Emerald Aisle / Emerald Reserve question

[cigar95]

This one was probably answered while I was away . . . I scrolled back a few screens to check if I could find anything.

Back in January I made an Emerald Aisle reservation for a full size car for our July trip. Now, of course, full size cars are handled by Emerald Reserve.

When our trip comes, which aisle do I go to - the EA, or the full size aisle?

Thanks for your help - I mailed National but got no reply.

(We're actually picking the car up in Miami and driving to WDW, but I don't think that makes any difference in this case.)

 

[beattyfamily]

Many people are in your boat including me. So far no one has gone to MCO since this new change and reported back yet...

Anyway, my reservation says Emerald Aisle or Full size so that is what I am going to do. I plan on checking out the EA and if there's nothing good, which there's a good chance there won't be since they say it will be stocked with Intermediates mostly, I'll head right next door to the Full size Aisle.

I called EC about this back when they made the changes and all she said was there was nothing stopping me from getting something from the EA but that it would probably be a downgrade.

But she also told me that when they have a overflow of a certain kind of car like a PT cruiser or a Jeep or an SUV, they will go in the EA.

Even right after I made my reservation and the agent on the phone looked at it she said "it looks like you were upgraded to a Full size from Intermediate so you can go to the EA" even though that's not the case...I booked a Full size, no upgrade.

That's my plan.

 

[cigar95]

(bump)

I plead guilty to not having followed the forum that closely lately.

Have we learned anything more about what happens to previous Emerald Aisle reservations since the change to Emerald Reserve?

 

[Ralph&Pam]

They honor the reservation as printed on your confirmation. You can go to either EA or full size aisle with this reservation, since the EA is frequently lacking in full size cars since the change was implemented.

We had reserved EA--Full Size prior to the change to Emerald Reserve, arrival at MCO on Sunday, 1 June. Checked the aisle for a suitable full size then went to the full size aisle to check choices there. Selected a white Toyota Camry. The Camry is my preferred full size. It was the only Camry on either aisle and had only 4000 miles on it (and also a nice remote lock/trunk control like my DW's Honda Accord; first time I've seen that on a National full size car). I had no problem checking out with this car. Charges were actually about $18 less than expected: just under $200 including taxes and fees for 10 days total; the original reservation was for 11 days because we expected to return the car about 3 hours later in the day than we had picked it up. In fact, the pick up was later than on the reservation and the drop off was earlier, so we were still in the one hour grace period National appears to give in determining their 24-hour day count; this kept us in the 10th day of the rental period.

Note added: there were a number of PT Cruisers on the EA. Not our thing, so we passed these up, but they do appear to be a popular choice.

Ralph

 

[DebbieB]

The same thing happened to me last month. I had an EA full size reserved in February before the change. Nothing good on EA, I took a Camry off the full size. My final bill was $12 less! $110 vs $122.