I have to say that after my negative experiences with Thrifty in Miami during my Latinpass run that I was pretty hesitant to ever rent with them again. However, after my experience with them this past weekend in Denver I think I may be using them more. I suppose it will depend on the specifics of the destination, but in Denver I believe it makes sense.

I was going to Denver for the weekend on purely personal motives, so I only needed something to get me around, nothing special. A search on the internet yielded rates there of $18.80 for Thrifty and everyone else around $40. Crazy. And when you add in 14% concession recovery fee and %13.5% sales tax, the difference is huge. So I decided to go for Thrifty, but remembering my experience in Miami (long wait, crappy car), decided that it would be best to join the Bluechip program.

Great decision. Even though I called to join the afternoon I was leaving, the agent there, Judy, was extremely helpful and faxed me all the documents and got me a number and added it to my record. When I arrived in Denver I went straight to the bus and gave the guy my name.

Thrifty is exactly what its name implies, thrifty. The van isn't exactly like a huge Hertz bus. And sometimes Thrifty locations will be way out of the way off-airport. But when it's located roughly similar to the big guys, no big deal.

When we arrived at the Thrifty lot at the rental car area at DEN my car was already moved under the canopy in front of the building and the attendant took my bag and put it in the trunk. Wow. I was impressed. I don't think I got a special car or anything. I had reserved economy and got a Nissan Sentra. It had power everything and worked fine.

If in my future leisure travels Thrifty rates continue to have such a significant advantage over the majors and they are convenient I will rent from them again.