Pick your Own Car? Rental Agencies at SNA airport (Orange County)

[JC Butterfly]

I am looking at a 4 day midweek rental coming up soon and most of the coupons available don't apply to me (no weekend stay). I have joined several of the rental company programs: Alamo, Budget, Dollar, etc. I find each one has its ups and downs in various markets. Because of when I am looking for, each one is within a few dollars total cost of each other so it's kind of a wash which one to choose. I will be returning the car to the airport so need need for auxilary locations.

One "feature" I like is when a rental agency lets you choose your own car in the rental category. Do any of the agencies at SNA offer this? Or do they all pre-select for you?

Beyond that, is there any reason to choose one agency over another? Or any to avoid?

 

[ktlm]

We have always been pleased with Budget at SNA. We have always gotten nice very clean cars in good condition. I don't think they allow you to choose the model of the car when you book the rental, but I know that when we are at the counter they have told us which models they currently had ready to go in the parking lot in our category and were asked if we had a preference (now that could just be the particular employee at the counter), every time they have also given us the price to upgrade to the next level and told what models were currently available if we did that (upselling, but in a nice non-pushy way). We did National out of SNA once because their price that time was quite a bit lower and got assigned an old looking beat up car with no other choices. When we first saw that car we could tell that it clearly had been in an accident at some point and we were also worried about whether it might break down on us, but it turned out to be fine. The thing was huge and we wound up liking that part of the car, but we have not rented from them again. If we were flying into SNA and the prices were a wash, we would pick Budget.

 

[sherilaine]

We use Fastbreak with Budget and I have found that it's only a real advantage at larger airports where there is a clear distinction in the process for picking up your vehicle with that program. We once picked up a vehicle at a smaller airport and they just had a different line for Fastbreak rather than being told to go directly to where the cars were and find either on a machine or clip board what parking spot your car was in. I am not sure how small the SNA airport is, as we always fly in through LAX, but I think the advantage of any rental car program is always better than not having it.

 

[ParkHopper1]

National Emerald Club is the only agency that lets you choose any car in the aisle and go. All others are assigned cars.

 

[woodynjessiesmomma]

I just used Alamo at SNA last week and was able to pick my car from the row of the category I booked. Overall good experience and no complaints. They we serious about declining the damage waiver though and were clear they would collect $1000 no matter who was at fault for an accident. Fortunately we didn't have any problems.
I used to use Budget (dollar or Thifty) but we had a terrible experience with Budget on Maui last March and then I switched to Alamo. I wasn't able to pick with Budget that last time and it had been a couple years since I had rented a car before that so I don't remember. Alamo at MCO in October also let us pick our car and they had great customer service.

 

[sherilaine]

They we serious about declining the damage waiver though and were clear they would collect $1000 no matter who was at fault for an accident. Fortunately we didn't have any problems.

Never trust the knowledge level of a person who works at the counter of a rental company - if they were experts in litigation and insurance claims they'd not be working there! Most people do not need to buy their insurance - they have their own and it works just fine when extended to car rentals, never mind the # of credit cards that provide such coverage.

 

[bumbershoot]

Never trust the knowledge level of a person who works at the counter of a rental company - if they were experts in litigation and insurance claims they'd not be working there! Most people do not need to buy their insurance - they have their own and it works just fine when extended to car rentals, never mind the # of credit cards that provide such coverage.

Whether with geico or Allstate, we have clearly been told that the rental companies' LDW insurance covers the cost of the lost time while the car is being repaired. And that our car insurance (and we generally have good coverage) would NOT cover that.

 

[sherilaine]

Whether with geico or Allstate, we have clearly been told that the rental companies' LDW insurance covers the cost of the lost time while the car is being repaired. And that our car insurance (and we generally have good coverage) would NOT cover that.

This has come up elsewhere and I think it's the difference between Canadian and U.S. insurance policies. So I won't comment any further since I am from Canada where insurance is different.

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

I like using Priceline and having the companies compete for my $20/day.

 

[JC Butterfly]

Seeing no obvious advantage to any of the companies, I decided to do just as you do. I used Priceline and won a full size for $15/day with Hertz. That is about half the price of what i was finding with other companies for the same dates, so I am very pleased! Thanks to all for your input and opinions!