If you are doing serious snow driving, check the tires and pick your vehicle based on the tires. That is probably a much bigger factor than which SUV you choose.
Agreed. Snow tires will probably he harder to find than Waldo at LAX however. The best alternative is to pick the lowest mileage SUV you find, which in theory should have less worn tires. Don't be afraid to hunt around and check odometer readings, it's your choice and your money!
Okey. Thanks. I thought most of the SUVs came with all terrain/all year tires, but might not be the case for e.g. the Trailblazer. Seems like most of the Jeeps come with such tires regardless of location. What do you think? I also have the option for a Dodge Durango 4x4 (or similar) for the same price at Budget or Dollar. What do you think?
Okey. Thanks. I thought most of the SUVs came with all terrain/all year tires, but might not be the case for e.g. the Trailblazer. Seems like most of the Jeeps come with such tires regardless of location. What do you think? I also have the option for a Dodge Durango 4x4 (or similar) for the same price at Budget or Dollar. What do you think?
Trailblazer and Grand Cherokee will have all-season tires. They're good for light snow or hard-packed roads, but not for going through the deep stuff. Also they can be dicey on ice, however all Grand Cherokees and Trailblazers have anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control. So even if you wound up with one without 4x4 you'd still be well-equipped to handle average winter conditions.
As far as the Durango, that's up to you. It offers a fair bit more room than a Trailblazer or Gr. Cherokee, but also has a 4.7 litre V8 that drinks a fair amount of fuel. Most of the Grand Cherokees I've seen at National have the 3.7 litre V6. Trailblazer has a 4.2 litre inline-6.
Exec: charger, impalas, malibus, small fords, nissans
Emer: 1 mustang, several hyuandai w/ xm & sunroof (i took), several 4-dr G6 & malibus
Malibu breakdown:
LTZ - 1 (taken as i walked up)
LT (xm, some sunroof, all cloth seats) - 3
LS - 6
Not a good showing on the u-pick-em rows but Luxury aisle still amazing w/ Mercedes, Caddy, SUVs, Infiniti G37s. I'll be back again next weekend to check for improvement
Thanks to all the folks who take time to report their Emerald Aisle and Executive Selection vehicle findings. It's very helpful stuff.
I feel foolish for being 'only' a regular Emerald Club member; looks like I missed a longstanding but recently expired free upgrade to Emerald Club Executive status
Anyway, need a minivan for a long weekend (Fri eve - Mon eve) 3/27-3/30.
To clarify - I can pick any vehicle from Emerald Aisle (EA), but not the Executive Selection (ES), if I'm an Emerald Club member and have reserved at least a midsized class, correct?
Two questions: 1. What are my chances of snagging a minivan late Friday eve around 10:30pm or so?
2. Can I qualify for EA selections by reserving a lower car class with a coupon/code that bumps me up to or above midsize, or does the reservation need to be a midsize or above excluding any car class upgrades?
Some prior posts have mentioned plenty of minivans, but most of the posts don't -- I suspect this may be because a minivan isn't the type of good find that most folks here are looking for. I hope it's not because minivans are NOT usually available.
Would be great to snag a minivan at a midsize rate and save some $$, but I don't know if we can afford to roll the dice. A backup reservation from another agency won't help since we are already paying for the National reservation when booking online right? I've rented from National only once since joining Emerald Club so I'm not super-familiar yet with procedure.
Last edited by bluedevils; Mar 10, 09 at 12:22 pm..
Reason: add formatting
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bluedevils
To clarify - I can pick any vehicle from Emerald Aisle (EA), but not the Executive Selection (ES), if I'm an Emerald Club member and have reserved at least a midsized class, correct?
Backup reservation recommended from another agency, yes?
Yes, and you had better have a Plan B, be it another agency or National.
Two questions: 1. What are my chances of snagging a minivan late Friday eve around 10:30pm or so?
2. Can I qualify for EA selections by reserving a lower car class with a coupon/code that bumps me up to or above midsize, or does the reservation need to be a midsize or above excluding any car class upgrades?
1) I can't speak for LAX, but generally mini-vans are Emerald Reserve, and won't be found on the EA. E.g. you book a specific class (mini-van) on ER, go to the ER Aisle, and pick any mini-van you want. EA usually only has mid-size SUVs and mid-size to smaller cars.
