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When car rental agency is sold out....

mdurette

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I have been watching and re-pricing a car rental for an upcoming trip (PHX). Dollar has been by far the cheapest. I noticed today when I checked, a message comes up stating this location is sold out for the dates.

I assume they overbook like hotels and airlines. Have you ever had a car reserved only to find out at the counter non where available? I'm wondering if I should make a back up plan with another agency.
 

dougp26364

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I learned a hard lesson in Vegas about those "we choose the car" deals. The type where they guarantee at least a certain level, like compact size, but you could get a minivan, and they give you a cheaper price for the "flexibility" .

We arrived in Vegas and the location was "sold out." Because we allowed them to pick the car, our preferred renter program didn't do us any good. We stood in line with everyone else waiting for cars to be returned, processed, cleaned and assigned. I'll never do one of those they pick the car again. Even with sold out situations I've had my prearranged contract and car waiting for me. It's not foolproof but there's a lower probability of standing in a long line waiting for cars to be returned. That experience really sucked.
 

sts1732

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I have been watching and re-pricing a car rental for an upcoming trip (PHX). Dollar has been by far the cheapest. I noticed today when I checked, a message comes up stating this location is sold out for the dates.

I assume they overbook like hotels and airlines. Have you ever had a car reserved only to find out at the counter non where available? I'm wondering if I should make a back up plan with another agency.

I use to shuttle cars for Avis part time after I retired, and yes I have seen it happen, where a customer with a reserved car, was not able to get ANY car because of being sold out. That happens when the airport that supplies cars has none to give to an OFF SITE LOCATION. The airports will always come first. Sometimes it was because after a customer asked for a car or face to face or on the phone and told they were sold out, they then turned around and booked it on line, thinking this would get them in. Off site locations will also take care of any corporate accounts first, which decreases the availability. You are correct in that they do over book. Most off sites are walk in's, the 800 number goes on the premise that the air port will provide.
The message you seen might very well include your reservation making it sold out. If you have the phone number of your pick up location(not the 800 number) call them and ask if your still good to go. You can also book with another rental, call both on your day of arrival and cancel one out. It's a pain but it works.
 

bogey21

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Happened to me many years ago on one of my numerous business trips. I arrived late at night at the San Diego Airport site of one of the majors (don't remember which one) and they were out of cars notwithstanding my reservation and on-time arrival. Somehow I scrambled around and found something.

George
 

Luanne

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We had that happen, I think it was in Kansas City (MO). However since the rental agency was one that partners with another, it could have been Budget/Avis we could select a car from the other company's fleet.
 

WinniWoman

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Did y
I have been watching and re-pricing a car rental for an upcoming trip (PHX). Dollar has been by far the cheapest. I noticed today when I checked, a message comes up stating this location is sold out for the dates.

I assume they overbook like hotels and airlines. Have you ever had a car reserved only to find out at the counter non where available? I'm wondering if I should make a back up plan with another agency.


Did you try using Auto Slash?
 

WinniWoman

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Never happened to me and I hope it never does. But, one time when we arrived in Newark, our hired car service was not there and we could not find out what happened, so we looked into getting a car rental at the airport to drive home. Not one single company in Newark airport had a rental car available on a Saturday afternoon! The counters were all shut down with signs stating so.

Thankfully, the car service ended up arriving Was late due to an accident on the highway.
 

frankf3

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Any Seinfeld fans?

Sorry, I know my comment is OT, but the topic reminded me of the episode where the rental agency doesn't have a car for Jerry (of course despite his reservation). :D

Back on topic. Similar to comments above, have had a couple of situations where the car I reserved was not available on arrival and had to wait for incoming cars to be prepped. Minor hassle in the grand scheme of things....
 

Talent312

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This reminds me of the time we arrived late at night at SFO to begin a 10-day trip camping around California in state & national parks. We had reserved a suitable small car, but they'd run out of all but one car.

They gave us the car they had left. It was a huge aircraft carrier and guzzled gas at time when it was +$4/gal. It looked totally out-of-place parked at a campsite, but we managed to have a good time, nonetheless.

.
 

gnipgnop

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This happened to us in Reno. Dollar had nothing available in spite of our reservation and confirmation number. We had a full size car rented. They apologized and told us that we can get a car from Hertz and their rental counter was right next to Dollar. The agent went over to the person at Hertz and we wound up with a very nice SUV at no extra charge from Hertz. We were shocked ~ thought we were totally out of luck, but Dollar came through thanks to Hertz.
 

somewhereoutthere

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Yes, many years ago we had a confirmed reservation in Harlingen, Texas. We arrived later than expected and Dollar had given our car to someone else. Unfortunately, the entire airport was sold out of rental cars. So after we insisted, Dollar paid for a cab to South Padre Island. They said they would drive a car out to us first thing in the morning. We called in the morning because we had to get to Brownsville for a work-related event, and they still didn't have a car. They asked us to take another cab to go from South Padre Island to Brownsville. They finally got a car to us in Brownsville in the afternoon. It was a huge hassle, but at least they paid for the cabs.
 
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