Dollar - Car Type No Longer Offered

I made a reservation a few months ago for LAS for an Intermediate Convertible (PT Cruiser). When I reconfirmed online, I couldn't access the reservation. I also noted that Intermediate Convertible is no longer an option to rent at LAS.

I called Dollar, who confirmed that my reservation was still valid, but was less than forthcoming with information about the change of availability. To investigate further, I asked the agent to change my arrival times due to a flight change. She told me that when she changed my times, my car type would change to Compact, not Standard Convertible as I had hoped or expected.

I was wondering if anyone else had a similar experience or any advice on how to handle this. I certainly don't intend to pay for a convertible and receive a Compact car instead. Any advice would be appreciated.

Well, if the PT Cruiser Convertible doesn't exist at the LAS location anymore, there's really nothing you can do to get that car. However, if you don't touch the reservation, the location would have to give you a free upgrade to the next available class, although it's difficult to determine what an upgrade from a specialty vehicle like that is (technically, a fullsize is bigger, so they could argue that is a free upgrade, but you could argue with them that you reserved it to have a fun time and you want something like a Chrysler 300 or an SUV--if they make you pay more for this, one option would be to do it and then fight it with Customer Care later).

Sounds like you attempted to change your times just as a test and that you don't really need to change them. However, if you really do need to change your reservation, your price should go down, unless the rates have gone up across the board since you booked, in which case the compact may actually be more expensive than the convertible you booked (although, if it still existed, the convertible would be yet more expensive). But barring this, you should never pay for a convertible and get a compact--the rate should be adjusted down or you should get a free upgrade.

In this case, you have a couple of options: if it's a minor time adjustment, or if it's only an adjustment to your return time, don't touch the reservation. Change those details at the counter when you rent the car (but be careful of the no-show policy, which technically should be six hours according to national policy, although some locations deviate from that policy and crank it down to two). If you do need to change the pickup time, try calling the location directly (Google "Dollar Rent A Car Las Vegas NV" or similar--looks like these ones might be your best bet: 702-735-2922 or 702-739-8408), as they can often change details like that without recalculating the rate like the nationwide reservations center will. (When calling the location directly, make sure it sounds like you're actually calling someone IN Las Vegas--corporate-owned stores like to farm out most of their phone operations to the reservations center, so calling that number may route you to them anyway.)

Best of luck!