My experience with Avis through UCT

[Mrs~Incredible]

Wanted to share my experience from today in case this helps anyone else.

Also, much thanks to this board for helping me learn how to strategize this.

For the last 7-8 trips we rented from Alamo and used their skip the counter feature. Was always a great experience but their prices were astronomical this year.

Found a great deal for Avis through UCT- almost half of the Alamo price.

Wanted to be able to skip the counter at MCO, but read here to go to my local Avis first so they could get the system set up for us.

This is what we did:
1. Booked online through UCT- prepaid in full but 100% cancellable
2. Created an Avis account and got a “wizard” number.
3. Downloaded the Avis app. Our reservation was not there (this was expected as it was booked with a 3rd party uct).
4. Went to local Avis. Explained what we wanted to do. They found our reservation and wizard number.
5. They needed to create a “fake” reservation in order to have our credit card and everything in the system. This was for a $40 daily rental and $200 deposit, so it is a $240 pending charge.
6. They cancelled the fake rental immediately so we will never get charged that $240, but now we are in the system for the MCO rental.
7. Now our MCO reservation shows up in the app
8. Once we land, the app will show us our car (and my understanding is we can select a different model in the same class from the app if desired)
9. Once we get our luggage we can skip the counter and go right to the car
10. If we do need the counter for any reason we can go to the preferred line.

So it was actually easier than I thought. Also, our Avis rep literally just did this for himself because he is going to Orlando next week to go to universal. We discussed roller coasters and it was very pleasant.

Hope our list of steps helps someone else.

I’ll report back if any issues arise.

 

[reddog21]

I think your definition of easy is far different than mine.

 

[eticketplease]

I think your definition of easy is far different than mine.

I agree that is a lot of steps up front but it should save time when the OP lands which is the end game here.

I think it is always better to do these things with someone local then wait and wait and wait at MCO.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

Yes- just trying to save time and hassle at the counter when we land- would rather take care of things now. Just want to zip right to our car when we get there. Hopefully we’ve done that and will be enjoying the extra cash we did not spend on Alamo!

 

[CarolynFH]

Yes- just trying to save time and hassle at the counter when we land- would rather take care of things now. Just want to zip right to our car when we get there. Hopefully we’ve done that and will be enjoying the extra cash we did not spend on Alamo!

Please report back, even if just to say “It worked!”

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Please report back, even if just to say “It worked!”

That's the same thing I'm thinking
So far, this is a theory and not "OP's experience" yet.
That will be when they've picked up the rental

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

That's the same thing I'm thinking
So far, this is a theory and not "OP's experience" yet.
That will be when they've picked up the rental

I researched this a bit on these boards and it looks like it worked for others, but I was still stressed about the steps so thought I’d put them here in case it helps anyone else.

Our trip is in November- I will report back!

 

[Halle]

Thank you for reporting this.

 

[Bullseye]

I researched this a bit on these boards and it looks like it worked for others, but I was still stressed about the steps so thought I’d put them here in case it helps anyone else.

Our trip is in November- I will report back!

so are you saying others have reported being able to do the same thing? My concern would be that you got someone at Avis who was flexible. but not every rep would be willing to do this.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

so are you saying others have reported being able to do the same thing? My concern would be that you got someone at Avis who was flexible. but not every rep would be willing to do this.

If you search Avis and UCT here, there are a couple of posts where people recommended going to the local Avis first to get things squared away in the system if you are a new customer to them. If you are new and just go down to mco you will have to wait in the regular counter line. Which isn’t the biggest deal in the world, but I wanted to try to avoid that.
One poster said that they did it on the phone.
It seems there may be a few ways to do this.
I hate the airport counter line and wanted to try to “skip the counter” with our Avis rental.
Hopefully it all works out.

 

[EACarlson]

I think I can explain what's happening behind the scenes and the programming loophole this is falling into. Booking through UCT creates an Avis reservation. You go out and create a Wizard account with a placeholder reservation. Avis attaches a doc check to the placeholder. Avis then scrapes their data to find other reservations with the same DL# attached. This finds the UCT reservation and attaches it to your new Wizard account. Because you were at the Avis counter making the placeholder they marked it as a completed doc check. This allows you to skip the counter for all future rentals with Avis attached to your Wizard.
The thing that always prevented you from utilizing the Wizard features was there was no way to get your number attached to the UCT booking, when Avis scrapes the reservation data it finds it for new Wizard accounts. Theoretically this would also work if you had multiple UCT reservations, you would have to stop at the counter for the first one for the doc check but not subsequent.

@Bullseye is correct, the applicability of this is advice is going to depend a lot on who you get at the local store. If it were me working, I wouldn't want to spend a bunch of my time creating a fake reservation, creating the Wizard account, doing the doc check and then cancelling it all for someone that isn't even a customer of mine.

 

[Bullseye]

I think I can explain what's happening behind the scenes and the programming loophole this is falling into. Booking through UCT creates an Avis reservation. You go out and create a Wizard account with a placeholder reservation. Avis attaches a doc check to the placeholder. Avis then scrapes their data to find other reservations with the same DL# attached. This finds the UCT reservation and attaches it to your new Wizard account. Because you were at the Avis counter making the placeholder they marked it as a completed doc check. This allows you to skip the counter for all future rentals with Avis attached to your Wizard.
The thing that always prevented you from utilizing the Wizard features was there was no way to get your number attached to the UCT booking, when Avis scrapes the reservation data it finds it for new Wizard accounts. Theoretically this would also work if you had multiple UCT reservations, you would have to stop at the counter for the first one for the doc check but not subsequent.

