National - Worthless 1-2-Free Coupons

I accumulated 4 of these (1 free day) at the end of last year and have tried 3 times to use them, all to no avail. Each time I am told that the location has hit their allotment of usage for the coupons.

So exactly what's the point? I am a little frustrated with these right now.

Book way in advance. I was unable to use them at DCA for a weekend rental with 2 days notice, but the rest of the coupons (I had 7) I was able to use at CHO, PIT, and SAN.

I even have a rental at ATL booked for Memorial Day weekend using the last two of my coupons; this one I reserved about 3 weeks ahead of time.

It's a shame that the coupons are capacity controlled at all, though. :td:

I accumulated 9 of them and have not had problems using them earlier in the redemption period. However I got the same message when I try to use them in the last week of the redemption period. I guess too many people are trying to redeem them b4 they expire (and National covered itself by putting an "availability is limited" clause on the certificates..

I must say I was fortunate in that I will be able to make use of all of them b4 their expiry (I redeemed most of them early on).

I was finally able to use them in, of all places, Kansas City.
DCA, SAV, CHS. . No way.

But, they socked me with $50+ in taxes on the rental

was a big portion of the taxes airport concession fees? if it is I believe you may be able to eliminate the fees by using contract id 6600330

I was finally able to use them in, of all places, Kansas City.
DCA, SAV, CHS. . No way.

But, they socked me with $50+ in taxes on the rental

I was unable to use 6 of them last year after hoping to use them a a small-city location; only to be told that "franchise site was not participating in the promotion".... I sold them on Ebay.

This year I had 7, used 2 in PHX and just didn't have any opportunities to use the rest (no leisure travel where I needed a car), so I sold the other 5 on Ebay.

If you can't use them, there is a fairly active market for these both on coupon connection and Ebay. Certainly better than letting them go to waste.

Another problem with these coupons:

If the location you're using them at has reached its capacity for these coupons on a given day, you cannot change your existing reservation and still use the coupon(s).

I wanted to extend my upcoming ATL reservation and pick up my car this Saturday night, rather than Sunday. I have 3 coupons left so I figured I'd just add an extra one to the reservation, or if there were capacity controls just pay for one day and use the coupon for the second. I called the reservations line just a few minutes ago and they said "no can do." They did make a separate, paid reservation for me to pick up on Saturday ($31.20 all in, not bad for a holiday weekend) and said that the local ATL staff might be able to combine it with my existing Sunday coupon reservation to make a two-day rental. I've had staff at other National locations override the computer system before for various things, so they should be able to let me do this on Saturday. We'll see how it goes.

National really needs to upgrade its computer system, though. People's travel plans change, and it is very customer-unfriendly for a reservation to "lock out" and not allow changes when using a coupon, even if the customer is willing to pay for an extra day. :(

Must be low season where I am. I've been able to use them last-minute on a holiday weekend (at non-airport location). C$10 in taxes & fees for a single day rental.

If you cannot use them, I'd love to!

Used my 4 with no problems. 2 at LAX and 2 at PVD. PVD has got to be one of the worst National locations. Based upon several rental experiences with them, I've found the people who work there are very unfriendly and unhelpful.

Good news.

ATL accepted two coupons for my two-day rental today, despite the reservation system showing "capacity reached." Total for the weekend only $11.00 in taxes. :)

If you can't book a reservation with the 1-2-Free coupon(s) in advance, just book it as a paid reservation and the agents at the counter will probably be able to accept them. I was surprised that they accepted the second coupon (I was only able to reserve Sunday, not Saturday, with the coupon) but since they did, the wait in line at the counter was well worth it!

Kudos to the ATL counter staff...they were very efficient and friendly today despite the crowds.