Help! National pick up time question

[JandD Mom]

Hello National experts. I have a question about a reservation I made when national dropped its rates for arrival in November. When I made the reservation, I knew the dates we were going, and I knew that we would be flying late in the day. So I reserved the car for arrival at 7pm.

I was considering booking my flights today and, based on the available flights at the lowest rate, I can take a flight that arrives at 4 pm (3 hours before the reserved time, assuming an on time arrival) or one that arrives at 9 pm (2 hours after the scheduled arrival time). If I were to book the flight and I pick up the car at a time that deviates from what I reserved by a few hours, will my rate change? Will national let me change the reservation and adjust the time without changing the rate? My history with National is any time you let anyone touch the reservation, you run the risk that the rate will change.

Thanks!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Being early or late does not really matter. They will hold your reservation 24 hours past the original pickup time. The only joker in the deck if you arrive early and your return time stays the same you may have to pay an additional day. If that occurs, you can call them before your trip and change the time. They rent in 24 hour blocks of time. Hopefully, this made sense.

 

[DebbieB]

A couple of years ago I made a National reservation for noon, thinking we would take our usual morning flight. Turned out airfares never went down for that morning, so we decided to fly in the night before, arriving after 9:00pm. We took a shuttle to an airport hotel (about 1 mile away), spent the night and took the shuttle back in the morning (picking up the car that night would have been alot higher since the rates had gone up). Picked up the car about 8:00am with no problem, no questions asked. As Gail said, the only thing to watch for is if you go into another 24 hour period from the time you pickup compared to the return time. In our case, the return time was around 5:00pm so it didn't matter.

 

[JandD Mom]

Thanks a lot! I did book the car when the rates were much lower, so I would hate to lose this reservation.

Thanks, as always, for your sage advice!

 

[NotUrsula]

Do check the price anyway; just act like you never made another reservation in the first place. Whatever you do, don't cancel your old one first, or try to change your existing ressie.

Depending on the length of your stay and what day of the week your rental starts and ends, the rate might actually be lower. I had a 4.5 day rental once, and I was initially quoted the daily rate. When I re-priced it with an earlier pickup, I qualified for a weekly rate that turned out to be cheaper. You can always reserve it for an earlier time than you really need it; just be sure that you leave plenty of time to make the drop-off time.