Thrifty Car Rental from LAX

[Mama Bear Me2]

Hi,

Sorry ... long post here. Thanks in advance for your time!

I have a reservation with Thrifty Car Rental from LAX.

Please give me an idea of what to expect from them.

I've read mixed reviews about using them and am now stressing out about my reservation. I respect the Dis'ers opinions on this forum so am hoping that you can relate your experiences (good or bad) so I know what to expect.

Question re: Overall experience:

1) What was your overall experience renting from Thrifty from LAX? Good or bad?

2) Any bad experiences with "hard" upselling of Thrifty's car insurance OR been "misled" and "overcharged" for items that you've declined?


Questions re: Blue Chip Program:

3) Does this allow me to "by pass" the counter line up OR go to a "special" line to reduce my wait time?

4) When you sign up are you charged a "fee" and what is it and do they refund you this fee? I thought it was free to sign up so am confused as to why they charge you a small fee to sign up.


Questions re: Payment:

5) Do you have to give your credit card information when you sign up for Thrifty's Blue Chip Program AND do you need to use the same credit card when you pay?

6) Can you use a "different" card to pay than the one registered in your Blue Chip profile?

7) When do you pay for your car rental? At the time of pick up OR after you return your car?


Question re: Car pickup:

8) What happens when you go pick up the car? Are you assigned a car and told to find your car in a designated parking spot? I read that it was kind of a "free for all" ... people "running" to "choose" their cars.

9) Are the cars there when you arrive for your pick up OR do you have to wait a long time because of no cars being available?


Question: Extra Hints

10) Please advise any other tips or suggestions that you may have. Thanks!

Whew! OK ... super long list of questions ... please answer what you can even if it's not everything. Again, really appreciate your help and time!

 

[dfriia]

Hi,

Sorry ... long post here. Thanks in advance for your time!

I have a reservation with Thrifty Car Rental from LAX.

Please give me an idea of what to expect from them.

I've read mixed reviews about using them and am now stressing out about my reservation. I respect the Dis'ers opinions on this forum so am hoping that you can relate your experiences (good or bad) so I know what to expect.

Question re: Overall experience:

1) What was your overall experience renting from Thrifty from LAX? Good or bad? Average, not too good and not too bad

2) Any bad experiences with "hard" upselling of Thrifty's car insurance OR been "misled" and "overcharged" for items that you've declined?We did have an upsell attempt that we simply declined with no further fuss. No overcharges. I should point at they we had not had that be an issue at other Thrifty rentals either.


Questions re: Blue Chip Program:

3) Does this allow me to "by pass" the counter line up OR go to a "special" line to reduce my wait time?In theory, yes. We have done this in the past at other locations and other times. However, our only time at LAX was around 10pm and they did not have the Blue Chip line staffed and we just had to get at the end of the line with everyone else. It was a long wait even though they did not seem that busy.

4) When you sign up are you charged a "fee" and what is it and do they refund you this fee? I thought it was free to sign up so am confused as to why they charge you a small fee to sign up.It is free. As I recall, when we signed up Thrifty made a $1 charge to the registering credit card to verify it in advance and a day or so later they reversed the $1 charge. It was not a fee, just an advance verification of the credit card.


Questions re: Payment:

5) Do you have to give your credit card information when you sign up for Thrifty's Blue Chip Program AND do you need to use the same credit card when you pay? Yes, we did. Yes, they expect to charge the same credit card and that is the whole point of the program as far as we could tell. That advance verification allows them to bypass all that data collection while you stand at their desk and in line. You will be asked to present the card to begin the in person transaction. I actually had a credit card expire between enrolling and renting and it caused no end of grief. At the time, I didn't realize how the program worked or I would have used a different credit card, but they knew and you would think their system would have caught it before our arrival.

6) Can you use a "different" card to pay than the one registered in your Blue Chip profile?See 5 above. You can, but they won't like it and you better have the card you registered on hand on arrival anyway.

7) When do you pay for your car rental? At the time of pick up OR after you return your car?As I recall, they charged the amount quoted immediately on pickup as a pending or hold charge. They finalized the charge after we turned the car in.


Question re: Car pickup:

8) What happens when you go pick up the car? Are you assigned a car and told to find your car in a designated parking spot? I read that it was kind of a "free for all" ... people "running" to "choose" their cars.I can see how it would be described this way, if they were clearing more than one renter at a time! When we went they only had 2 people checking out cars, so we were exiting into the lot more or less singly. That said, we were told to go to outside and turn left and look for a sign over a particular area of the lot, I think it was D or something like that. We had declined an upsell to a larger car, so the only car in the size category/area we had been sent was a red Fiat 500. We loaded it up only to find it had no keys in it. Back inside to ask about the keys with another long wait. Finally a guy working with the cars, no the desk, tells us the car was turned in without the keys and we will have to take another. He points us to a Nissan Versa in another section. We point out again that we will not pay for a larger car and he agrees that this is the only car they have available and will honor our price quote. We paid what we had agreed on reserving with no further problems.

9) Are the cars there when you arrive for your pick up OR do you have to wait a long time because of no cars being available?See 8 above. I can imagine that might be a problem, though it wasn't for us as far as I know.


Question: Extra Hints

10) Please advise any other tips or suggestions that you may have. Thanks!No. I don't know if the issues we had at Thrifty were exclusive to Thrifty or to LAX. I think you can have issues like these on any given day at any given car rental. Or worse!

Whew! OK ... super long list of questions ... please answer what you can even if it's not everything. Again, really appreciate your help and time!

Good luck!

 

[Mama Bear Me2]

THANK YOU for your detailed information. Helps a lot! Appreciate your time and input.