@Bullseye is correct, the applicability of this is advice is going to depend a lot on who you get at the local store. If it were me working, I wouldn't want to spend a bunch of my time creating a fake reservation, creating the Wizard account, doing the doc check and then cancelling it all for someone that isn't even a customer of mine. it sounds like you know the rental business.

EA it sounds like you know the rental business. You lost me at "scrapes" . Many of us have accounts with most of the bigger rental companies to take advantage of member perks. It's unfortunate you lose them with third party rentals. Once they can see the reservation in their system and they know who you are, why not offer all the same advantages? They're the one's that contracted with UCT and you're still patronizing them either way, so why the second class status?

 

[EACarlson]

EA it sounds like you know the rental business. You lost me at "scrapes" . Many of us have accounts with most of the bigger rental companies to take advantage of member perks. It's unfortunate you lose them with third party rentals. Once they can see the reservation in their system and they know who you are, why not offer all the same advantages? They're the one's that contracted with UCT and you're still patronizing them either way, so why the second class status?

Why should the company extend loyalty benefits to those that are using other methods to book and costing them money? I look at it the same way as I do hotel status benefits, if I book a rate through Priceline for a Hilton, should I get the Diamond benefits? For some properties those benefits might be worth $100, I don't think Hilton should be on the hook for that when I booked through another channel to save money. Those are the tradeoffs you make, there are some 3rd parties that allow you to put in your loyalty numbers. I only book through Priceline using Autoslash, with them I've been able to attach my loyalty number to bookings from Budget, Avis, Thrifty, Hertz, National and Alamo.

 

[Lewisc]

why not offer all the same advantages? They're the one's that contracted with UCT and you're still patronizing them either way, so why the second class status?

Some define a loyal customer as one who is willing to pay a premium price. A customer who books through UT is the exact opposite. Booking based on price.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

Reporting back. When we landed in the airport, the app did not seem to be working correctly and we were confused so just went to the “preferred line” which was about 3 people deep. Got a car with an upgrade and we were on our way.

After that, and being loyal Alamo customers for 10 years, my husband and I will be switching to doing the Avis deal through UCT if it is there.

 

[DVC Sue]

I’m glad this worked for you but I’m afraid to try it.

 

[WalkingintheFog]

interesting!

 

[jujubiee4]

Wanted to share my experience from today in case this helps anyone else.

Also, much thanks to this board for helping me learn how to strategize this.

For the last 7-8 trips we rented from Alamo and used their skip the counter feature. Was always a great experience but their prices were astronomical this year.

Found a great deal for Avis through UCT- almost half of the Alamo price.

Wanted to be able to skip the counter at MCO, but read here to go to my local Avis first so they could get the system set up for us.

This is what we did:
1. Booked online through UCT- prepaid in full but 100% cancellable
2. Created an Avis account and got a “wizard” number.
3. Downloaded the Avis app. Our reservation was not there (this was expected as it was booked with a 3rd party uct).
4. Went to local Avis. Explained what we wanted to do. They found our reservation and wizard number.
5. They needed to create a “fake” reservation in order to have our credit card and everything in the system. This was for a $40 daily rental and $200 deposit, so it is a $240 pending charge.
6. They cancelled the fake rental immediately so we will never get charged that $240, but now we are in the system for the MCO rental.
7. Now our MCO reservation shows up in the app
8. Once we land, the app will show us our car (and my understanding is we can select a different model in the same class from the app if desired)
9. Once we get our luggage we can skip the counter and go right to the car
10. If we do need the counter for any reason we can go to the preferred line.

So it was actually easier than I thought. Also, our Avis rep literally just did this for himself because he is going to Orlando next week to go to universal. We discussed roller coasters and it was very pleasant.

Hope our list of steps helps someone else.

I’ll report back if any issues arise.

Did you do anything special to get great rate from UCT?

 

[Skip Coffee for Rope Drop]

Wanted to share my experience from today in case this helps anyone else.

Also, much thanks to this board for helping me learn how to strategize this.

For the last 7-8 trips we rented from Alamo and used their skip the counter feature. Was always a great experience but their prices were astronomical this year.

Found a great deal for Avis through UCT- almost half of the Alamo price.

Wanted to be able to skip the counter at MCO, but read here to go to my local Avis first so they could get the system set up for us.

This is what we did:
1. Booked online through UCT- prepaid in full but 100% cancellable
2. Created an Avis account and got a “wizard” number.
3. Downloaded the Avis app. Our reservation was not there (this was expected as it was booked with a 3rd party uct).
4. Went to local Avis. Explained what we wanted to do. They found our reservation and wizard number.
5. They needed to create a “fake” reservation in order to have our credit card and everything in the system. This was for a $40 daily rental and $200 deposit, so it is a $240 pending charge.
6. They cancelled the fake rental immediately so we will never get charged that $240, but now we are in the system for the MCO rental.
7. Now our MCO reservation shows up in the app
8. Once we land, the app will show us our car (and my understanding is we can select a different model in the same class from the app if desired)
9. Once we get our luggage we can skip the counter and go right to the car
10. If we do need the counter for any reason we can go to the preferred line.

So it was actually easier than I thought. Also, our Avis rep literally just did this for himself because he is going to Orlando next week to go to universal. We discussed roller coasters and it was very pleasant.

Hope our list of steps helps someone else.

I’ll report back if any issues arise.

Also, keep in mind that Avis owns Budget. If you open up an account on Budget, you may find some deals and codes on line that will make your next trip cheaper. They share the office at MCO.

 

[EACarlson]

Did you do anything special to get great rate from UCT?

https://www.disboards.com/threads/save-up-to-50-off-car-rentals-nationwide.3870067/
When the deal started it was available with any purchase, that has since been changed to, I believe it's $100.