mittencuh

Maybe you got lucky, but searching this very own thread it says intermediate as a requirement. I'm sure having First helps though.

Critic

I can verify what mittencuh said - the minimum car class requirement has been in place since Select & Go was announced. Whether the station(s) you were renting from were ENFORCING the req. is another story.

IAHtraveler

Hah, seems like we've got the Avis Lurker here again. Within 24 hours of you posting that, the page now shows "...when you reserve an intermediate vehicle or larger."

http://www.avis.com/car-rental/conte...o-US_en-033067

Another public request to "Avis Lurker": We would love to have you or someone here from Avis as an official company rep. Many other travel companies have a rep (or group of reps operating as one person) on FlyerTalk and I think it would be great to have someone from Avis also. If you're interested, please send me a Private Message and we can get you set-up.

sdsearch

It's beyond "not enforced". Back in fall 2012, Avis (Avis.RentACar [email protected]) was proactively sending me emails like this on rentals that were reserved as either Economy or Compact:
Now, Ford Explorer 4WD is way above Economy or Compact, and what was in the Exchange area was either more of those SUVs or cars only a class or two above what I had resereved. So again, while the rules seem to say "reserve" an intermediate, the actuality seems to be if you get "over upgraded" (to something far above what you reserved), you apparently can use the Exchange area (as opposed to going back to the Preferred booth and bothering a clerk about how you don't want an SUV, you want a "normal car", and then them having to find you one, which seems more work for them than to just let you use Exchange).

Having said all that, in my most recent rentals, I haven't been geting ridiculously (for me) huge vehicles, and so I haven't tried to use Exchange.

mittencuh

^^ Are you certain you reserved an economy or compact class? An Explorer is quite a huge upgrade from that. That's simply an automatically generated email so I'm assuming since the class of the car assigned is much higher than intermediate it simply included the line about Select and Go.

abefroman329

Arrived at LAX location around 5:30 last night, was assigned a Mazda 6 (full-size reservation), went over to the exchange area, and found 3 cars: A Nissan Murano, a Ford Escape (no keys), and a Nissan Altima (no keys). Went inside to ask if they were bringing out more cars and was flat out told "no." Stuck with the Mazda 6. Some program!

Critic

LAX is the WORST. Don't judge the program based on your experience there.

abefroman329

I don't, I've had much better experiences at CMH (even got an MK-Z on one trip).

sdsearch

Yes, I am certain that I was reserving economy or compact class. This was "rentals runs" for an airline promo (which worked on one-day rentals), and I was reserving what was abolute cheapest, and that was certainly economy or compact. (Compact was I think ever so slightly more, but I was doing back-to-back one-day rentals to max out the promo, and I wanted an "excuse" of needing a different type of car if they would ever ask. But of course they never asked.)

I actually ran into this "over-upgrade" at a number of different Avis locations for several years, not just at LAX. (I haven't on my most recent rentals, though.) It was always to some sort of SUV, which in most cases I didn't want. I presume it was because it was what they had the most unrented stock of, not because it was the next level up (which of course it wasn't).

Anyway, the last point you make is the one I've been trying to get at. No matter what is says the rules are, it seems to be like the implementation might be that Select & Go access is based on the car you get (after the ugprade), not on the car you reserved.

abefroman329

I've rented cars on several occasions where larger car classes were cheaper than smaller car classes.

sdsearch

I have too. But that was not the case the Avis LAX at that time (fall 2012 multiple weekends). I definitely remember that I was alternating between economy and compact, and those were indeed the cheapest two at that location on those days.

abefroman329

I actually dropped that car off at SNA, is Select and Go any better there? The facility looked pretty awful, buried in the basement of the parking garage.

Critic

Probably not. Smaller airport stations generally don't have Select & Go. (I know BUR doesn't.)

indufan

Comparing BUR and SNA is apples and oranges.

sdsearch

There is no Select & Go at SNA (nor at most smaller airports).

The list of Select & Go locations is here:

http://www.avis.com/car-rental/conte...o-US_en-033067