Comments on: Reader mail: Why would I want to upgrade my rental car?

By: Upgrade declined: Travelers turning down car rental upgrades » Upgrade: Travel Better

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:01:07 +0000

[...] Amen, David. [...]

By: From the Mind of J

From the Mind of J — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:43:38 +0000

Back in 06, I only had a motorcycle, so there’d be times when I had a friend or otherwise in town and I’d need something more practical, especially during the winter. And I would have been quite happy to get a “free upgrade” as long as it was not to some monster SUV. But a V6 sedan would have been nice. Driving around in dinky little weenie cars that struggle their way toward 60 mph after riding a quarter-mile destroyer is not my idea of fun.

By: Turn down a rental car upgrade recently? Journalist wants to hear your story. » Upgrade: Travel Better

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:12:28 +0000

[...] – Reader mail: Why would I want to upgrade my rental car? – Rental car agent blows smoke up my backside, [...]

By: Reader mail: What’s the best time of day for a rental-car upgrade? » Upgrade: Travel Better

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:35:37 +0000

[...] want these upgrades most of the time. I’ve argued before that rental car upgrades are generally not worth it in my book, especially with the price of gas these days, unless you’re going all-out for a [...]

By: Renting a car in Mexico? Better have a high credit limit » Upgrade: Travel Better

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 02:27:41 +0000

[...] – Loss of use? Get lost. – Reader mail: Why would I want to upgrade my rental car? – Reader mail: What happened to car rental late-return grace [...]

By: Joe Hass

Joe Hass — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:43:09 +0000

To piggy back on tophe’s comment about it not just being about gas mileage: I flew into DCA three weeks ago, and the Avis agent informed me they had no intermediate vehicles available, but they’d be happy to upgrade me to a 15-passenger van at no additional charge. I told the woman that I’m driving around downtown D.C. on business; the absolute last thing I want is a mammoth van that I have to try to park in the city! I waited 20 minutes for them to finally “find” a Saturn ION, but I thought that was hysterical.

By: Rental car agent blows smoke up my backside, redux » Upgrade: Travel Better

Rental car agent blows smoke up my backside, redux » Upgrade: Travel Better — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:41:04 +0000

[...] or subscribe to the latest posts via RSS or e-mail. Thanks for visiting!Just two weeks ago, in a post about rental car upgrades, I mentioned how some car rental agencies will first try to upsell you. [...]

By: tophe

tophe — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 05:03:20 +0000

My beef is not just the gas, it’s the parking. My sister lives in San Francisco where street parking is at a premium. My experiences renting small cars from SFO (at least with Alamo/National and Enterprise) is that they are perpetually out of the small but parkable cars.

I’ve had some luck begging for a smaller car, at SFO sometimes they’ll go wash one that’s been returned but not prepped for me, in another case (at LAX) they gave me the convertible rather than the SUV. Be careful though, sometimes credit card rental car insurance won’t cover ’specialty’ vehicles which may or may not include sportscar convertibles.

I also had one rental where the agent couldn’t figure out how to swap cars once he gave me the keys to the big car. The computer locked him out of assigning me a different car, and in the end he gave me free gas instead because he couldn’t figure out how to give me the small car sitting right there on the lot. (national/alamo). The irony was I was home and was renting rather than driving my own car specifically to save gas.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 23:32:48 +0000

Alex — really? I just did a mock reservation on Hertz’ website and there was no such clause visible anywhere. And I just fished my last Hertz rental agreement out of the recycling bucket and didn’t see anything like this either. Granted it’s a LONG, LONG document with large portions in BOLD CAPS, so I might very well have missed it.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:06:56 +0000

Actually Oliver, if you read your rental contracts more carefully you will notice that in all of them there is a sentence saying something like: “we are obliged to provide you with the vehicle in the class you booked OR BETTER” obviously meaning larger in terms of size and engine. Therefore, rent a car companies are legally not breaching the contract at all.

If you are concerned with the price of fuel, ask them for a discount straight away and in most cases they will be happy to deduct $15 – $20 off the total price.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 07:12:56 +0000

Well, granted, it’s not the agent’s fault that they are out of the smaller cars. But it’s the agency’s fault: they are not meeting their part of the reservation contract. A fair payment would be, IMO, the difference in gas mileage at the price they’d charge me for not returning the car filled up

I remember once in Vancouver I had booked a midsize and the smallest (and only) vehicles in stock were a fleet of Ford Expeditions. That trip up the mountains to Whistler was comfortable yet quite expensive.

By: Mark Ashley

Mark Ashley — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:01:47 +0000

Agreed with Jason that you don’t want to get abusive or nasty about not getting the car you reserved.

Writing to the agency and asking for a refund/voucher to cover the gas, a la Simon, is hardcore! Nice work.