tstrike

How do I get an invite? I have been renting from Avis for every week since March....

They have booked a SIGNIFICANT amount of revenue from me. By the way, the BWI station is the best Avis station I have had the pleasure of using.

The GM rocks and his staff is amazing!

jgsx

Search the forum, there are many disucssions about this.

President's and Chairman's Club are not for high revenue customers. You can not earn an invite by rental activity. Amex Centurion and a couple other cards give you a President's Club invite. You can also get it if you're an exec at a large company with an Avis contract.

sindjic

tstrike, I think in one of the threads on this forum I saw something what you are looking for...note that there are no guarantees that they might not pull you out of the promo if they figure it out...

MileageAddict

I got it last year. Since then, any rental issue has been resolved faster than I could blink my eyes. ^ If I pick up a rental car that doesn't meet my needs, I go back into the rental kiosk/office/shack and am always offered anything available. Love it.

JasonWDC

A friend of mine has an AmEx black card but he rarely travels. I, however, travel weekly. We recently went to Philly for a one day trip and decided to make use of his President's Club membership rather than my Avis First. I figured for a 24 hour rental, we'd just see what's different.

I dialed the Pres Club number, made the res for a Cadillac, and was quoted some outrageous amount, like $150 total with taxes, etc. I said "what class do we need to reserve in order to be upgraded to the Cadillac?" and was told full size so we reserved this. The price dropped to $63 total. When we arrive, we had been given the Merc Grand Marquis land yacht. Of course, this car is freakin enormous so we went inside and asked for something else. We asked if the Cadillac was available (it was) and could we be upgraded to it via Pres Club (no). So, we asked for anything else that would be smaller but still nice (Hyundai Sonata), perhaps a Volvo (no), Infiniti (no), or Mercedes (no). We also needed to add me as a driver ($10/dy fee). Finally, when we receive the contract and go to our car (Sonata), it is high miles (22k+), not the limited edition, and in no way an upgrade of any sort. On top of that, we still paid that "Premium" class rate of the Merc Grand Marquis even though we'd actually been DOWNGRADED based on our request, and still paid an extra driver fee. Total amount for 24 hour rental was $74.

In the end, the Pres Club membership (both mentioned at counter and in the notes of the contract) got us absolutely no where.

There were avenues of recourse, such as calling AmEx and complaining (which typically results in swift and immediate action for Centurion members) or calling Avis Pres Club line, but in the end we just wanted to go to where we needed to go and not waste time whining.

My point: Pres Club, at least in PHL, was worthless.

heffa

In the terms for President's Club it [probably] states (as in Avis First) that one can maximum be upgraded to Premium size cars. Grand Marquis is such a vehicle, which is an upgrade from the car class (full size) you booked.

If you truly wanted to see an comparison, it would have been interesting if both of you had booked a car. He with President's Club, and you with Avis First. Then you could have compared and decided for the best one.

QuietLion

PHL is consistently the worst Avis experience I've had.

QL

TYS Flyer

I agree with your statement about the BWI station customer service. . . I always experience outstanding check out and check in service from their associates.

gleff

Presidents Club does not guarantee a specific vehicle. What exactly would one complain to Amex about? Perhaps being misled by Avis if indeed they did say rent x class, get a cadillac, but then only if the plan would otherwise have been to reserve the cadillac if it wouldn't have been available as an upgrade.

Tuneman1984

From what i've read PC members should always be treated like gold no matter what. What I gathered from the message above is that they didn't want the land yacht and there were other more suitable vehicles there that they were denied by the agent. That and they were charged the wrong rate in the end since they had been downgraded. I don't see why that isn't worth a phone call, especially since PC members are apparantly supposed to report any problems they have.

N9MD

Some of the above posts seem to be confusing Chairmans Club privileges with Presidents Club. It's the CC members that gets the "top of the line" treatment (and choice of cars) ... not the PC members.

Tuneman1984

I completely did, crap....

IAHtraveler

As a PC member, I've received everything from Cadillacs to Sonatas to Impalas when booking full size. It's never consistent, which is the most annoying part.

I'd have to disagree, and say that CLE is. Nearly everytime in PHL that I've asked for something specifically (SUV, truck, etc) I got it and that was only as Preferred/First.

heffa

I got those cars inconsistent too when I was an Avis First... Now being a Chairman, then that's a different story!

s3n

I have to agree--I can't say that achieving PC has led to any significant improvements over Avis First in my rental experience at a bunch of different locations. In fact, I really understand the point of this level, other than to raise customer expectations for illusory superior service (which are quickly dashed when s/he receives an old Sonata when a bunch of better upgrades are sitting RIGHT THERE).