Rental Van extended "scam" is it really true?

[bearette]

They did the same thing to us at Thrifty too. We declined and then they gave us the upgraded van anyways. Like other posers have said the companies are famous for this. Just make sure you reserve whatever you are comfortable with and be happy if you are offerd a free upgrade, but don't expect it. Not all upgrades are good either. In Hawaii we reseved a van and got an "upgrade" SUV. That was nice except you had to climb into the back seat which had enough leg room for children, but not adults. As we were all adults my sister and I got stuck sitting back thee since we were the shortest. We used it tour Volcanoes National Park and after a few hours we stopped getting out of the car because it wasn't woth having to climb out and back in.

 

[Epscot]

I will give a word of warning. Every time we had rented a minivan at either MCO or TPA, we got an extended length minivan - until last year. I honestly can't say for sure which company I used last fall because I'm a member of all of the "preferred customer clubs" and use whoever has the best rate. It was definitely at TPA and I'm pretty sure it was Dollar. Anyway I reserved the only size minivan that was available online and when I went out to the garage, I discovered that it I had been given a short minivan. FWIW, I didn't see any extended minivans anywhere.

Believe me, it wasn't fun getting 4 adults, 2 kids and luggage for a week in that vehicle. There was no unused floor space anywhere. The kids were resting their feet on stacks of bags and so was my wife sitting in the passanger's seat. We even had bags in the seat between the 2 people sitting on the back row. I'm surprised the body of the van wasn't rubbing the back tires when we were driving up I-4 to WDW!!

 

[Sillyminny40]

It is actually quite dangerous to have unsecured luggage around the vehicle but it happens. We are now in small baggage mood with our family: thanks for all your comments. This has been quite helpful for future trips.