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The Ad Hoc Traveler
Marc D. Meredith
April 9, 2000
Rental Car Run-around
Recently I had to make a one-day business trip to Phoenix on a Saturday. You know the hectic "in and out" shot that makes for a long day but has the pay off of an extra night
in your own bed instead of non smoking "mini-suite" complete with a view of the run way at Sky Harbor. At any rate, because it was a quick trip, I waited until the Tuesday
before to get my rental car. Sure it was high season in Arizona but I just needed one intermediate sized, non-smoking "Ford Contour or similar" that I would be returning
slightly more than six hours after I picked up.
I hoped onto the Hertz Web site, clicked my way to the Number 1 Gold members area and made my simple (or so I thought) request. When the message came back "error, we are
unable to fill your request" I naturally assumed a technical mistake. I hit the back button and tried again. Faced with the same message a second time I changed tactics and tried
another car. Now after repeating this exercise about four more times and getting the same message I began to worry so I pulled up another browser window, found the National
site, clicked to the Emerald Club section and basically went through the same process all over again with exactly the same results. Annoyance was turning to mild panic so I
found the Avis site, started from the beginning since I don’t have a membership with them and struck out for the third time.
Hoping, but not believing that perhaps this whole thing was a computer conspiracy, I called the Hertz Number 1 Gold number and was assured that in fact, there were ZERO
cars available in any size in Phoenix the day I needed one. Visions of taking cabs around the greater Phoenix area motivated me to try one last attempt, this time rolling the dice
with Alamo, another company I don’t have a membership with. Yes, I finally found a car and even one that somewhat resembled by original intentions so I booked it,
wrote down the confirmation number twice and thanked the rental car gods that I scored anything.
Flash forward to Saturday in Phoenix. My very full United Shuttle flight re-enforced the idea that there were going to be a lot of people in AZ that day. I made my way down to
the rental car counters and looked for Alamo. I found it easily enough. All I had to do was look for the line over 50 people long. My meeting was less than two hours away and I
was looking at a 45-minute line.
I started to get into line and say my prayers that it would move when I played a hunch and walked over to the Hertz and National counters. Hertz as indeed sold out but I spied
the very welcome words "cars available" at the National counter. Thinking it too good to be true, I walked up, handed the clerk my Emerald Club card and asked almost
sheepishly, if they had any cars. Sure! She said. My card was swiped I was told to head right out to the bus and to pick any available Emerald Isle card I wanted. Total elapsed
time about 5 minutes including the walk to National from Avis. On the bus to the National site I pulled out my cell phone and placed a call to cancel my Alamo rental.
So what did I learn from this? First, the memberships in frequent rental programs are quite worth it. Unlike flyer programs where you really do need to fly a lot to get the best
benefits, you can rent infrequently and still take advantage of streamlined rental and check in processes. Many times you can have the membership fee waived by signing up
for their services on-line.
Second, make sure you know what may be going on in a location you plan to travel to, even if it’s for a short stay. In my case it was the combination of snow birds and
baseball spring training that caused the rental car trauma. A quick call to a travel agent or a check of the city’s chamber of commerce web site will help.
Finally, never assume that no cars today means no cars tomorrow. Check back to see if something has come up. Not waiting until the last minute is also a pretty smart tip!
Body
Marc Meredith
email@johnnyjet.com
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