We arrived at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 8/15. The EA was the furthest row away from bagggage claim (or at least it seemed that way!) There were no cars in the EA except for a Mitsubishi Gallant. We had a reservation for a full size. There were no cars in the full size aisle either (the person before me got the last Regal.) There were no National employees to be found, either at the Aisle or in the main booth. It took about 5 minutes to find somebody who worked there. (TIP: Go to where folks are returning cars to find somebody.)
I had spied a nice Le Sabre sitting all by itself in the Premium row, so I said to the national lady, "There were no cars in the EA, so may I take that Le Sabre?" She said, "Sure, no problem." (but i was not certain she had the authority to o.k. the upgrade.) Got to the exit booth and it was no problem - but the guy needed help from a manager to complete the transaction - I think he was a trainee.
As a bonus, the LeSabre has a hidden Mickey on the dashboard (my kids liked that!) The speedometer and the two dash circles for the turn signal indicators form a "Mickey."
We returned the car to Tampa and they could not, in their words, "find the car" on their handheld computers. So the guy at MCO messed up. They sent me to the National counter in the garage. The woman there took about 10 minutes to tell me that the charge was for over $50.00 more than the price at which I reserved. I quickly pulled out a copy of my web site confirmation with the Resv #, contract code and coupon code highlighted. It took her some doing, but she did finally get to the exact amount the web site had given me - $195.44 for 10 days incl. taxes. (And good thing we had over an hour until our flight departed!)
So while this was the least smooth pick up and return we ever had with National, we did get a nice car for a good price. (I can't believe I'm saying a Buick" was "nice"! I must be getting old!!)
I had spied a nice Le Sabre sitting all by itself in the Premium row, so I said to the national lady, "There were no cars in the EA, so may I take that Le Sabre?" She said, "Sure, no problem." (but i was not certain she had the authority to o.k. the upgrade.) Got to the exit booth and it was no problem - but the guy needed help from a manager to complete the transaction - I think he was a trainee.
As a bonus, the LeSabre has a hidden Mickey on the dashboard (my kids liked that!) The speedometer and the two dash circles for the turn signal indicators form a "Mickey."
We returned the car to Tampa and they could not, in their words, "find the car" on their handheld computers. So the guy at MCO messed up. They sent me to the National counter in the garage. The woman there took about 10 minutes to tell me that the charge was for over $50.00 more than the price at which I reserved. I quickly pulled out a copy of my web site confirmation with the Resv #, contract code and coupon code highlighted. It took her some doing, but she did finally get to the exact amount the web site had given me - $195.44 for 10 days incl. taxes. (And good thing we had over an hour until our flight departed!)
So while this was the least smooth pick up and return we ever had with National, we did get a nice car for a good price. (I can't believe I'm saying a Buick" was "nice"! I must be getting old!!)
