I have an EA reservation for 10 days starting Saturday 12/22. That may be a busy holidays weekend. How is the EA in SAN? I have no car preference. An SUV is not a bad option for my family as we will be spending 3 days in the mountains.
I have another confirmed reservation at Alamo for a midsize SUV that is $20 more for the whole trip.
I am trying to decide on which reservation to keep.
Programs: US Gold, HHonors Gold VIP, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Silver, National Exec
Posts: 83
Just dropped my car off at EA at SAN. When I picked it up there, choices in the Aisle were very thin. Lots of Dodge Magnums, a couple of GMC Acadias, a VW Bug, PT Cruisers, generic midsize stuff. You can't get much better than SAN for location to the city--get back to downtown without ever getting on the highway--but this location means space is tight and the National lot is by no means massive.
Ok, picked up on Thursday, Oct 2 about 6:30pm. Father-In-Law is Emerald Club and I am Executive.
EA had a few HHR's and a bunch of mid-size cars. Father-in-law took a Nissan Sentra which he liked. Got 40+ MPG. They did have a Toyota Sienna Mini-Van there and I almost grabbed it until I saw it was dirty and had 40,000+ miles on it with Illinois plates.
Exec had mainly 6-8 Impalas, 1 Charger, 1 Kia Rondo, and 1 Mitsubishi. I wanted the Charger, but DW wanted the Rondo as it had room for the luggage. I reluctantly agreed when I saw it had Sirius Satellite radio and only 686 miles on it. I drove nice but only got about 22 MPG.
I was disappointed in my overall choices.
That said, when we dropped the cars off on Sunday morning, there were tons of cross over SUV's, among other awesome choices on both the EA and ExecA. I would have loved to be picking up at that time.
Programs: AA 0.94MM EXP, US CP, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold, National Exec
Posts: 1,319
Picked up at SAN on Friday, 10/10 (and will be returning later today, 10/12). There were only about half a dozen vehicles in the Executive Aisle (and perhaps 10 on the Emerald Club aisle), with no SUVs, vans, or hybrids. There were a couple dozen more (including some pretty nice ones) that were not cleaned yet (and one of the agents came out to let people know we couldn't take them). I got an Impala SS with XM Radio and 12k miles.
Was there over a weekend about 3 weeks ago...got a Prius with less than 100 miles on it. I didn't spot anything luxe (like a Volvo) or anything with satellite radio.
Programs: UA 1K, HHonors Diamond, Hertz 5*Gold, National Exec Elite
Posts: 738
Any recent experiences at SAN? I'd like to get a mini-van sometime week of Jan 5th (in town, need to run to LA area with the family). I've got a couple of the Rent two certs plus some regular free days. The Rent Two are not good for a mini-van so I'd be "gambling" with the aisle availablity (I'm ExecElite). I'm not sure if the regular certs are good for a van. It's my first time actually trying to get a mini-van so advice greatly appreciated.
