Anyone checked out a rental car early from alamo?

[tuckerkeys]

So, Our rental car is booked with alamo at a great rate! Our flight has changed to an earlier arrival time, and it looks as if we will be there 2-3 hrs earlier than anticipated! Great, except, I have never rented from alamo before & do not know their policy regarding renting a car early

With national, there was always a grace period. They do not charge you if you're early by a few hrs. Does alamo do this, or do i have to wait? I do not want to get charged for this extra time & when i go to change everything to the new times, my excellent rate is gone!

 

[bumbershoot]

With national they just bump the return time to match the pickup time, in our experience. So you still have the same number of days/hours of rental. They are the same company so I'm not sure policies would be that different.

Can you call Alamo to see if they can switch it so you don't have to worry about it?

 

[bastraker]

We just did this with Alamo. Picked up the car a couple hours early because of the early flight.

Yes, they do charge you another day if the times of your pick up and drop off are not the same. The print out automatically charged me for an extra day(I did this at the kiosk). However, I went to the counter and spoke to the agent, he said that as long as I return the car before the 24 hour time period, I would not be charged for the extra day. I did have to return the car much earlier so I wouldn't go over the 24 hours and I was not charged for the extra day.

Hope this helps.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Just try modifying your booking and see if the price changes or do a dummy booking for the right time and see if the price is the same.

Don't show up at the rental car counter a few hours early and count on your car being there. It may not. It's better to change to the correct time.

 

[bumbershoot]

when i go to change everything to the new times, my excellent rate is gone!

The OP said she had tried to change it. That's why I suggested calling, as they can sometimes work magic that we cannot.

 

[Yellowjj]

You can pick up cars early, however you can't return it at the time you had specified when booked, otherwise you will trigger repricing. It must be in a 24Hr window. So if you need the car until the original drop off time, I'd suggest finding a seat in the airport/car center and getting comfy for the extra 2 hours you now have.

 

[kristenrice]

What if your rental is less than 24 hours to begin with?

I'm planning on picking up our rental car at 5pm, driving to the airport hotel, and returning it at the airport prior to our 7am flight. The rental car counter doesn't open until 8am so I just listed that as our return time. As of now, I am planning to work until 3pm which is why I scheduled the pick up at 5pm, but I may end up with the day off. If that happens, we would like to get on the road a little earlier to avoid the traffic. We are not renting from an airport location and we are using Budget/Avis. Would I be ok picking it up around 3?

 

[Yellowjj]

You should be fine. Theoretically you can actually pick it up from 8am if you take the day off and desire to do so, as that would equal to a 24Hr period.

Is this a small airport? A airport rental counter that doesn't open until 8am; wow.

 

[kristenrice]

You should be fine. Theoretically you can actually pick it up from 8am if you take the day off and desire to do so, as that would equal to a 24Hr period.

Is this a small airport? A airport rental counter that doesn't open until 8am; wow.

FNT...very small...love it! The counter is actually open at 7am on the weekdays and 9am on weekends. Last time we flew out, it was on a weekend so that's why I was thinking it opened later. We are driving from Grand Rapids to fly out of FNT. We need the rental car because we are flying back home into GRR.