Upgraded: Japanese car rentals
Travelers renting a car in Japan can now reserve a wireless enabled netbook for about $10 per day. The company, Oryx, includes the cost of the wireless service.

Downgraded: Blaming the victim
A Stamford, Connecticut franchisee operating under the Marriott name stupidly and offensively blamed one of its customers, saying she “‘failed to exercise due care’ before she was raped at gunpoint in front of her children in a hotel parking garage.” Stay classy, Stamford Marriott! Now, the Marriott mothership is distancing itself from the words (and legal strategy) of its franchisee.

Upgraded: JetBlue-Lufthansa partnership
It took a while — I blogged about the possibility of an alliance partnership back in December 2007 — but JetBlue and Lufthansa are finally talking about codesharing. The consequences will be interesting. I’m particularly interested to see if Lufthansa will be selling JetBlue segments on tickets to destinations served as well by Star Alliance members United and US Airways.

Downgraded: SkyEurope
SkyEurope, a European (duh) discount airline, has ceased all operations. This was the airline that at one point offered to pay its customers to fly with them. R.I.P.

Downgraded: Enterprise Rent-a-Car
Rental cars typically don’t have a great reputation, and this doesn’t help: Enterprise saved money on its rental fleet by requesting that GM delete safety features — features that were otherwise standard. The savings per vehicle: $175. 66,000 Chevrolet Impalas without side curtain airbags were rented out, and then subsequently sold as used vehicles.

The photo system is part of a broader plan to use technology to increase efficiency and improve customer service, [Hertz Chairman and CEO] Frissora said. The equipment produces a high-resolution, digital photograph of the rental car, and will compare before and after pictures for differences, Frissora said. Hertz employees currently walk around the vehicle and mark any damage on a form, which the customer signs.

“There will be no discussion because the document would clearly show any incremental damage,” Frissora said. “This keeps customers from being placed in a confrontational position and saves time.”

The Park Ridge, New Jersey-based company’s customers would sign a waiver acknowledging the process and be billed for any damage, Frissora said. Hertz is testing the technology at a location at an airport in the northeastern U.S., he said.

“There will be no discussion” seems a little brusque, but I get the point. Why debate the condition of the car when there’s photographic evidence?

Here’s hoping that the camera won’t lie. E-mailing a copy to the customer — both at the start and the finish of the rental — might be a low-cost way to ensure that the company is being an honest broker.

Dishonest rental locations have commonly tried to milk extra bucks out of customers by billing them for previously-existing damage to the vehicle. (For the paranoid, it’s always been a good idea to take photos of your rental car before you drive it off the lot, though I admit it’s something I’ve never done…)

But interestingly, the company suggests that it’s the one who’s going to come out ahead. Hertz says it’s been letting too many dents and dings slide, for a loss of $170 million, and that the photo system will catch these dings, leading to greater earnings.

Which worries me. Yes, the system SHOULD be win-win, by keeping both the agency and the customer honest. But $170 million is a lot of dings and scratches. Will the system start calling birdpoop dents?

Photos or no photos, don’t let your guard down.

As noted last week, I rented a car in San Francisco from AutoEurope after finding significantly lower rates with them than through the normal US channels. The process worked, but the pickup wasn’t a breeze. The voucher wasn’t the issue. The rate wasn’t a problem. But it was the worst car rental experience I’ve had, bar none, because of the interminable wait for both counter service and a car. (And that includes the hours I spent waiting at a Budget counter at midnight at LAX back in 2005.)

One item of background: When you rent with AutoEurope, it’s much like booking with Hotwire or Priceline. You get the rate quote, including taxes, up front. You prepay. And you don’t know who the provider is until you purchase. BUT: You know the exact address of the rental location (which, thanks to Google, lets you figure out who the company is) and it’s refundable up to 48 hours in advance. As theothersimon said in comments, book away, then cancel if you don’t like what you get. Better than the other opaque providers, if you ask me. My reservation came up with Dollar, which has never been my preferred provider, but the price was right. Alas.

Commenters on the original post pointed out the potential pitfalls of this rental. They nailed it. So credit where it’s due: the readers of this site, for calling it before it happened.

