Car rental question?

[ChiTownZee]

What time of the day do you think the best time would be to pick up a rental car? I'm picking up a van before my family gets in and was wondering if certain times of the day would have better selections.

 

[ChiTownZee]

Has anyone ever booked through Sam's Club, or the like? I'm hoping to be able to call National back after the reservation is made through Sams website and add my Emerald number.

 

[ahutton]

As for time of day - I have never had much problem except late at night with selection. You can always call first to make sure they have a few available. Are you doing an off-airport location? If not you might consider it as most airport locations charge an extra tax that is different for people who have flown within the last 24 hours as opposed to people who are local.

After you make the reservation and have a National confirmation number you should be able to call or go to their site and amend your reservation to include the number. I actually got a room from Hotwire that turned out to be a Westin and was able to go put my Starwood number in the following business day.

 

[jfulcer]

Originally posted by ChiTownZee
Has anyone ever booked through Sam's Club, or the like? I'm hoping to be able to call National back after the reservation is made through Sams website and add my Emerald number.

1st, I would think midmorning would be best - that way anyway that was leaving has already left and those arriving that day are still on their way.

As for booking, why not just use the Sams booking number on the National site and bypass the Sams site entirely. Good luck!

 

[ChiTownZee]

Originally posted by jfulcer
................As for booking, why not just use the Sams booking number on the National site and bypass the Sams site entirely. Good luck!

I tried the code but it was still almost $200 more. Have no clue WHY, but whatever. I did book through sams website and called National after to add my Emerald number to the reservation. It took some doing to add it and keep that rate but it finally worked! Now here's hoping there's an 8 passenger van somwhere on the lot when I get there!