THrifty? ALaMO? NAtional?which would you use?

[deelovesdis]

I was on Thrifty's website and got a great rate, but I did not book it, because I went to mousesavers.com and they were rated poorly.

ANy body have input on Thrify?? I used National the last two trips, was very pleased, but this time the rate is double Thrifty's. I had a poor experience with Alamo in the past, no shuttle service, waited so long, but I hear things have improved with the move into the airport terminal. What is your opinion?

THANX Dee

 

[LeftCoaster]

I've used all three in Orlando. Alamo, had the line from hell. Waited almost an hour. National was great as I had Emerald Aisle and was in and out.
Thrifty was also great too. Had the Blue Chip membership and got through really quick. I only had to wait a couple of minutes for a shuttle and all was well. I'll be using Thrifty again since it'll run over $100 cheaper for my upcoming trip.

 

[HappyLawyer]

i have not heard anything good on thrifty, i like both national and alamo as for the lines it depends there could be a line and there could not be but its disney i would gladly wait an hour to begin my long adventure for vacation, i booked with alamo only because after law school i tore up every credit card i have now i only go debit and they take the debit cards i got a decent rate 10 days total of 183.00

 

[safetymom]

Have you considered Hertz? They are offsite but they are very quick and the prices are reasonable.

 

[toystorymom]

I have used Alamo in the past and had a very good experience, very short line and a beautiful minivan.

It looks like this year in December we will be using Thrifty because the rate is hundreds of dollars better than anything I can find with National or Alamo. Definitely worth a shuttle ride off site to save that kind of money. There are a lot of posts about Thrifty on the transportation board right now because many people are finding them to have the best prices. I've read very good comments about the shuttle always being right there waiting.

Remember, that whatever company you ask about you will hear positives and negatives. And for what it's worth, I don't think this is a poor review from Mousesavers...



"While Thrifty is off-site at Orlando (you'll have to take a short shuttle ride to the lot), in the past year I've had lots of positive reports about this agency. Their prices are hard to beat and I've been told that the cars are adequate. Thrifty doesn't offer a huge number of coupons, but often its base rates are so low it doesn't matter.

Like several other rental car companies in Orlando, I've heard some complaints from folks who were treated to aggressive and/or misleading insurance ploys at Thrifty."



The insurance push can happen at any rental agency. Just be firm when you say no and that should end it there.

Hope that helps!

 

[Ishy]

Go thrifty blue chip. The codes on mousesavers saved me a ton of money and since I was blue chip I was in and out and bypassed all the lines. I rented a Lancer week one for 79$ and a Town and Country week two for 169$ - my CC covered the extra insurance - spouses are free too. Thrifty WAS closed due to Charly when I left - but they had made arrangements with Dollar rent a car for returns.

 

[Maddle]

About a week ago, someone posted a link to the Mastercard site that had a special offer from Alamo. Of course, if you're not using Mastercard, it's not relevant - but it saved me quite a bit of money.


http://www.mastercard.com/us/specialoffers/savings_discounts/alamo.html

Special thanks to mtblujeans for the initial posting. I was not able to get the coupon to work, but the rate was outstanding anyway....I plan on bringing the coupon to the desk, but there's no point in being greedy.

Maddle

 

[mrskay9]

well this was 5 years ago, but as long as I live I will never forget how awful we had it at Alamo.

We waited an hour for a shuttle to arrive. There were tons of other company's buses flying through there.

Then when we got to the rental place, that line was Stinkin Awful!

I think it was at least another hour to an hour and a half.

It just really sucked for us. Now granted this was before all these perk programs (or at least we didn't know about them then)

good luck.

 

[inkkognito]

We have had good luck with Thrifty. We use them when we cannot get anything on Priceline, and we've had minimal lines, no wait for the shuttles, and decent cars. The only small negative was one agent who was pushy about the insurance, but that happens all the time with Alamo.
Barb

 

[maraakl]

mrskay9
Happily, Alamo is now at the airport. No more shuttle. Even when they were off site we never waited more than 5 minutes for a shuttle. It must have been an awful day for them, and you.

 

[ceejay13]

We are Alamo/National fans.

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

We rented from Thrifty in Orlando last week. The shuttle buses were prompt and efficient and the rates were unbeatable. I am planning to use them again for our trip in November.

The blue chip deal sounds good because they were a little slow getting us in the car and out of there. It took about 30 minutes.

 

[Mad4Mickey]

Love National and Dollar . Dollar has the best rates right now at least to me

 

[Mad4Mickey]

forgot to say that I hgave delt with Alamo 2 times.
The 1st time I thought that it was just bad luck ( the car smelled like dead animals) The wait was long.

The 2nd time I came up with the only thing I figure out . IT IS THE WORK OF SATAN ! LOL Thats right that palce is run by SATAN !!!

 

[deelovesdis]

Wow! THanks everyone for all of the input. I used National twice and was so happy with the service and selection, but I was emerald aisle and the price at that time was amazing. I am going in Sept 2004, YES NEXT MONTH! - I went on Nationals website and the price is double THrifty's. I havent checked Dollar, but I will check it out, since I did see favorable reports on Dollar.

As far as I understand , THrifty is NOT in the airport, Correct? You must take a shuttle bus to their place. Dollar is in the airport, so is National. IS ALamo in the airport now? I just had such a bad experience with them, I am really skitchy.

ANy others in the airport terminal? How is Hertz or Avis?

THanks, Dee

22 days and counting till the MOUSE

 

[safetymom]

You will find several threads on the DIS about Hertz. Hertz is very fast and haven't heard any complaints about them.

If you have AAA they have a good discount.

 

[lynn71092]

Have you tried Dollar?
I got the best rate from them and I signed up for Fastlane so there won't be any waiting.

 

[Took]

We've been members of Budget's FastBreak program for some time and have found their specials/rates highly competitive with those of other companies. I don't think I've ever waited in a line.

Have had BAD luck with Thrifty--never again.

Took

 

[Wengino]

The codes at mousesaver.com are important in getting the best rate from Dollar and National, in my experience. The National site in particular is very fickle. Try a number of codes/discount coupon number combinations to get your best rate. This dropped my one week Minivan rental from $429 to $229 at National, well worth the time, especially when you've stood in line at Alamo for an hour waiting for a car ::

Best of Luck!

 

[speedyf]

We used Alamo during our trip in May of this year. We had no problems. They have a big counter at the airport and when we arrived, they had 10 people working the counter. The line was a little long, but it moved quickly with 10 workers at the counter.

After you check in and pay, they tell you to go to the parking garage and you get to actually choose which vehicle you want as long as it's in the class you pay for.

The keys are on all the vehicles and they are all open. That will help to avoid the "dead animal" experience that someone else posted about....

I had a mini-van rental and choose a brand new Dodge Caravan...(8 miles on the odometer).

We got the van for $35.99 for the day....drove it to Disney, and dropped it off the next day on Disney at the Car Care Center. (no additional fee to do this). Since we were on-site at Disney, we used their transportation (buses, monorails, etc) for the week.

When it came time to leave, we rented the mini-van from Disney's Car Care Center for $39.99 and returned it to the airport on the same day.

We ended up paying $90 round trip from the airport for 7 of us....instead of paying over $200 for Mears or some other shuttle....

Anyway....Alamo is ok in my book.......

speedyf