2) Anything lower than mid-size would be compact, and I believe compact would also be Emerald Reserve, forcing you to choose from compact cars only. I think the tactic you're envisioning works best if you're Emerald Executive, where you can book a mid-size, and select from the ES Aisle, which also includes full-size cars.
1) I can't speak for LAX, but generally mini-vans are Emerald Reserve, and won't be found on the EA. E.g. you book a specific class (mini-van) on ER, go to the ER Aisle, and pick any mini-van you want. EA usually only has mid-size SUVs and mid-size to smaller cars.
2) Anything lower than mid-size would be compact, and I believe compact would also be Emerald Reserve, forcing you to choose from compact cars only. I think the tactic you're envisioning works best if you're Emerald Executive, where you can book a mid-size, and select from the ES Aisle, which also includes full-size cars.
Thanks. Guess I need to learn more about ER and how EA, ER, and EE are related.
I thought several folks in this thread and an older National LAX thread had mentioned seeing lots of minivans on EA, but sometimes folks aren't explicit in their postings -- plus I could have misread/misunderstood.
Perhaps a call to the LAX National counter may be in order, so they can explain a bit more about what vehicle types are typically available to which member levels.
Thanks. Guess I need to learn more about ER and how EA, ER, and EE are related.
I thought several folks in this thread and an older National LAX thread had mentioned seeing lots of minivans on EA, but sometimes folks aren't explicit in their postings -- plus I could have misread/misunderstood.
Perhaps a call to the LAX National counter may be in order, so they can explain a bit more about what vehicle types are typically available to which member levels.
Last night (Monday) around 11pm PST, they had numerous SUV's, but no minivans on the ES aisle. Only G6's and similar on the EA.
One thing to do is reserve a midsize, when you get there, ask how much it would be to upgrade.... However, if they are running low on minivans, expect a lot of money.
The saying always goes with National.... If you absolutly need a specific car, reserve that car class.
2. Can I qualify for EA selections by reserving a lower car class with a coupon/code that bumps me up to or above midsize, or does the reservation need to be a midsize or above excluding any car class upgrades?
I've run into this problem before at an Emerald Reserve location. I used NU1234NAJ to upgrade from a compact to a midsize, and then choose a fullsize since I was a Exec member at the time. The gate agent got rather befuddled and told me I couldn't use the coupon, and proceeded to remove it. However he never changed the price, so I got a Mustang convertible for the compact daily rate. YMMV
Thanks for the responses. I finally found a somewhat useful page on National's site that helps clarify some of my questions about ER, EA, and ES, but I'm still trying to sort this out.
So ER is a physically unique area of the car lot, separate from EA and ES areas?
If EA @ LAX rarely has minivans, then it's very unlikely to score a minivan at the midsize rate
Can get a minivan from other agency for $198 all in which isn't terrible.
With Emerald Club, National has your credit card info. I couldn't figure out on their website at what point you can still cancel and get a full refund (if they even charge your card in the first place). Is it possible to arrive at the airport, see if they have any minivans, and if they don't then cancel the reservation and go with plan B (different res from National or elsewhere)?
In the end, we'll probably just rent a minivan and pay for a minivan, but if I can save a hundred bucks via free upgrade I want to investigate fully.
Sorry for taking the thread slightly off topic. To bring it back a bit -- are the LAX National folks friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, deal-focused, etc?
Last edited by bluedevils; Mar 11, 09 at 7:35 am..
Thanks for the responses. I finally found a somewhat useful page on National's site that helps clarify some of my questions about ER, EA, and ES, but I'm still trying to sort this out.
So ER is a physically unique area of the car lot, separate from EA and ES areas?
You book ER when you want a specific class of car, e.g. compact, minivan, premium, crossover, or luxury, and you go to that particular size ER section and pick the car of your choice.
In EA/ES, they have several classes of cars mixed into one aisle, e.g. full size sedans, coupes, mid-size sedans, some smaller SUVs, some compacts, and you pick whatever car you want.
There are rarely minivans available on the EA on the weekend (lots o' families renting cars to go to Disney...) so your best bet is either ER or another company.
Not sure if you already got your answer but an EA reservation can be cancelled at anytime. In my experience, if you don't take a car, you don't get charged.
I haven't dealt w/ the counter staff that much but the EA rep has been helpful in the past...
