Has anyone rented a vehicle at JAX?

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We are doing our first non-Orlando Florida trip in May, and spending a week in St. Augustine. We are flying in and out of JAX.

We have rented a vehicle on every single Florida trip thus far, except for our very first visit. All but once, those vehicles have been picked up at MCO where the counter lines can be CRAZY. For that reason, we almost always use Alamo as we can skip the counter and go straight to the garage. We have used Budget a couple of times and had extremely poor experiences both times.....their counter, especially, is a hot mess at MCO regardless of the hour.

With JAX being a much smaller airport, can anyone tell me if the rental counter lines there are similarly long to those in MCO? Alamo is currently SKY high for May out of JAX ($630 for a full size car.....ugh), though of course I will be checking rates from now until our travel date and rebooking if prices decline. We have also had two garbage vehicles on our last two rentals with Alamo, so I'm really not feeling their warm and fuzzies right now. That said, I don't want to pick a different agency and spend an hour plus in line just to pick up a car if at all possible.

Anyone with some first hand experience that they could share?

 

[N5girl]

I rented a truck from Hertz Jax in 2020 - arrived about 5pm and the wait was about 10 mins (they had a gold rewards desk so that may have made it quicker). I remember it because we got upgraded to a Ram 2500. From recollection there was no skipping the counter option.

If they don’t have a skip the counter option, I think it is pot luck if you have a long wait. You could end up stuck behind someone who takes 30 mins to go through ALL the insurance options.

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

I have rented a couple times at JAX. Lines appeared much shorter than MCO. I used Hertz and they had the keys waiting for me (and a separate, even shorter line for people that join their rewards program) with my paperwork as soon as I stepped up to the desk. The cars are just outside the door form there. A very easy process