Unlike most other car rental companies, Thrifty doesn't make LDW charges compulsory in Italy. Happy that we could avoid unnecessary charges (we use DC for all our car rentals, of course), my husband and I booked a one-week rental through Travelocity (the pre-tax rates were very good). Unfortunately, when we went to pick up the car in Florence, we were told that Thrifty had run out of cars, and ONLY RENTERS WITH PRE-PAID VOUCHERS WOULD BE GUARANTEED ONE. (It would have cost us a penalty to cancel our reservation w/Travelocity, but the Thrifty agent didn't care.) We were sent to a local car rental agency completely unknown to us. The agent there was willing to honor the base rate but insisted on assessing additional insurance charges (and of course, would guarantee no AA miles for the rental). No amount of (polite) arguing, in Italian or English, made them change their minds. We later found out that this is routine practice for Thrifty in Italy.

So, be warned: unless you have a pre-paid voucher (obtainable from Thrifty, I suppose), don't bother renting with them in Italy. In fact, if you plan to travel to Italy at a busy time (Easter weekend, mid-June to Mid-August, Xmas perhaps), you may be well advised not to rent with Thrifty at all as you may find yourself switched to another car rental company alltogether.

To be fair, customer service at Thrifty US has promised to refund the excess charges and give us AA miles for the rental, but that already required two phone calls and a letter (and, hopefully, it will go smoothly form here on...).

[This message has been edited by honu (edited 05-08-2000).]

scam!