Our National Experience

[inkkognito]

Recently we got National for the first time ever via Priceline, and I was wondering how they would be. Now that I know firsthand, I'll share it for others who might book through them.
Usually we get Alamo via Priceline, although we've also gotten Avis and Hertz. I know that Alamo and National share the same cars, but Alamo always seems to have a much longer line than National, and lately their agents have been downright deceptive with the insurance pitch, I was wondering how their sister company would measure up.
We arrived around 9 p.m. and went over to the B side of the airport, thinking the lines would be shorter. Almost every company had a huge line, but happily National's was the shortest. There were several agents and only one person in front of me, so I was waited on within minutes. There was literally NO pressure for insurance at all. The National agent told me they get mostly business customers, so they are busiest in the morning, and Alamo gets the leisure customers, so they are busiest later.
At first, we were going to take the lone Neon, but it reeked of cigarettes so we choose one of several Chevy Caviliers.
I thought the line to get out of the garage might be bad due to the Alamo crowd. It was pretty long, but multiple lanes were open so even though there were several cars in front of us, it moved rapidly.
All in all, I would rather get National than Alamo, although I doubt we will; the counter agent said they rarely get Priceline rentals. I'm still surprised that we ended up with them.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[travellady]

I'm glad to hear this - will be picking up an SUV from National Saturday morning at 7AM. I suspect few in line as it's a Saturday.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

I have to second your comments about Alamo. The agents were really pushing the insurance and the line was by far the longest in the terminal. It took us forever to get out of there. It is one of the reasons we are doing a town car for the first time.

There were only two agents and boy, they did not hustle. The woman never really even looked up at us.

 

[n2mm]

Thank you for posting such a nice positive review. Folks are quick to report negative, but it's nice to read a good review. I have to second that I have used National 6 times in the past year and probably 25 times in the past fews years and have never had a problem picking up, paying, or dropping off our cars. My daughter used them last September and had to use the counter because she's not an EA member like us, and she zipped in and zipped out without any problems. Other than National, we do occassionally use Dollar (but not recently) and we have also never had any problems with Dollar either (except once having a pushy agent trying to get us to upgrade). I have no problem ever renting from either and if Nationals just a few dollars more sometimes, I still tend to book them.

 

[mom_rules]

Glad to hear-we will be renting from them on Friday! but not
at MCO. Has anyone rented from the Dolphin Resort or the Care Care Center?

 

[ms_flo]

bump

Originally posted by mom_rules
Has anyone rented from the Dolphin Resort or the Care Care Center?

I'm curious too. Anyone??

I have a ressie at the Car Care Center on our last day, but I'm wondering about changing it. I think we're going to spend our last park afternoon & evening at MGM & do Fantasmic. I'm thinking about taking a Disney bus to the Dolphin (probably from MK) to pick up the rental before we go to MGM. That way we could drive back to the hotel after Fantasmic & maybe get a little more sleep than we would have if we took a Disney bus. Plus we'll already have the car the next morning instead of dealing with that while we're also trying to get checked out. Is this doable? Will it be a hassle?

If I stick with CCC, can you walk there from TTC? I know you can set up a shuttle to CCC, but my DH doesn't like to set up specific times for things. Would we be able to just take the monorail to the TTC at some point in the day & get to CCC on our own?

Thanks for any info.