National's Emerald Aisle

[awhitey]

We are renting a car for the first time from National and are members of the Emerald Club. Can someone give me the low down on how the rental process goes. I know that we can bypass the counter and just haed out to the Emerald Aisle, but where is the Emerald Aisle, and what do we do after we get the car?

Thanks for the help!

 

[DebbieB]

We are renting a car for the first time from National and are members of the Emerald Club. Can someone give me the low down on how the rental process goes. I know that we can bypass the counter and just haed out to the Emerald Aisle, but where is the Emerald Aisle, and what do we do after we get the car?

Thanks for the help!

It's very easy. Just go down to level 1 in the airport and go out the doors across from the rental counter and cross the street (crosswalk). If you are on side A, you have to take an escalator up to the second level of the garage. If you are on side B, it's on ground level. Just look for National signs. Once you get inside the garage and find the National area, you will see green signs on the poles designating the size of cars for that row. You want to look for Emerald Aisle. Then just pick a car from that row, the keys will be in it. Drive to the exit, there will be a booth. At the booth, give them your license, credit card and the hang tag from the mirror (Emerald Aisle should be checked off on it). I also give them a copy of my reservation, but I don't think it's required. They will give you a paper back, confirm the price. Then drive off!

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

It's very easy. Just go down to level 1 in the airport and go out the doors across from the rental counter and cross the street (crosswalk). If you are on side A, you have to take an escalator up to the second level of the garage. If you are on side B, it's on ground level. Just look for National signs. Once you get inside the garage and find the National area, you will see green signs on the poles designating the size of cars for that row. You want to look for Emerald Aisle. Then just pick a car from that row, the keys will be in it. Drive to the exit, there will be a booth. At the booth, give them your license, credit card and the hang tag from the mirror (Emerald Aisle should be checked off on it). I also give them a copy of my reservation, but I don't think it's required. They will give you a paper back, confirm the price. Then drive off!

... yep, it's just that easy!

 

[Mouse511]

Agree - super easy at MCO !! - Just hand them your Emerald Card and DL - and you are good to go.......depending on the time of year and how busy they are - you could end up with some really nice cars. The last trip we got a brand new 135 miles 2LT Malibu - was a great car - we liked it so much - when we got home we bought one.

Oh - Make sure when you reserve your car you just do a mid size.

 

[TreesyB]

And you can use any corp rate that is relevent to you, as the EA rate isn't always the best one. currently, i'm looking at AAA rate(for AAA members), and that's better than the EA corp ID.

And use whatever coupons you can find. you can use both on EA, just like on regualr National.

 

[DebbieB]

On my trip last month, the Emerald Club rate was the best - 5007125. I paid $150 for 8 days incl tax. My corporate rate is $179 base weekly rate (plus tax), I keep that in my "back pocket" in case the other rates are higher. Right now it's the best rate I can find for 12/5-11 ($215 incl tax & $20 off coupon, includes insurance).

 

[awhitey]

It's very easy. Just go down to level 1 in the airport and go out the doors across from the rental counter and cross the street (crosswalk). If you are on side A, you have to take an escalator up to the second level of the garage. If you are on side B, it's on ground level. Just look for National signs. Once you get inside the garage and find the National area, you will see green signs on the poles designating the size of cars for that row. You want to look for Emerald Aisle. Then just pick a car from that row, the keys will be in it. Drive to the exit, there will be a booth. At the booth, give them your license, credit card and the hang tag from the mirror (Emerald Aisle should be checked off on it). I also give them a copy of my reservation, but I don't think it's required. They will give you a paper back, confirm the price. Then drive off!

Wow, being an Emerald Club member does have it's benefits. So now on to the next question.....how much additional time do you allow for drop off of the rental car when returning to the rental agency on your return day? Our return flight is at 10:50 am, so I was going to allow for the 2 hours, but I am thinking I should allow more if I need to drop the car off....

 

[KJ Luvs Pluto]

Drop off with National has always been very quick at the various airports we have flown out of - just drive in, there's someone there directing you to a row of cars, you take your stuff out of the car, they check the level of gasoline and print out your receipt. Unless a whole lot of people are returning their cars at the same time it takes less than five minutes.

Our experience when picking up car in Houston just this past weekend. We found the car we wanted, threw our luggage in the trunk and shut it. When to open the car door and it was locked with the keys sitting on the dash!! No way to get our luggage out and take a different car. We should have opened the car door first, but didn't think that the doors would be locked with the keys in the car. So we had to wait for someone to come and use their locksmith skills to open the car door. Really put us behind schedule. Very frustrating. So check your car door first before throwing your luggage in the trunk. The person at the desk said this happens with some cars that lock on their own after a certain amount of time - I know nothing about cars so I didn't know that they did this. I wouldn't want one of these types of cars (even though I don't leave my keys in the car).