Getting rent a car 6 1/2 hrs early?

[dis2cruise]

Our southwest flight got canceled. Rebooked an earlier flight now we are now arriving 6 1/2 hrs early into Mco.
since the current car rentals are now sky rocketed and I booked a while ago can we show up to budget with our reservation and pay an hourly difference ??

 

[Ross Kratter]

I'd try to modify your reservation with Budget, but you should be fine; hopefully they'll just adjust the drop-off time to match your pick-up time.

 

[aokeefe]

I have an Alamo reservation booked (booked months ago and a decent rate). Like you, my flight changed and I am now getting in 6 hours earlier. I called Alamo to explain and the agent said- sure no problem and gave me what my new rate would be- it was over $150 dollars difference. She explained she had to give me the new hourly rate at the current rate- not at what I booked (which is what I asked if could be down) Needless to say, I was not happy and said just leave it as is. I figure I will try again with a different agent. I just don't want to show up and be stuck paying that huge increase. I would call Budget.

 

[NotUrsula]

It depends. What day of the week are you getting it, and how long are you keeping it? Many special rates are restricted to certain days and times, and if you have one of those you will not be allowed to pick it up very early without getting reassessed at whatever current rate is available.

(No more than an hour early is usually fine, though; unless you got a weekend rate, in which case no time earlier than noon on Thursday will let you keep it.)

I would suggest that if all else fails, be prepared to kill 5 hours in the airport &/or the onsite Marriott. If you are staying onsite, you could book most of the party on ME, and have only one person wait around for the car rental. (I'd suggest going to your resort and coming back for it, but IME with car rentals at MCO during the pandemic, they are REALLLLLLY slow, so I don't think that would work well. Unless it has changed in the past month or so, all rentals have to go to the counter right now, and they also tend to be short-staffed. The 3 times we have been since last April, it took me nearly 2 hours to get the car rental processed due to the length of the line.)

 

[dis2cruise]

Update...
i called costco about my budget car rental the representative helped me and only charged me the hourly difference to $38.00 in total. This included any of the taxes/ fees As well .

So in the long run it wasn’t as bad if I cancelled and then rebooked. If I Would have rebooked and made a brand new reservation it would’ve been $578 for an intermediate car so in the long run I save myself $178
crazy times

 

[aokeefe]

Update...
i called costco about my budget car rental the representative helped me and only charged me the hourly difference to $38.00 in total. This included any of the taxes/ fees As well .

So in the long run it wasn’t as bad if I cancelled and then rebooked. If I Would have rebooked and made a brand new reservation it would’ve been $578 for an intermediate car so in the long run I save myself $178
crazy times

Good to hear! I also booked through Costco but when I called I was re-directed to Alamo. I will try Costco again.

 

[spiders]

It looks like you got it figured out with Costco but I think you would have been fine either way. Generally, the biggest difference you will see by picking up a car early is that it will in fact change your estimate of charges to be higher. Sometimes at an hourly rate but 6 hours usually is enough to simply bump it to a daily rate. This will change the hold on your card. However, assuming if you return 6 hours early then the system usually reverts back to the original estimate as if nothing had changed.

 

[_19disnA]

If you arrive 6 hrs before your scheduled pickup time, you might find the car isn't yet available. If there is a large demand for cars, I would imagine the turnaround time is less then 6 hrs for them to clean/wash/refill the vehicle.

 

[aokeefe]

Update...
i called costco about my budget car rental the representative helped me and only charged me the hourly difference to $38.00 in total. This included any of the taxes/ fees As well .

So in the long run it wasn’t as bad if I cancelled and then rebooked. If I Would have rebooked and made a brand new reservation it would’ve been $578 for an intermediate car so in the long run I save myself $178
crazy times

Do you know which number you called? I tried again and the Costco travel number brings me directly to Alamo (and once again it was an extra $150)

 

[dis2cruise]

Do you know which number you called? I tried again and the Costco travel number brings me directly to Alamo (and once again it was an extra $150)

Yes, I called the Costco number for car rentals and then went through the prompts