National Rental Car

[happily single]

I recently booked a rental using Priceline. I then created a National Rental Car Account and tried to link the reservation so I can avoid the line at National. I was unable to link the account and called Customer Service. Two customer service reps were also unable to do this and they didn't know why. Originally they thought because my Priceline account has only one last name and my National has my hypenated last name, which is on my license. They tried removing the second last name and still weren't able to. Any ideas?

Also, has anyone had any experience with the lines at National in Orlando recently? We land at 1:30 on Saturday, November 4th.

 

[Leigh L]

I have no recent experience with National...

But how it seems to work is if you book via a third party like Priceline, most of the time you cannot link to your car rental account with the company.

Same thing with hotels, they won't give you the benefits/points, etc because companies want you to book with them directly.

YMMV though. In some instances, with Costco for example, I've been able to link a reservation with Alamo, but not with Budget. I went around in circles with Budget on this one and ultimately it came down to they wanted me to book directly with them.

 

[happily single]

I have no recent experience with National...

But how it seems to work is if you book via a third party like Priceline, most of the time you cannot link to your car rental account with the company.

Same thing with hotels, they won't give you the benefits/points, etc because companies want you to book with them directly.

YMMV though. In some instances, with Costco for example, I've been able to link a reservation with Alamo, but not with Budget. I went around in circles with Budget on this one and ultimately it came down to they wanted me to book directly with them.

thanks for the reply. That's what I was thinking, but was hoping there is a work-around, especially because everyone seems sold out of rentals for Saturday I'm expecting crowds

 

[LadybugsMum]

I use Priceline often as well as Costco travel and put in my rewards numbers (Hertz, Alamo, Avis so far) in during the booking process. But, if I forget then it's pretty much impossible to add later.

 

[otterlychaotic]

General rule of thumb is you have to enter your loyalty number during booking or it's pretty hard to do so afterwards (I've even had a time or two when I couldn't get the system to add my loyalty number to a reservation made directly with the company). So unless Priceline has an option to put in your loyalty number, you are probably out of luck. There is always the chance that a representative could do it at the counter but that does no good for any "skip the counter" type things that the loyalty programs might provide.

 

[Leigh L]

thanks for the reply. That's what I was thinking, but was hoping there is a work-around, especially because everyone seems sold out of rentals for Saturday I'm expecting crowds

Good luck!
Hopefully, you can get it worked out or lines are not so bad. Have a fantastic trip

 

[EACarlson]

General rule of thumb is you have to enter your loyalty number during booking or it's pretty hard to do so afterwards (I've even had a time or two when I couldn't get the system to add my loyalty number to a reservation made directly with the company). So unless Priceline has an option to put in your loyalty number, you are probably out of luck. There is always the chance that a representative could do it at the counter but that does no good for any "skip the counter" type things that the loyalty programs might provide.

Priceline does have this option, but usually if you don't put it in when you book, you're not going to get it. The good news is that when you get to the counter it should associate the reservation with your account and you will get credit and benefits. I've had this happen on business trips where my employer books the rental for me, when I go to the counter it associates and I get to go choose from the aisle. On the plus side, since National has a usable skip the counter option, the lines at the counter are usually much less than other companies. There was no one in the National line when I walked by it at MCO on 10/11.