Chicago - Best budget car rental options at ORD?

Which budget (ie anything that other than Hertz or Avis) rental car companies serving ORD passengers have the best service (and cars)?

For me, best service would mean things like, not having to wait 30 or more minutes in a long queue, not having to wait forever for the shuttle buses, staff are polite and friendly and efficient.

Which budget (ie anything that other than Hertz or Avis) rental car companies serving ORD passengers have the best service (and cars)?

For me, best service would mean things like, not having to wait 30 or more minutes in a long queue, not having to wait forever for the shuttle buses, staff are polite and friendly and efficient.& you want the world too?;)

as you know timing is everything, hit a rental car counter at the wrong time and it can be a terrible wait.

It seems budget is your key concern, so why not try out hotwire or priceline? Or you could trade with another FT'er on CC for their free car days.

No idea if Budget is reasonable compared to other options at ORD, but they saved my bacon on my recent Europe trip & thus have a fond space in my heart/I'd use them again.

My flight GRR-ORD was cancelled & other connection options to get me to Europe were fading fast, so in a Hail Mary pass I rented a Budget car in GRR, drove like hades to ORD, & got to Budget 9 minutes before they were closing my flight to FRA. I asked the bus driver if he could take off asap, but they were still loading other passengers. I explained what happened, he called someone, & they sent a guy w/ a car to take me to the terminal. I got to the airline baggage check-in counter 1 minute before they closed out the flight, and wouldn't have made it if the driver hadn't called for a car.

So they were quick, efficient, & friendly. Granted, my circumstances were unusual.

On a dif note - when they couldn't find my Fastbreak # at GRR, I overhead one agent say to the other use the CostCo discount code. That's the best one. So if you have a CostCo membership, you might want to check that.

Cheers.

& you want the world too?;)

as you know timing is everything, hit a rental car counter at the wrong time and it can be a terrible wait.

It seems budget is your key concern, so why not try out hotwire or priceline? Or you could trade with another FT'er on CC for their free car days.

There are times when some of the companies are charging rates so low that there is no particular advantage to bidding on Priceline or Hotwire, with their risks of not knowing which company you might get stuck with.


For a 2-day economy car rental the other day, Avis was charging $130 per day before taxes and Hertz $70 before taxes, compared to $50-60 including taxes at most of the others.

I went with Alamo for about $15 per day before taxes. Joined their membership and bypassed the lines. But the car I rented turned out to have horrible suspension (couldn't tell that until I was doing highway speeds, at which point it was too late to bother taking it back to the lot), smelled pretty bad, and needed a decent interior cleaning.

Just wondering whether things are any better at Enterprise, or some of the smaller companies (eg Ace or Advantage).

Thanks for sharing your experience with Budget, SkiAdcock.