & M is pretty good too. I would not use Budget. I had heard that people who moved over to Budget because Alamo/National were not honoring reservations, were charging over $120+ a day for a compact car!! Enterprise is okay, but they are not open late in the evening (I think they close at 11:00pm). Good luck!!!

 

[cra-z-4-dizney]

Originally posted by susie6505
Yes - Definetly have a back-up!! I would suggest Hertz, Dollar or Thrifty. L & M is pretty good too. I would not use Budget. I had heard that people who moved over to Budget because Alamo/National were not honoring reservations, were charging over $120+ a day for a compact car!! Enterprise is okay, but they are not open late in the evening (I think they close at 11:00pm). Good luck!!!

I did back-up, but for way more.....
Dollar was $173.48, and National was only $123.28...ok wait, just tried Budget and got it for $115.81. Looks like i will cancel the one for Dollar, and just use National as back-up for Budget....sound like a good idea????

 

[PatMcDuck]

Just back, Fri-Mon WDW trip, using National Emerald Aisle. Arrived Friday at about 3pm to find loads of cars on the Aisle. I took a red 2 door Sebring, just to try something different (for me).

 

[RAD]

Used Alamo once, never again.

Used National once, they accused me of damaging their car, which I didn't, never used them again.

Now I'm Avis/Hertz/Budget only.