To wit:

JeffB noted that reservations on Expedia’s UK site contained the provision that the renter of a vehicle would be required to purchase one tank of fuel at the rental agency’s rate. My rental was with AutoEurope, but this was indeed the case: The voucher that I printed contained a similar provision, requiring the prepurchase of a full tank of gas, within the fine print. And the rate for gasoline was about 15 cents higher per gallon than filling it up yourself at the closest gas station.

As JeffB noted, base-rate savings may not pan out if you only rent for a single day, or for short trips, if you have to pay for a tank of gas. In my case, it was still a good deal, despite the fuel premium. We burned through an entire tank, and then some, during the trip, for over 650 miles. The indicator in the dashboard warned that there were only 5 miles’ worth of fuel in the tank when we returned it. I overpaid less than $3 for gas, but came out ahead since we saved nearly $200 on the rental itself. Hyahh!

So fuel wasn’t a big deal. A bigger issue for us was time. Chris noted that the downtown pickup locations in San Francisco were overwhelmed with customers. We experienced the same thing. It took two hours and twenty minutes to get a car.

As mentioned, our voucher was for Dollar, at the O’Farrell St. location. I met up with my wife, who was already in San Francisco for several days, on Tuesday night, and we were heading up the coast on Wednesday. Luckily, we weren’t renting with National: Their location a few doors down had people lined up out the door. Between National, Alamo, Thrifty, and Dollar, all on the same block, it was a mess. (Primarily with travelers from Europe, most with vouchers in hand, I might add…)

The central problem was car availability. The cause: Dollar’s willingness to accept reservations for times when they consistently had no cars available. To be clear: This has nothing to do with the booking channel — direct with Dollar, via AutoEurope, or elsewhere — and everything with the way Dollar does business.

As the front-desk agent and the location manager explained to me, downtown rentals in San Francisco (and presumably in other downtown locations) are hardest to get when they’re close to hotel checkout time. Travelers want to check out and grab a car ASAP — or grab a car just before checkout and then swing around to load the trunk.

If you thought you might try your luck renting that car first thing in the morning, before the hotel guests wake up, you’re out of luck: Rental companies like Dollar don’t have the inventory then. They’re bringing cars into downtown locations from the airport lots. But that depends on travelers dropping the cars off at the airport first… and how many cars are being dropped off at 7 am?

I admit I’ve typically rented at airports or in less-touristy downtown locations, so this feels like a rookie mistake to me. For example, via e-mail, reader Mark suggests:

Regarding SFO car rentals, I just came from there. The trick is to take a short cab ride to San Bruno (about $12-15) and go to the Avis location at the Tanforan mall, I think it’s called. A lot cheaper and easier than going downtown. Plus, they upgraded my car free and gave my fiance and me second driver for free, too. It was a great experience.

Bottom line: Even after reaching the front of the seemingly interminable line, there was no car available without waiting some more. And when it finally seemed that I had a car, their primitive walkie-talkie car assignment system led to a double-booking of the same vehicle. Another customer drove off in “my” car, literally seconds earlier. I felt like Seinfeld. (”You know how to take the reservation, you don’t know how to HOLD the reservation.”)

The manager of the facility indicated that this was a problem with the Dollar/Thrifty corporate reservation system, which allowed cars to be reserved at hours when it was obvious there would be no cars. Such as noon on a Wednesday.

The lesson, verified by the Dollar agents: If you’re picking up a car in a downtown location near big hotels, plan on picking up after 1:30pm, when hotel checkout is over.

It worked out in the end, eventually — upgraded to a higher class (far more comfortable, albeit with higher gas guzzlage).

So, I learned some lessons here. Don’t rent in urban American downtown locations near major hotels until after checkout time. Give preference to off-airport sites with fewer big hotels nearby. Be aware of fuel fees for vouchered reservations. And don’t trust Dollar Rent-a-Car to actually hold a reservation at a time you’ve specified.

A few days ago, I started looking for car rental rates out of San Francisco, and even though I knew that rates were going up, I was still taken aback by the prices. $68 a day (plus taxes) for an economy car?! Ouch.

Even Hotwire’s opaque booking options weren’t much lower. $64 was the lowest they found. Priceline wasn’t taking my bids of up to $30 a day (plus taxes/fees).

