Couldn't believe it, but Alamo gave me a free upgrade to a minivan at MCO on my trip last week

[kathy884]

I wanted to book a minivan for our spring break trip, but just booked a standard car due to costs. Every time I checked reputable car rental places costs were over $1000 for my week, too rich for my blood. Anyway I settled on a seven day rental of a standard car with Alamo for $350 for the week that I booked way in advance. The month before my trip when I checked prices booking late even that would have been just over $600. To my surprise when I got to the row with cars, they said to pick any car in one of the lanes. I said, "What about that Dodge Caravan minivan.? Can I get that without any additional cost?" And OMG they said yes. Anyway, it was so nice to have the minivan for a week, as we had six people. This meant we could all fit in the car and didn't have to do ubers except when we were splitting up.

I wouldn't count on being able to do this. But this would encourage me to use Alamo again and carefully look at all the options in the row of cars to choose from. was

 

[Sweettears]

Lots of minivans in Orlando. Supply and demand

 

[_19disnA]

Over the years, have rented cars at several different airports while on vacation or traveling on business. Typically, most rental companies will upgrade you to a larger vehicle for no extra charge if the particular size vehicle you reserved isn't available. That isn't specific to Alamo. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen randomly at times.

 

[kathy884]

Over the years, have rented cars at several different airports while on vacation or traveling on business. Typically, most rental companies will upgrade you to a large vehicle for no extra charge if the particular size vehicle you reserved isn't available. That isn't specific to Alamo. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen randomly at times.

I've found that too. The difference here was that there were lots of vehicles in my car class available, but they let me go with a minivan anyway. I don't rent cars all that often, but this is the first time I got a substantial free upgrade at no cost, when lots of cars in the car class I reserved were available.

 

[Princesca]

Given gas prices, there's a conception that minivans are markedly worse on mileage and most people probably don't want them these days. Maybe that's why? We got upgraded on Enterprise for a trip we took last summer. We rented a sedan and they put us in a Pacifica. It was awesome.

 

[kathy884]

Given gas prices, there's a conception that minivans are markedly worse on mileage and most people probably don't want them these days. Maybe that's why? We got upgraded on Enterprise for a trip we took last summer. We rented a sedan and they put us in a Pacifica. It was awesome.

That's awesome. Enterprise now owns Alamo and National. Maybe all three do this on occasion.

 

[yeahdisney]

In January. I had prepaid for a car. And was given a huge 4x 4. I knew I couldn’t park it at akl underneath parking easily so I went back; had to wait a few minutes and got a car.
The family behind was thrilled to get it.

 

[Eastern]

We had the same recent experience with Alamo. Could choose any car in the row, and got a minivan for the standard car price. I chose it over an SUV. Minivans are so comfy.

 

[LynnTH]

My son works for Enterprise. He is currently at the Airport location for 4 months. Before Covid and all the shutdowns - they would have over 7,000 cars at the airport. Now they only have about half that many. They have to work with the availability of cars they have on any given day. It is crazy. So many are given different cars than what they paid for.

 

[Goofy4]

That's awesome. Enterprise now owns Alamo and National. Maybe all three do this on occasion.

yes, we got an upgrade to a full-size SUV with Enterprise. Walked out to the lot, car wasn't there, so we got the next level up. In fact, we may have been the first renters of a brand-new car.

I wish that could be counted upon. The used to have a "last-minute-deals" site, but I think that's gone.

 

[NotUrsula]

We rented off Emerald's Aisle at MCO 2 weeks ago, and it was *full* of SUVs. Once upon a time I might have taken one just for the heck of it, but not with current fuel prices. We happily took a Camry, with it's much better gas mileage. (It also didn't hurt that it was light-colored and had a grey interior, not black. Last time we accepted a black car with a black interior at MCO it cost us a $500 insurance deductible for a spontaneously cracked windshield after parking it for a day at DAK.)

 

[kevtlas]

I’ve had some luck with upgrades recently as well. As someone mentioned above, there were pretty slim pickins at times, so I think they were just giving whatever was available. Not that I’m complaining lol

 

[sk!mom]

We have rented often over the years and often get upgrades. They have to give you what you booked or better. Managing inventory isn’t easy, especially now, so upgrades happen. I think, especially this year (and last actually,) inventory is low, rental and fuel prices are high so most people are booking the smallest car that will meet their needs. That leaves more larger cars unbooked and more upgrades.

Last summer, we were upgraded from an intermediate to an SUV for a Michigan road trip. We just returned from Ireland. Thankfully we got the small standard transmission car we booked. With the narrow Irish roads, tight parking, and fuel costs, we did not want a larger car.

 

[tvguy]

Lots of minivans in Orlando. Supply and demand

Interesting. I would think this time of year demand with families vacationing would be higher for mini-vans.

 

[Mle8308]

Same happened to me, I rented a compact car (it was just me) and they gave me a full size SUV. I said no, I did not want such a large car, I'm not used to driving a huge SUV and did not want to start in Orlando! The attendant seemed a little surprised. I said I'd take an economy sized car, I would prefer that. They ended up giving me a really small SUV, which was much better than the Tahoe!

 

[Sweettears]

Interesting. I would think this time of year demand with families vacationing would be higher for mini-vans.

My thought was that many people drive them to Orlando from their home base and return them in Orlando