What to do when you realize your airport shuttle driver is crazy

by Alison Brick on

When your airport shuttle driver does any of the following, you know he’s a little off: flip-flops on prices, each of the three times that you ask him for a quote. Plugs your address into his GPS navigation system, then asks you how to get to your place. Gets well onto the freeway, only to turn around to pick someone else up from the airport.

The driver I had the other night did all three. With a distinct glaze of ‘couldn’t care less’ in his eye.

What’s a traveler to do? Anarchy.

The two other passengers and I jumped ship. It being 12:30 a.m. and all, our options were few and far between: the local commuter train had already stopped running 30 minutes prior, and wouldn’t start up again for another four hours. A taxi for three people and three stops would be pricey and complicated. Other shuttles either wouldn’t go in our direction, had stopped running, or demanded the private shuttle fare of $80.

Our last resort: rent a car. To go 23 miles. (Yes, it occurred to me too that we might be the crazy ones.)

It’s just as tedious to think about waiting in car rental lines as it was actually waiting in line. So I’ll bypass that. But suffice it to say that after a lot of time and several quotes in the $120-180 range (before taxes), we jumped on the price we got for $78 after taxes (thank you National!). At $26 per person, it was cheaper than the highest price quoted by the shuttle driver: $49. So, we were soon on the road again, and with people that we actually had faith in.

To their credit, the shuttle dispatch called around that time to ask whether I had been picked up. I could’ve–nay, should’ve–chewed the driver out. But here’s the thing: I didn’t know the driver’s name, didn’t want to be charged for missing the shuttle after making the reservation, and plain couldn’t be bothered. So I told them what any crazy person would: “yes, thank you!” I did have a ride, truthfully.

Time lost in the process: 2 hours, 20 minutes. Distance from airport to home: 23 miles. Price per person: $26. Getting home safely before daybreak? Yep, you got it: priceless.

Enterprise adds 5000 hybrid cars to their rental fleet

by Scott Carmichael on

People are apparently not renting cars as often as they used to. But while some car rental firms are closing up shop, others are taking those lemons and making “green lemonade”.

Enterprise rent-a-car just announced a massive expansion to their hybrid rental fleet.

The chain is adding 5000 new hybrid vehicles, and expanding their “hybrid branch” lineup. Already, 27 Enterprise locations offer online and phone reservations of a hybrid vehicle, and that number is set to rise to 80 within a couple of months.

The Enterprise hybrid lineup offers the Ford Escape, Toyota Prius and the Toyota Camry.

Sadly, being green comes at a price. A regular airport rental with Enterprise (for a standard car) is about $30/day, but to protect the environment in a hybrid, you’ll pay about $70/day. Ouch.

Still, it’s nice to see a major rental company making a difference, and it is always great when customers at least have the option to rent green.

Budget program strains your budget

by Tom Johansmeyer on

We’re all turned on by the thought of getting free money in the mail, but you should be skeptical unless the tooth fairy delivers it personally. According to Upgrade:Travel Better, you should be wary of a new deal from Budget Rent-A-Car.

Sign the $10 check that you get from Budget, and you’re really joining a fee-laden membership program that will cost you much more. The best part? You’re giving the company that manages this program (Trilegiant) access to your credit card information. So, you know they’ll get paid. As you may have figured out by now, Trilegiant has a history of complaints about its billing practices.

If you believe in free money, sign the “check” immediately. If Trilegiant doesn’t take your money, someone else undoubtedly will.

[Via Wall Street Journal]

[Thanks, Dad]

Advantage Rent A Car is the next victim of the crappy economy

by Scott Carmichael on

The doom and gloom stories about our economy going down the toilet are starting to depress me.

The news from Advantage Rent A Car is no different – not only have people stopped buying cars, they obviously no longer rent them either.

The chain has 49 stores in the United States, and well over 100 overseas but the decline in rentals and the lack of available credit has forced them into Chapter 11.

The press release does not mention what the fate is of their international locations, but the Advantage.com website won’t let you reserve a car at any of their locations.

Customers with a rental car reservation will be assisted by Hertz who will honor “nearly all” the pending reservations. The Advantage locations at the following airport locations will remain open for normal business: Austin, Chicago Midway, Colorado Springs, Denver, El Paso, Houston, Orlando, Phoenix and Salt Lake City.

If you have an existing reservation with Advantage then you are advised to call 800-777-5500 or 80-777-5524 to be advised of the status of your reservation. Advantage does remind people currently using one of their rental cars that they will want them back as scheduled. The “consolidation” will affect 440 Advantage employees, I wish them the best of luck in finding a new job.

National Car renters: get free Executive Status

by Grant Martin on

[Disclaimer: I’m not really sure where this code came from, but am reading multiple reports that it works]

For those of you familiar with rental companies, you know that they give away memberships like candy. National Car’s “club” is called Emerald Access, whereby you put in your driver’s license and preferences online and get a membership number. If you’ve made a reservation, you can then just show up at your departure terminal, jump in a car, hand them your info on the way out and zip away before half of the other schlubs are even out of line.

It’s a pretty good system and I’ve been an Emerald Member for the last four years or so.

Like other hotel/airline/travel rewards programs, it takes a certain number of reservations or “nights” to reach the upper tiers of rental car redemptions. Once you reach those levels you can rent the nice Cadillacs or convertibles for no extra cost from a midsize rental — but it takes a long time to reach that status. In National’s case, the Executive Selection takes a fair dedication to renting cars and traveling, so is pretty much out of reach for even the casual business traveler like myself.

It looks like they released some sort of promo code that grants Executive Status though, and its been leaked around some of the travel forums. Using this link, you can put in your current Emerald number (which you can get for free if you don’t have one), fill in your information, click the link for “not switching companies” and you’ll automatically get upgraded.

Give it a try and see if it pans out. It worked for me.