Budget - warning- new mileage limits

I just found out that Budget and Avis now have a 50 mi/day mileage cap on big vehicles from both airport and local offices. Enterprise local offices give 150 miles/day with no limit from the airport locations. Hertz still gives free unlimited miles, at least for now.

Spread the word to avoid surprises and more wisely spend your rental dollars!

Hi -

Can you tell me what defines a "big vehicle"?

Thanks!
Michelle

The OP's claim does not reflect any reality that I'm aware of. I just completed a one-day Enterprise rental from a "local office" yesterday with 225 miles...all free. I did a dummy rental for a Budget SUV later this month and once again found unlimited free miles.

Any company that does not offer unlimited free miles would put themselves at a huge competitive disadvantage.

Up here in the Great White North, mileage caps work if everyone does them. Take a northern city like Fort St. John, BC. The rental outlets are franchised so every car they have in their fleet is one they purchased. To keep the wear and tear off of them, they impose a 50 km/day cap. Say Budget decided to offer unlimited km despite the others. Yes they'd pick up a good share of business, but their costs would probably go up too.

Enterprise give miles too?
They don't ask for frequent flyer number online.
I didn't know that although I rent it a lot.

Up here in the Great White North, mileage caps work if everyone does them. Take a northern city like Fort St. John, BC. The rental outlets are franchised so every car they have in their fleet is one they purchased. To keep the wear and tear off of them, they impose a 50 km/day cap. Say Budget decided to offer unlimited km despite the others. Yes they'd pick up a good share of business, but their costs would probably go up too.

That's probably true for rural outposts, but the OP suggested this was a new policy imposed systemwide. The vast majority of renters are renting cars in mid-to-major sized cities.

Avis and Budget have now imposed fleetwide mileage caps of 50 mi/day on roundtrip and one-way rentals within the NY metro area. Last month they only did this for full size sedan and up. Now even tiny economy cars are subject to this restriction. I guess Budget would rather people not rent from them and risk going out of business.

Avis and Budget have now imposed fleetwide mileage caps of 50 mi/day on roundtrip and one-way rentals within the NY metro area. Last month they only did this for full size sedan and up. Now even tiny economy cars are subject to this restriction. I guess Budget would rather people not rent from them and risk going out of business.

I've had avis rentals each of the last 2 weekends from mid town manhattan locations
rentals came up as 100 miles free and $0.20 per mile after that
i was using a coupon which stated free mileage - so i noted that on the rental doc
but regardless of the mileage they will try to stick you with a $13.99 fuel charge plus tax and demand a receipt, even if you return with a full tank

Enterprise give miles too?
They don't ask for frequent flyer number online.
I didn't know that although I rent it a lot.

The OP is referring to miles on the vehicle, not frequent flier miles.

50 miles??? Heck, at MCI that barely gets you round trip to the airport!! :confused:

Yes, when I visited Kansas City MO, as well as other parts of the South and Midwest, I noticed that long drives are normal there. 30 minutes to Shoprite? Sure, once a week man! 3 hours to the airport? Heck, the other airport is 2 1/2 hours away. Why, you folks in the Northeast have everything within reach? Wow! This is obviously due to the difference in culture found in urban and suburban locales as opposed to rural ones.

Therefore, mileage caps and rental policies in general vary in other parts of the country. For instance, Enterprise in the NY area really likes local mileage folks. NY, NJ, CT were once the only states allowed. If you go to Enterprise in the Midwest, they practically allow you to visit the whole region. That's again due to the spread-out nature of things and the acknowledgment therefore that "local" mileage there is a completely different way of life.