I just ran the search again right now. None of the majors are showing any availability at all in San Francisco. A smaller vendor, Fox Rent-a-Car, wants $169.20 a day. Budget has cars at Oakland Airport, for over $189. Low supply, meet high prices.

What I’ve booked is at a much lower rate: $42.50/day, including all taxes, for a four-day rental. How?

I went global.

After my initial shock wore off, I checked prices on international sites, including the UK version of Expedia; Zuji, Singapore’s version of Travelocity; Britain’s easycar, and AutoEurope.

In the end, I made a prepaid booking through AutoEurope. I printed a prepaid rental voucher, and I’ll be picking the car up at a location in downtown San Francisco.

Companies like AutoEurope and EasyCar don’t tell you the name of the company you’re renting with up front, much like Hotwire or Priceline. The amount of information you receive varies, until you finalize your purchase. In the case of AutoEurope, I don’t see why they really bother keeping it opaque. They give you the precise pickup address, but not the name of the provider. That’s nothing a little Googling won’t narrow down…

One caveat with booking an domestic vehicle on a site based in another country: Your credit card can be hit with foreign currency fees, even if you’re booking in US dollars. This varies by bank, so be forewarned. AutoEurope has offices in the US, and my card was charged — in USD — from the Portland, Maine office. So no foreign transaction or currency exchange fees.

But still, I’m a tad nervous about this working out. After all, with supply this tight, and my rate this comparatively low, I wouldn’t put it past the rental company to “lose” my reservation. The fact that it’s prepaid may help, but until I’m behind the wheel, I’m not taking anything for granted. Pickup is Wednesday. Wish me luck.

If you’re looking for a one-way rental out of Florida in the coming days, Thrifty is renting mid-size cars for $1 a day. The company must have an overhang of inventory, and is looking to reposition some vehicles out of the Sunshine state.

Pick-up is only from airport locations in Ft Lauderdale (FLL), Ft Myers (RSW), Miami (MIA), Orlando (MCO), Tampa (TPA), West Palm Beach (PBI), or Jacksonville (JAX).

Dropoff MUST be at Chicago Midway (MDW), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Cincinatti (CVG), Columbus (CMH), Dayton (DAY), Kansas City (MCI), Louisville (SDF), Philadelphia (PHL), or Jacksonville (JAX).

Wait, Jacksonville appears on both lists!? That’s what the rules say.

Yes, they’ll slap you with dozens of fees, such as airport concession fees, etc., but it could still be a deal if you combine a one-way rental with a one-way return flight. Or maybe you just want that one-way rental. Perhaps you’re a snowbird who’s late to leave Florida for the now-warm embrace of a northern summer.

(via WDBO; image)

Upgraded: Air
A bright side of the downturn: The recession means less travel. Which means less pollution. (Duh.) 8% lower carbon emissions by the industry as a whole, in fact.

Upgraded: The Race Card
Without any additional comment… video of Steven Colbert on the Visa Black Card:

Enterprise Rent-A-Car has sued the city of Chicago for trying to tax car rentals outside city limits, including far-reaching suburbs.

The St. Louis-based car rental giant filed the suit last week in Kane County after Chicago’s Department of Revenue decided that all car rentals in the Chicago suburbs are subject to the city’s 8 percent “transaction” or leasing tax.

To be excused from the tax, Chicago is requiring rental companies to photocopy customers’ driver’s licenses and obtain a sworn affidavit that they won’t be spending more than half of their time driving in Chicago with their rented car.

Sworn affidavit? That’s just ridiculous. And, may I add, unenforceable.

The city has a history of extra-jurisdictional taxation. When I lived in Chicago, I bought a car at a suburban dealership (in Schaumburg, just west of O’Hare, for those keeping score.) And much to my dismay, I had to pay the higher Chicago sales tax rate, instead of the lower Schaumburg rate, because the tax was based on the zip code of registration, not the location of the seller.

The move to tax rental cars is most likely targeting those suburbs near O’Hare Airport. Drivers there would be nailed with both airport fees and Chicago tax rates if they rented at the airport, and the city wants that revenue. Much like the Washington Airports Authority is trying to nail hotel shuttles with fees, this is a case of the city shifting the goalposts when the rules aren’t working out in its favor.

