Other Car Rental Programs/Partners (ie. Alamo, Enterprise, Sixt) - New to Enterprise - what to expect?

Hi all

After many years as a Hertz 5* and PC, my new job has a corporate Enterprise deal. My first trip is tomorrow, and I don't know what to expect. I'll be flying into DAL early Sunday evening.

With Enterprise, will I need to go to a counter line in the terminal to get a car assignment and a key or are there pre-assigned cars waiting under my name? Do they have cars at the terminal, or do I need to shuttle somewhere off-site?

Anything else to worry about or to know?

Thanks in advance!

RFTraveler :D

Boards with pre-assigned cars waiting for you?! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! More likely you'll get bored waiting for them to clean the car for you, once the car is returned by another customer half an hour later.

Seriously, premium price for premium service, and you won't get that at Enterprise. Get ready to join the line at the counter with the folks who have never rented a car in their life and their 25-year-old junker is in the shop. Get ready for a small allotment of airport cars, and they may not have anything close to what you reserved. That's because their primary business is neighborhoods, to compete with the mom-and-pop used car shops, not airports to compete with Hertz for high-rolling business people. Enterprise has a higher fleet utilization, so, walkups? Forget about it! Want to take a nice long scenic ride across the country? Not with their mileage restrictions "to neighboring states."

Sorry to be so crass, but as someone who has had the privilege of renting with almost every car company, trust me when I say Enterprise may take some getting used to.

Oh boy...

Guess from a corp standpoint it makes sense. In my business, we occasionally need SUV's etc. The corp rate we have is fixed nationwide, and apparently it's already saved us hundreds on an Alaskan rental, getting what amounts to a 'mainland' rate.

Well, new job after a dry period, and I'll take what I can get - for now.

Thanks!

RFTraveler :(

I'd recommend joining Enterprise Plus. Most airports have a Plus line - in theory it might make your life easier at the counter. If you plan to rent much from your local neighborhood location, it pays to be kind and get to know the agents - they'll usually take care of you. Hopefully your corporate agreement has some sort of pre-arrangement as far as insurance goes, to avoid you the famous high-pressure Enterprise insurance pitch.

Fortunately, it's being reported in the National forum that there may be some sort of reciprocal agreement in the works with Alamo/National. Good luck!

OK, I did join Plus. I'm using a corp code, so whatever they have signed for, that's what I'm getting as far as insurance.

Thanks!

RFTraveler :)

And make sure you understand the Enterprise policy of no one-way rentals. Whereas other companies own a corporate fleet that randomly crosses the country, Enterprise Groups own their cars. I've heard horror stories of people not realizing that the green and white e doesn't mean the cars are interchangeable. For instance, I heard someone took an Enterprise car from Virginia and tried to return it in New York, only to be looked at like a Martian and being charged a $2,000 drop fee to have an employee drive it back. I've also heard other stories of problems with roadside assistance, since in the rare event a brand new Enterprise car breaks down, it can't be easily swapped with another location outside the original zone.

Also watch for mileage caps at some Enterprise locations, especially on large vehicles. They get away with it because they specialize in the local mileage replacement market. The used car mom-and-pops typically give 100 free miles a day on all vehicles. As I said before, Enterprise didn't intend to compete with Hertz and Avis. It just sort of worked out that way.

Enterprise has its quirks, but this is frequently what allows them to be the low-price leader. This does not have to be a problem if you know about them and carefully confirm that Enterprise will be the lowest priced rental that meets your needs.

Hello from Dallas...

Got to DAL on Sunday and had a mixed, but basically pretty good experience.

No one at the counter, but a sign directing people to the shuttles. Only one of the rental counters had any staff.

Waited through 3 Hertz shuttles before the Enterprise shuttle showed up. A rather quite, almost surly driver sort of helped one woman with her luggage. He drove us to the off-airport facility with the van seat reclined way back, rather "cool" looking in his sunglasses and ball cap.

Rather seedy looking facility in a rather dodgy neighborhood, but not very crowded and well staffed with friendly people.

Had reserved a 'intermediate' on my corp CDP. Was offered a Jeep Liberty ("small" SUV) free upgrade (6k miles, looked and smelled brand new). Took it, as I'd never driven one and was curious. Took a quick walk around, and saw nothing at all to document, nor did the rep. I was ready to take photos if needed after reading this thread, but it was clean.

A passing comment only on the additional coverage "your company doesn't take any additional coverage, do they?" and that was it.

The Jeep's a bit of a stripper (cloth interior, no cruise, manual seats etc) but does have active satellite radio and power windows.

Remains to be seen on the return, but so far the experience was pretty reasonable.

Thanks for the help everyone!

RFTraveler. :D:D ^ :)

personally, i'm younger, so i'm stuck renting with enterprise because my school offers a code to waive the underage fee. that being said, i've had nearly no problems with my rentals (maybe 10?) over the past year and a half.

i had a long delay getting a shuttle at GPT, in which i was given a free half tank of gas, and a u/g to a small suv.

they only other issue was a (somewhat) rude employee at BNA, who marked no damage on the car from inside the counter, and there was no one there to remind me to look (luckily i did), and a car with a broken antenna, which was made up for by a manager offering a nice upgrade.

most of the staff has been great, and have given me upgrades, and the enterprise plus line has def saved some time

I've been reading about the Enterprise issues on this forum for a while, and personally I've never really experienced any of them. All of my experiences have been in Canada. I've never gotten the hard-line insurance talk, but I have noticed they ask a little bit differently, such as the agent at YVR who asked specifically "How will you be insuring the car?"

The only issue I've had with ERAC has been some of the underage policies. Namely, they STRICTLY enforce the car categories you can get, because according them their liability insurance disallows anyone under 25 to drive anything higher than fullsize. In fact, in Ontario the cars don't even have liability insurance for U25s; you have to have your own automobile insurance policy to rent from them or they will turn you away.

Another time in Edmonton I had an economy car booked when they were in fact sold out. I had to get across town for a study session at a friend's place and then get to my exam first thing the next morning. Granted, I had booked the car only the day before, but the system allowed it. I got a phone call saying they had no cars on the lot but they would let me know if they could fulfill the reservation. A little later I phoned and they let it slip that there was a cargo van on the lot. I honestly wouldn't have cared, but then they said "Oh you're under 25, yeah we don't have anything" and had to cancel my res.

I will applaud ERAC for how they handle things when the chips are down. I sent a complaint to their customer service department and got a reply from the regional manager the same day. He apologized profusely and gave me a free rental. I got a Pontiac Pursuit with power everything (and even a sunroof) and didn't pay a penny, not even the taxes.

Lately I haven't gone with them simply because they started imposing a $15/day underage fee in Edmonton which effectively made them more expensive than the companies where I have corp agreements. I've always found them to be super-friendly and go through all the details of the rental with you. This isn't a huge benefit to me, as a child of National's Emerald Club I'm used to just getting in a car, showing my license, and going on my way. Also they do restrict where you can drive their cars but I've always been a local renter with them so it's never presented an issue. Finally, they do tend to carry “stripper” cars, which are fine for the day, but for longer trips I like to have the creature comforts.

So it's all in what you're looking for. They're not my first choice, but they're definitely not on my avoid list.