Time to pick up car

[Lyndarella]

What if I don't know what time I will want to pick up my rental car at the Dolphin? If I tell them noon, can I get it at 9:00 or 10:00? What if I don't want to go there til 2:00? Will there still be a car for me? It won't change my return time, as I plan to return it after hours anyway.

 

[OKW Lover]

Car rental companies usually don't give you much flexibility in your pickup/dropoff times. If you say noon, I wouldn't get there before 11 or after 1. If earlier than that you might have a car but will probably have to pay significantly more. If later, your car will probably be gone.

 

[Lyndarella]

If I have already paid for the car with my credit card, can they give it away?

 

[seashoreCM]

Credit card transactions can be refunded. So prepaying with a credit (or debit) card does not in itself mean anything different compared with paying at the counter upon arrival.

If you are tardy (beyond any published grace period) picking up the car, the rental company reserves the right to cancel your reservation. But if your reservation actually has a flight number attached to it, the company should not cancel your reservation if that flight comes in late.

Sometimes I have picked up a car early with no problem.
Once when I arrived early the agent said I could pick up a car early only if I paid extra in the form of an upgrade. I chose to wait until the appointed pickup time.

 

[nilseks]

If you already paid for the car, I don't think they would give it away to someone else. However, depending on the rental car company, if you show up as little as an hour early they can change your rate and charge you more. I recently had a reservation with Advantage. I wanted to move up my flight time by 4 hours so I called and asked them if that would change my rate. They said it would increase my rate by $100 for the week--the rate was only $100 in the first place, so it would have doubled. Ha, what a joke. Kept my original flight time.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Don't expect to get it several hours early. If you try to they will change your rental rate often to the "walk up rate" which is very expensive. If you want it earlier I would call the 800# and talk to customer service to change your rental