LAX car rentals...

[hsmamato2]

any input as to good/bad companies at LAX? we are renting from Alamo,I believe all rental places are offsite here? How does Alamo do in the area? I know each area has better/worse places to choose,I've learned that along the way a number of times....

 

[Tigerlily75]

I used Alamo, however I picked up from Anaheim and dropped off at LAX. They were great, I am using them again in September. All are off site and run shuttles to the terminals.

 

[ktlm]

We used Alamo last week. We picked up at LAX and dropped off at SNA. It was very easy. It is my understanding that all rental companies are offsite at LAX. We walked to the pick up curb and almost immediately had a bus pull up to take us to the rental location. At the rental location they had a ton of kiosks and if you wanted a person, the line was not too long for the counter. Alamo sends you to their rows of available cars in the category you rented and tells you to pick any car you like- the keys are in the car, so you just pull them out, load up and go. It was nice to have choices and we had a lot to chose from. Also, it is a pretty high volume place, so new ones were coming in to add to our choices as we were walking down the aisle. Our only issue was another customer and we were heading for the same car at the same time because we both wanted it- they got there first- no big deal. We went to another car and in examining it saw that it looked like it had been in a wreck involving the corner and the mileage was a little high- so we pulled our bags back out of that one, put the keys back in it, and chose another one that they had just pulled in and parked which we really liked. It was great to be able to make our own choice on which car to take. I would absolutely rent from Alamo again at LAX. Based on our experience, you made a good choice.

 

[daughtersrus]

We used Alamo on Saturday. We reserved a mini van and were able to get a Yukon for the same price. Apparently they didn't have enough mini vans so they put the premium SUV in their place. It was a nice perk.

 

[hsmamato2]

Thanks! I hope they have minivans when we get there, as we have 6-7 people....

 

[bumbershoot]

Alamo and national have a huge facility. We couldn't use them the other day because of no dropoff place in Long Beach proper. We used Avis. By the time an Avis bus picked us up (first bus went straight past us) 30 min later there had been countless Alamo/national buses and many Hertz buses.

 

[Daisybell911]

I'm using thrifty. Is there a bus per company or just a generic car rental bus that takes you to an area where they all are. I called and thrifty said one bus goes where you need it but it sounds different. I'm starting to worry. We land at 11am and have 3pm reservations at Ariels. I hope we can make it.

 

[bumbershoot]

There's not just one bus. Alamo and national are the same company so they have one facility. I can't remember if thrifty was with another brand or not but you have to look for the thrift bus. The companies are in the same basic area but they aren't in one big facility.

I personally wouldn't want to bet on that 3pm time.

If you land on time
If you aren't sitting on the Tarmac like we were
If you don't have problems with the ramp like a friend did yesterday morning (plane had to be towed to new gate then wait for ramp, which meant people had to put bags back into the bins and sit back down)
If people get off the plane quickly
If bags come off quickly
If there aren't a huge number of people waiting already
If the shuttle comes quickly and isn't already full
If there's no line once you get to the rental place and the car is right with no issues
If traffic is decent
If you can get parked and over to dca and all the way to ariels by that time.

I'm exhausted thinking of the places where time might compress too much.


But I am very conservative with timing. I'm a recovering "late to everything" person.

 

[Daisybell911]

Thanks for the advice! Luckily I could move my reservation to 4:10. If I can't get a car and make it to Ariels in 5 hours (assuming the flight arrives on time), it'll be a sad day.