Emerald Aisle surprise

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Bev,
Sure do remember and it worked out for you. Sometimes it makes you wonder.
I usually get straight answers out of the airlines, however.

 

[tinkandme]

Hi SGT.Disney,

In your earlier post you mentioned you would just use the Dollar reservaton instead
of going thru the trouble with national. My question, if everything went well with
national what happens with your ressie with dollar? Are you charged in any way
for not filling the ressie from Dollar? And then the reverse, If you used Dollar, what happens with the National ressie? This sounds like a great way to solve a bunch of problems. I too have had a disaster with Alamo, and had wished I had another ressie with someone else.

Thank You,
TinkandMe

 

[nluvwithdisney]

I know it's not Florida, however I used EA in Atlanta this past weekend. We arrived and there were many intermediate and economy size cars on the aisle. I told the attendant, and he said to wait or choose from the Full-size aisle. My reservation stated Full-size or your choice at the aisle. In the end, I was quite happy. I received a premium car (Pontiac Bonneville) fully loaded. I did have to race someone to get it.

On the return, I noticed a greater selection of vehicles including premium and luxury. I will be interested in seeing what happens in Florida in November.

National needs to honor our reservations. If we can choose intermediate or full-size for the same price then I deserve no less than full-size if that's what my confirmation says.

One more question, why does national put economy on Emerald Aisle? That seems pretty ridiculous if they are pushing midsize thru full size options on EA.

 

[Gillian]

I was told that the EA was sticked with midsize through full size cars. What economy cars did you see? There is no way I would take an economy car if my confirmation says full size, even if I was travelling by myself!

 

[nluvwithdisney]

Gillian,

I saw many Toyota Corrollas on the Aisle. I wasn't about to put one on the highways in Georgia & Alabama. I pretty sure that they aren't midsize cars.

 

[sgtdisney]

Originally posted by tinkandme
Hi SGT.Disney,

In your earlier post you mentioned you would just use the Dollar reservaton instead
of going thru the trouble with national. My question, if everything went well with
national what happens with your ressie with dollar? Are you charged in any way
for not filling the ressie from Dollar? And then the reverse, If you used Dollar, what happens with the National ressie? This sounds like a great way to solve a bunch of problems. I too have had a disaster with Alamo, and had wished I had another ressie with someone else.

Thank You,
TinkandMe

Dollar never charges or asks for your credit card when you hold a reservation with them. So, if the National reservation were to fall through, I would tell them to cancel that reservation and just go to Dollar. Going the other way, from Dollar to National is a little more complicated, as National has your credit card information, if you are using Emerald Club that is. In that case you would have to find some way to cancel your National reservation if you went with the Dollar reservation. Avis, and I think Budget don't take your credit card info to hold a reservation, so this would work with them as well.

 

[tinkandme]

sgtdisney,
I see, What a great idea, so you could lock in a good rate at dollar as well.
I was very tempted to leave the Alamo counter to go to another, but was afraid of the rate
that I would get, this way I can know ahead and use it if I need to. Thank you for explaining!

 

[JandD Mom]

To make things even more murky, there is the ambiguity on whether your spouse can drive the car you rented. The web site says they can't. The brochure with the contract for the EC says they can. I emailed National about it and they say any EC member can drive your car. So I signed by DH up for EC so we do not have to pay the extra fee. What's up with that? I think I would have a great argument that, if charged for an extra driver, the contract does say spouses could drive, and they never sent me an amendment.

Bottom line is, National customer service is just plain sloppy.

 

[briane]

JandD Mom,

I agree with you about sloppy. I called about a month ago and talked to Emerald Club about driving for free when the reservation is in my wife's name. He said "I'm pretty sure that is ok".

I'm "pretty sure" that I don't want a hassle so I made my own reservation.

How can any customer service person say "pretty sure" about anything other than the weather?

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

JandD Mom,
Perhaps you are confusing authorized drivers and free authorized drivers.
According to my contract, " a member of my immediate family who permanently lives with me: or a business partner, employer or regular employee who drives the Vehicle for business purposes" are the only authorized drivers.
The national sites adds this: Authorized Drivers

Free (in the United States and Canada) – An Emerald Club member, business partner, employer, or fellow associate who drives the car for business purposes.
All other additional authorized driver situations are subject to a daily charge.

Additional Authorized Drivers

All additional drivers must meet ALL rental qualifications in regard to age, credit card, and driving record as well as all other standard rental qualifications.
Must appear at the rental counter with the primary renter.
Must present a valid driver's license.
Must sign the rental agreement.
Must present an acceptable credit card in his/her own name.

The way I read this is: They are free if they are part of the business or a relative with an emerald card. If the relative does not have a EC, they can drive, but, must pay.

