chompion

I called the CHM desk to confirm my reservation and when I asked about curbside pickup, they stated that post-9/11 policy prohibits it at ALL airports.

I'm new to CHM and my Welcome Kit stated this as an amenity. What's the true story?

heffa

Its available on almost ALL airports. Call the local office and request the service from a manager and it will be done.

chompion

Hmm... I wonder why I got a different story from the CHM desk hotline. Why can't the CHM rep call the airport office themselves? Must this be done by the renter themselves with the airport manager? seems to defeat the purpose with the whole time-saving aspect of CHM membership.

Thanks.

aviators99

I called SFO directly tonight, and they said "No."

ezmonee

Post 9-1-1 airport rules forbade curbside pickup except by designated vehicles. "designated vehicles" require airport passes and proper licensing through airport authority. Commercial vehicles with proper licensing usually are only allowed to pick up in designated areas in post airports, much like how taxi's are treated.

Chairman dropoff service is still alive and kicking and chm are often picked up from hotels or nearby locations, so often chm who are experienced at this simply get a cab to their locations and have the CHM desk arrange a remote drop off and pickup of the car.

Back in the day, we would stand curbside doing an "eye catch" as it was called. First we were allowed to hold up a sign, but that got nixed because the CHM didnt like the attention. So we were told to be very "conspicuous" and catch the eye of the inbound customer. Pain in the "you know what".

then came 9-1-1 and new rules, we still did it, but it quickly got us in alot of hot water with airport security. Eventually it went away, except for very select airports. The smaller the airpot, the easier the curbside pickup. If your airport has a train that takes you to a combined renting facility, forget it. If your airport has specific designated pickup locations, may as well forget it.

chompion

Thanks for clarifying ezmonee. Good inside information.

aviators99

Yes, thanks from me as well. I can understand the difficulty. It's a shame, though. The train at SFO takes *forever*.

ezmonee

for that reason, its a great idea to get the email address of a manager at avis, be nice to him/her, and when you call em directly, they are often capable of "circumventing" the system.

But hey... im just a conduit.. its not like I did any of those things myself or at least, i wont tell.