I don’t think Chicago’s taxation policy will stand up in court. It’s not only logically questionable to have a city taxing services in another city, but it’s an undue burden on both drivers and the rental car companies who have to collect the fees. I think Enterprise will win this case.

In the mean time, watch out for Chicago taxes outside of Chicago. And if you see such a fee on your rental agreement, then your bottom line is simple: Sign the affidavit. Then drive in Chicago with impunity.

Agencies are reporting more and more hybrids on their lots. But this growth story is being countered by reader reports that they weren’t able to actually rent the hybrid they reserved. Reader Steve reported that his reservation for a hybrid (at Hertz) was substituted for a different class when he showed up at the airports (two separate airports in California).

Then Tyler Colman of Dr. Vino, when renting from Fox Rent A Car at Oakland Airport, was told that hybrids were being cut back at the company “because the transmissions kept dying at 30,000 miles.” Hmm. Seems fishy.

I asked for comment from Fox Rent-a-Car, to see if this was actually a company-wide decision, or if this was just a big talker at the front desk. I still await their response.

Transmissions or not, the deck is stacked against hybrids in rental fleets, given the way rental cars are actually purchased. Sean’s post sums it up well:

Why are there so few hybrid rentals? I posed that question to Neil Abrams, president of the rental car consulting and research firm Abrams Consulting. He explained that rental car companies do not have an advantage with volume pricing buying power. Hybrids are so popular that car dealerships can get bigger margins selling directly to retail customers instead of rental car companies. Meanwhile, automakers are willing to offload lots of standard engine cars and below-market prices to rental car companies— to clear their inventories. So a rental car company can buy (to pick a random example) a Mercury Sable for, say, roughly $12,000. They can rent it for a year. Then they can re-sell it as a used car, and make money off the resale. This is far more profitable to them than buying a hybrid car, which might cost $20,000. They’ll have to charge far higher daily rates to customers to try to recoup the cost. But in an era of under-$2-a-gallon gas, not enough customers may rent the hybrids at the premium prices.

Indeed. And that’s more likely the better explanation for hybrid shortages at California airports. In this climate, it’s frankly surprising that any rental car company is adding hybrids to the fleet, period.

Enterprise’s expansion of the hybrid supply is unlikely an act of altruism. Perhaps they’re making a bet on the future direction of fuel prices. Let’s just hope the transmissions hold up.

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There are offers in the mail referencing Budget car rentals, but signing the check will activate your membership in “Everyday Values,” a shopping “club” membership that promises big discounts but costs you hefty membership fees. The program is managed by Trilegiant, a former Cendant subsidiary that specializes in separating people from their money in convenient monthly installments.

But the really sneaky part — and the reason this is relevant to travel — is that your signature on the check gives Trilegiant the right to get the credit card information you used when you rented a vehicle with Budget.

That’s unacceptable. Swiping the card for a rental transaction is intended for use in the rental transaction, and that transaction alone. It’s shameful that Budget has no qualms sharing your card number with a company that uses such fishy customer acquisition tactics.

But this is unfortunately not new. Complaints on the web date back to 2005, and may be even older, based on Trilegiant’s longstanding history of shady offers. Budget and Trilegiant were once under the same corporate umbrella (Cendant). But while they’re no longer corporate siblings, their partnership lives on.

Inquiries to Budget went unanswered.

Full scans of the letter I received after the jump…

For $8.95 a day, the passengers in the backseat will never need to part with their precious television. Sorry, no Tivo option yet…

Unsurprisingly, the channel lineup is heavily tilted toward kids’ programming. Disney Channel, Disney XD, Discovery Kids, Animal Planet, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network Mobile, USA, COMEDY CENTRAL, MSNBC, CNN Mobile Live and CNBC. Perhaps ironically, the Travel Channel is being added soon.

Cars will be outfitted with a roof antenna (pictured), and the streaming video will be cached for three minutes, to prevent signal drop when you lose a direct line of sight to the satellite.

Budget and Avis are pitching it to both vacationing families and business travelers. The family angle, I get. The business traveler, not so much. Keep CNN or the Colbert Report running in the background while you drive?

Is this something you’d opt for in a rental car? Hit the comments!

