New to all this rental car stuff? Does Emerald choice work well?

[eyeores mom]

HAve decided to rent a car from national, got a good rate with DC disc. and special website coupon. Signed to be Emerald club member for free because of these boards. National says since ive rented a van and have emeral card, i can use emerald choice and just walk on over, show my card and credit card and get the keys to a van. My pesimistic side says this sounds way too easy. has anyone ever done it at MCO and how did it go? Thanks

 

[DebbieB]

The procedure in Orlando is to go down to level 1 and go through the exit doors across from the National counter. Go across the street to the garage (there are lots of signs pointing the way). Once in the garage, look for the mini-van aisle (sizes are on the pillars). All the cars have the keys on the seat or in the ignition. Pick the one you want and drive to the exit booth. At the exit booth, give the attendant your license, EC card, the car identification card from the dashboard and any special coupons or discount cards. Your credit card # is on your EC profile, so no need to show it. The attendant will process it and off you go! Very efficient! On the return, just follow the signs to rental car return and then to National's area. The attendant will come up to your car and use a hand-held machine to scan the ID # from the car side window, you don't have to show anything. They process the receipt and hand it to you. If you have checked luggage and your airline has curbside check-in, we always check the luggage first before returning the car so that we don't have to lug it from the car over to the terminal. Then just circle back around to the car return exit. I've used National many times and highly recommend it, especially Emerald Club.

 

[eyeores mom]

DebbieB - thank you so much for walking me through it, just what i needed. Sounds great.

 

[MOMOFFOUR]

We just returned and did the Emerald Choice for a minivan. We had received a very low rate for 8 days and I was hoping all would go well!

It was the easiest car rental we had ever done. We arrived around 11:30 a.m. The minivan aisle was full. We picked one (an 8 seat Pontiac Montana with 300 miles) loaded our luggage. Gave our info on the way out and were on our way!

It could not have been any easier.

Have a great trip.

 

[eyeores mom]

Momoffour - thanks for the info. what kind of rate did you get? we are paying $173 for 5 days using DC disc and coupon on the DC website. Thought that was good.
what was yours?
thanks again.

 

[MOMOFFOUR]

We had a rate of $239 for 8 days. We ended up keeping the car longer than expected and were charged $35 for the extra day and then for gas since we brought the car back almost empty. I forgot to add that the return of the car went as easily as the pickup.

I would definately use National EC again.