Thrifty Car Rental on Kauai

[Blues]

I've read (here on TUG, IIRC) about horrendous lines at the Thrifty Car Rental counter at Lihue. Is it still that bad?

I have 2 car reservations for April -- Thrifty through discounthawaiicarrental.com, and Budget from CostcoTravel. I really should give one up. The thing is: 1) the Thrifty reservation is cheaper, and 2) new quotes are nearly double from what I got in December. I've now joined Thrifty's Blue Chip program (thanks DaveNV for a rec from an old thread), and I've always belonged to Budget FastBreak.

I'd give up the Budget reservation, but I'm fearful of hours-long lines at Thrifty. And since I added the Blue Chip program after making the Thrifty ressie, I'm not sure it's gonna help. Or I can keep both, and cancel the other after picking up a car.

Any insights or advice? Thanks.

 

[MOXJO7282]

We also exclusively use Budget if the airport has the fastbreak option. The price differential would have to be like $200 or more for me to accept standing in a rental car line foe an 1 1/2hr. And Costco usually has the best cost so not sure why pricing would be that different.

 

[easyrider]

The thing to do is look at when the arriving planes show up. If there are a couple coming in within 30 minutes prior of your flight it could be a wait as everyone seems to going with the cheap quote which seem to be Thrifty. If your flight doesn't have any flights coming in within 30 minutes prior of your flight and you can bee line it to Thrifty while someone else gets the luggage handled you will probably be ok.

We used Thrifty and discounthawaiiancarrental and it did take about 90 minutes at HNL mostly because there were so few employees working. If Thrifty had more than two counter people and one employee getting the keys at the kiosk it would have been much faster. I have the Blue Chip program and as I was in line I watched the big tv at Thrifty advertising the skip the line which wasn't available at HNL because of a lack of employees. I saw one guy coming in to the rental center who was a bit upset that he had went to the kiosk and was told to go to the counter. The only reason I knew about it was I googled where Thrifty was and it read that the program had been paused.

Bill

 

[Blues]

The thing to do is look at when the arriving planes show up. If there are a couple coming in within 30 minutes prior of your flight it could be a wait as everyone seems to going with the cheap quote which seem to be Thrifty. If your flight doesn't have any flights coming in within 30 minutes prior of your flight and you can bee line it to Thrifty while someone else gets the luggage handled you will probably be ok.

Hmm. It looks like, between an hour before and an hour after our scheduled landing, there are 8 flights arriving in LIH. Perhaps MOXJO7282 has the right idea. It's only about a $50 difference for the Budget reservation.

 

[Ken555]

I rented from thrifty in Kauai last month. Other than a short wait and a rep who insisted on reading the entire insurance liability horror story that I’m responsible for since I declined their overpriced coverage, it was ok. I had to go back and get a different car when they didn’t give me one with a covered baggage area or trunk, so that took longer. Otherwise, it was perfectly fine. So not the best service, but pretty much what I expected.


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[T_R_Oglodyte]

Our standard procedure when arriving in Kauai is that I hustle past baggage claim and hop on the shuttle bus as quickly as I can. DW stays behind to collect luggage. After I get the car, I return to baggage claim to pick her up. I started doing that after I got tired of getting stacked up behind other people on the plane picking up their cars. Plus, it's much easier to navigate the shuttle when all I have is my backpack.

 

[artringwald]

Our standard procedure when arriving in Kauai is that I hustle past baggage claim and hop on the shuttle bus as quickly as I can. DW stays behind to collect luggage. After I get the car, I return to baggage claim to pick her up. I started doing that after I got tired of getting stacked up behind other people on the plane picking up their cars. Plus, it's much easier to navigate the shuttle when all I have is my backpack.

I do the same. Also, when leaving, I drop her off with the luggage, drop off the car, and take the shuttle back to avoid schlepping luggage on and off the shuttle.

 

[dougp26364]

We just returned fro Kauai and were staying at Marriotts Kauai Lagoons. The mainland flights start coming in around 3:30 and land one after another for a few hours.

We were on one of the earlier flights. we rented through Costco with Alamo. We utilized their skip the line option from their website. Most rental car companies have something similar where you put everything in and then receive a pickup ticket. You then skip the line and go straight to your car. Budget has Fastbreak. Sign up and put your reservation number in. Then all you should have to do is get on the shuttle bus and pick up your car.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I do the same. Also, when leaving, I drop her off with the luggage, drop off the car, and take the shuttle back to avoid schlepping luggage on and off the shuttle.

Same with us.

 

[easyrider]

Perhaps MOXJO7282 has the right idea. It's only about a $50 difference for the Budget reservation.

I think so.

I think from now on I'm going to call or google if a location has the skip the counter option. The problem in Hawaii is that many people moved to the mainland causing a shortage of workers, imo.

Bill

 

[zentraveler]

I do the same. Also, when leaving, I drop her off with the luggage, drop off the car, and take the shuttle back to avoid schlepping luggage on and off the shuttle.

Same with us at any airport.

 

[Ken555]

We just returned fro Kauai and were staying at Marriotts Kauai Lagoons. The mainland flights start coming in around 3:30 and land one after another for a few hours.

FWIW, my flight landed at 1pm from LAX.


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[dougp26364]

FWIW, my flight landed at 1pm from LAX.


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I suspect there’s a few I missed coming in. I saw a few SWA’s flights and it’s hard to say the origin city. I saw one Hawaiian airline and one Alaska airline come in but I didn’t note the arrival times. Every day I’d see two AA flights, a United and a Delta flight arrive within an hour or so of each other mixed in with some Hawaiian airline 717’s.

 

[Poobah]

We arrived three weeks ago at 6:30 PM. It took about 45 minutes to pickup my AVIS rental. They closed the AVIS facility at 5 PM and everyone is processed at Budget. They had my Preferred reservation, but not the paperwork nor had they assigned a car. It was apparent that in many cases it didn’t make any difference as to what car you reserved, you got what was available. I had reserved a standard car and was offered a pickup truck or a four door Jeep! The problem is they are short of cars and they are short staffed. It is the same story: no one wants to work. BTW, I also head to the car rental as soon as we get off the plane and then come around and pick up DW with the bags.