Hat tip Budget Travel

Upgraded: Political mayhem that leads to free travel
The recent political turmoil in Thailand has left travelers wary of visiting, so Air Asia is offering 100,000 free tickets to Thailand from other Asian destinations. Air Asia seems to offer free tickets rather frequently. The drop in Thai tourism isn’t just because of the financial crisis. It’s largely a function of the political struggle between the existing government and the monarchists. (Some decent background on the crisis, which led to airport shutdowns, is here.)

Upgraded: Bugatti rentals
I never knew this: The cars at many ultra-luxury car rental operations (the places that rent out Lamborghinis and Bugattis, not the stuff Hertz has on offer) are loaners from cash-strapped owners. Jalopnik has the primer on renting an uber-luxury car.

Downgraded: Canadian pet mobility
Upgraded: JetBlue pet mobility and frequent flyer miles
Canada’s top airlines — Air Canada and Westjet — aren’t transporting pets during the holiday season. They stopped accepting animals for travel on December 15. The ban runs through January 6 on Westjet, and January 7 on Air Canada. Why? They’re blaming fuller planes and fuller cargo holds. In contrast: JetBlue isn’t just transporting animals, they’re giving their owner bonus miles.

Downgraded: Being a flying bartender
Angling for a lawsuit, anyone? “A husband and wife are suing United Airlines for “negligently” overserving alcohol during a flight from Osaka, Japan, to San Francisco, saying the carrier’s drinks fueled the domestic violence involving the two shortly after their plane landed.” The couple contends they got served wine every twenty minutes. Whom do I have to threaten to sue to get that kind of service on UA?

Upgraded: Car sharing
The car-sharing phenomenon in major cities was launched by small operators. Now that the model has proven itself viable, the big firms are stepping in. Enterprise and Hertz are both entering the space, with Hertz launching in Paris, London, and New York this week. “Connect by Hertz” will be a membership program much like Zipcar, but with far fewer locations (Hertz starts in NYC with 10 sites, vs. Zipcar’s 300). But Parisian entrepreneurs are plotting to be one step ahead: electric short-term mini-rental cars, much like one finds public-use bicycles.

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Upgraded: Great reviews of awful hotels
Speaking of lousy hotels… how about this gem in Huntsville, Arkansas? Your room may have security cameras trained on your bed. Fantastic! (Thanks, Kim!)

Downgraded: Honesty, and eventually, safety
American and Delta are pulling out of a voluntary pilot-error reporting program with the FAA. The program was designed to allow pilots to admit to mistakes without fear of punishment, in order to improve how the air traffic control system functions. Guess what: The pilots say they’re being penalized by the airlines anyway, so they’re refusing to report errors. Which harms the system in the long run. Less data means the FAA will have a less accurate sense of the problems — however minor — which plague air travel. Management-labor relations, doing damage once again.

Downgraded: Advantage Rent-a-Car
Upgraded: My mood
Advantage Rent-a-Car, my least favorite car rental company in the United States of America, filed Chapter 11, with plans to close nearly 70% of their locations. Good riddance. My experiences with them were uniformly unpleasant, and downright insulting. I’m sure there were good people who work(ed) for the firm, and for those people, I’m sorry. I’m also sorry that I never actually met any of those people at an Advantage Rent-a-Car counter.

Upgraded: EU and Canada strike open-skies deals
The EU and Canada have liberalized the possibilities for air traffic between one another. “Under the deal, which is expected to come into force in the first half of 2009, airlines based in the 27-nation bloc will be able to operate direct flights to Canada from anywhere in Europe.” More competition for routes across the Atlantic should ensue.

Upgraded: Hartford
Northwest canceled the Hartford-Amsterdam flight, but post-merger Delta resumes it. Service is on a 757. Let’s see if they can make it work.

Upgraded: Algae fuel!
Yes, it’s just in the experimental phase, but Boeing is testing jet fuel derived from algae.

Upgraded: Your Merrill Lynch stock
Elite Island Resorts, with several properties in the Caribbean, are accepting stock as payment for your holiday stays. Better yet, they’re valuing the stock at July 1, 2008 levels. Merrill Lynch stock is down nearly 60% from that level. So, a 60% discount off the room rate! And at these levels, it might even be a good long-term investment for the resort. (via NYT)