was I on the Emerald Aisle?

[TinkerbellTracy]

Came into Orlando very early and had lots of suitcases for us to carry over to the National Garage...We went to a level marked Emerald Aisle, but went over to the Full-size section
which had only 2 Grand Prix. We asked about a mini van but they said no, only if you had reserved one. Also asked about the cars on luxury aisle. Now I'm wondering if we went to the Emerald Choice instead of the Aisle. Is the Aisle only one Aisle with differnt levels of vehicles on it? We will be back in Dec. and are trying to decide whether or not to do National again.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

That sounds like the EA to me. The EA reservation is for a full size or intermediate class car (I've been reserving full size since rates have been the same for both recently). If you get lucky, you may find a minivan, SUV, PT Cruiser or convertible on the aisle, but this is good fortune rather than a promise. Sometimes all you will find are intermediates and full size cars. If they run out of full size and your reservation is for full size (rather than intermediate), you will be sent to the full size Emerald Choice aisle to select a car. If you want to be assured of a minivan, you should use Emerald Choice rather than EA when you reserve. You then select from the minivan aisle. You still bypass the counter with this level of service, but you reserve and pay for the minivan rather than being disappointed that only Grand Prix were available on the EA.

Ralph

 

[pbhunt]

Were the signs Yellow, and did they say "Aisle Service" ? I think they're slowly switching over from just stating Emerald Aisle on the reservation. The Nationals here in Calif. have only recently put up new signs, Green Triangle, point down, which say Emerald Aisle.

 

[beccab]

I would like to know if it is clearly marked and are there service reps there to help w/questions?

 

[susieeQ]

I used the A side garage, and it was marked aisle service, but there wasnt a soul in site to answer any questions.

 

[TinkerbellTracy]

When I got there at 10 a.m. on a Fri. I had to go find a attendant to answer if we could take a different car. When we returned our car at 5:00 a.m. there were no attendants and we had to go inside to the counter. We then proceeded to have a 20 minute battle over our bill. Even though I had the coupons and printouts, I had to argue with them. Their bill was almost $90.00 higher than mine.

I am still wondering if I was on the Emerald Aisle or in the Emerald Choice section of the garage, can anyone help? There were rows marked Vans, Full size, Intermediate and Luxury. They told me I had to take a full size since that is what I reserved.

From reading this board, it sounds like the Emerald Aisle is one row of all cars mixed together and you can take your pick if it is on the aisle. That is definately not what I experienced. It is not that I was unhappy with my Grand Prix or that I needed a larger car, but just wondering how people get SUV's etc. I am thinking I might have gone to Emerald Choice instead of the Emerald Aisle(on my reservation)!!

 

[CarolA]

I believe the EA is clearly marked in Orlando. I think it is one of the very first Aisles you come to when you walk in. However, there may not be anything on it besides either full size or intermediates and it could look just like a full size aisle in that case! The only car you are guaranteed is what you reserved. So if you reserve a full size you can take anything from the aisle or if there are no full size cars you can go to the full size row. You should look for the signs that say Emerald Aisle. However, if you must have a minivan or SUV you are better off going with Emearld Choice and just picking your car from that aisle. Occasionally if you find an attendant they might let you go to the SUV aisle, but normally they won't. I would guess that since they don't have the system in front of them, they are not sure of the bookings for cars and would be hesitant to give you an SUV and then have someone who has booked one not get one.

Also the thing to remember about the EA is that it is marketed to business travelers! We don't want mini vans so they don't normally put a lot of them on the EA.

 

[FriendsOfEeyore]

I just returned from a trip. Pick our car our of Emerald Aisle on Sat, May 12th, 12pm. As we entered the National garage, EA was the 1st aisle. About 7 or 8 standard FS cars. No Luxury, no SUVs, No Minivans. There was a Mitsubishi Eclipse. It was only my wife and I, so we took the sportscar. EA worked PERFECT for us. We had our coupons printed out from the website, and they even appected my debit card. The lady said that my card was a check card, and that she was going to use the card with which I made the ressie. I told her that was the card, she tried it, and it worked fine. We returned the car at 2:00pm on Sun, May 20th. Our bill was actually $21 less than our internet quote. I think that is because we returned early. We only paid $168.21 for our car.