I don't think you have much of an arguement as the contract says nothing about spouses or family members being free from an extra driver charge.

As to being sloppy, I must respectfully disagree.

As to being "pretty sure" from another post, some people in some areas of the country speak like this, it means yes, you can. If you want a more salient answer, call again. I did call, asked the same question and stated that the spouse was an EC member, they said no charge, I asked what would happen if the spouse was not an EC member, they said, there would be a charge. Why don't I have problems getting an answer?

 

[JandD Mom]

Sorry Gail, but I must respectfully disagree with you. I just so happened to have a copy of the EC contract in my office with me today (an unusual occurrance) so I reviewed the provision you made reference to. You are right, it does say an authorized driver is someone who lives with you etc. BUT, there is no reference to having to pay an additional fee for these drivers. The first, and only reference to there being something called a "free authorized driver" seems to be some language on the web site. This language has never been incorporated into the EC contract. IN fact, EC is still sending people the contracts with the original language (my DH just got one recently, with the same language I have in mine, and you have in yours). I do not know whether that web site language is supposed to be an amendment to the contract, a change to the contract, or some inartfully worded policy some web designer stuck on the web site. So if my spouse was not an EC member, and if EC tried to charge me for his driving a car I rented, I would certainly dispute it with National and my credit card company, with the contract language in hand. ANd I would bet I would be successful.

However, rather than go through that, I did get my DH an EC membership, so the point is moot. I do reiterate my opinion that National handled this issue in a sloppy fashion. I would recommend that people just get their spouse an EC membership to avoid the issue.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

JandD Mom,
Oh, I do enjoy respectful disagreements. However, the fact that it does not list the words " FREE" in our contract, one is disposed to presume that it is with a charge.
The fact that we utilitze "FAQ's" online is no subsitution to the original agreement, that, btw, we agreed to when we signed up for our cards.
Authorized and "free" are two different things. And.....you are totally correct, it is now a moot point.
Also, Alamo (sister company to National) does not have any provisions for free drivers with their QS program and the wording is almost identical. As is, Budgets, Dollars, Hertz's, etc.
I think we should get them all, what do you think?

 

[DonnaDavid]

I've had good experiences on the EA (no, I've never have gotten a minivan like I would like). However, I now have 3 kids and I'm worried about wedging them and all of our luggage in a full-size car. Therefore, at the moment I have a reservation for a Full-size car on the EA and a minivan at Dollar (National wants a mere $400+ for a minivan for the end of Sept.) I'm sure everyone has read the cancellation fee posts - for those of you who use two reservations as a back-up plan, how do you plan on getting around National's $50 cancellation fee? I could see justifying not using the EA reservation by saying you weren't happy with the way National fulfilled the terms of your reservation; however, it seems like arguing with them would be a lot of grief.

 

[DMRick]

In my welcoming email from National and EA, is the following sentence.:

In addition to these benefits you also receive automatic frequent flyer credit, no additional driver fees and online profile update anytime.

So, although my hubby and I are both members, this tells me, that an additional driver is feeless...anyone read this different (BTW, before I signed him up, I did call, and they told me spouses are always free)?

 

[beattyfamily]

The way I read it at their website (under "Benefits")....

Free (in the United States and Canada) – An Emerald Club members spouse, business partner, employer, or fellow associate who has an assigned corporate contract with National and drives the car for business purposes.

leads me to believe it should be read like this:

Free Authorized Drivers:

1. Spouse
2. Business partner, employer, or fellow associate who has an assigned corporate contract with National AND drives the car for business purposes.

I don't think the Spouse "has" to be a Emerald Club member the way it is worded. That last sentance is saying that the fellow associate has to have an assigned corporate contract with National AND is driving the car for business purposes. I don't think the spouse would be "driving the car for business purposes".

Unless, National is saying that the Emerald Club is just for business people and if your spouse is going to drive then she needs to be an employee of yours and an Emerald Club member???

This is just my opinion after reading the paragraph over and over again....

 

[idontknow]

Wow! Where are the English majors when you need them? LOL I refuse to get in the middle of this with my oppinion of how it reads to me. What I do see with all of the quotes is terrible english on National's part. Adjective, adjective, adjective, noun. (sorry if I'm wrong, we just started school today and only gotten to homophones. )

 

[lady400]

I'm not getting into the argument about the wording. However, on a recent visit (couple of weeks ago), I tried to give my EC card to the agent at the exit booth at avoid this charge (the rental was in my hubby's name, and under his EC number). She handed it back immediately, saying that she didn't need it, that spouses of EC members were automatically free.

So, no matter how it's written, that was my experience.