Alamo Frequent Flyer Surcharge
 

Rented a mid-size car in SAT last week. Gave my FF #to attendant.( previous booked thru Orbitz -3 days $96 bucks with all fees.)
Noticed Alamo charged me $2.25 for three days rental as FF surcharge.Called today said they just started the new policy this month if you give them your FF# the will add the surcharge, no FF given no miles and no surcharge. Anybody had this happen to them?

Well, in the past I've had the devil's own time getting Alamo to enter a FF# at time of pickup. (On two consecutive occasions their agents failed to do so, prompting a letter of complaint from me that in turn resulted in a voucher for 2 free rental days. But I digress....) In those instances, I called them after the fact to insist that the rental be properly credited, and no charge was assessed. It's possible this will still work as a means of avoiding the FF surcharge.

UPDATE: I currently have a car out from Alamo, and despite giving my FF info to two separate people before taking the keys, I am now told by phone that the number still isn't in -- and cannot be added until after the contract closes/car is returned. So I repeat my advice: wait until afterward to put in your FF#.

How many miles does Alamo give per rental? Based on $ spent or days rented?

Beltway Thanks for the advice -it makes sense.
TxTrav 50 FF miles per day of rental. ie. 3 days rental =150 FF miles

Thanks. Gotta do the math. 7 days = 350 x .02 per mile = $7. I guess I'll keep the AA number on the rez.

Gotta keep adding this everytime I have the chance: Alamo charges me the whole permitted capped amount right from jump, without regard to the daily rate for the number of days (or single day) rented. And that's what's on the receipt. It used to be some stations. Now it's every one that I patronize. :(

Frequent Flyer Surcharge
 

I joined Insiders, the club for Alamo, and it gets a 10% off whatever rate comes up. Nice.
It appears the FF surcharges apply to US Air miles, but not to miles on Delta or AA. That showed up when I was listing the ff numbers on the Alamo Insider's webpage.
Also, US Airways mileage was maxed out at 250 miles per reservation. However, Delta's website and AA's website showed 50 miles per day, no max.
I just want to add at PHX I got great service. I left my cell phone in the car at drop off, and didn't realize it until after leaving the car drop location. By the time I got back, the car had been removed by the car jockeys. One car jockey came right up, saw my concern and told me he'd take care of it right away...and he did. He brought the cell phone back within 10 minutes.
Great job. The jockey's name is Lamont and Ive sent an email to his boss.

Check out http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...ge-thread.html

Does Alamo have a partner that does not incur a frequent flyer surcharge?

And can you contact Alamo after the rental to receive the mileage credit?

Otherwise, given the low base amounts, it's probably not worth the trouble trying to collect the ff miles from an Alamo car rental.

No. I've asked this and been told explicitly by Alamo/National agents (2? 3?) that all Alamo's relationships with all of its partners call for the fee.

In my opinion, it has been a reasonable return on Southwest - "period" - as often testified on these boards. But to this add, "....full stop", as of February 28. But you knew this. :) Otherwise, it's just one of the places where one can go to keep a dormant FF account alive...

And, hm, I wonder if they - Southwest's partners - thought of the "collateral damage" that Southwest is causing, as people such as myself patronize partners such as Alamo less, as a consequence of the shift to "RR 2.0".* This is not just a "FlyerTalk threat" in my case.

*****************
* Edit: Evidently SPG did.

Thanks. So then the bottom line these days is that, unless there's some bonus or "activity credit" needed, there is no value (and only cost) in giving Alamo your frequent flyer/stay number. In other words, the surcharge is more expensive than the value of the frequent flyer miles. Right?

Ah-yuh. ("Yup"'s too brief for FT, so think Maine accent.)

Thanks. BTW, I picked up a car tonight from a joint National/Alamo/Enterprise car rental office (first I've seen of these) in Wilmington, DE with my Alamo rez. I knew it would be the same car regardless of which outfit I booked through, so I went with Alamo, which had the cheapest rate.

I think I got an "Enterprise car," as it is completely bare bones (no power door locks, manual window cranks, etc.). But it has XM radio. :)

This can be an odd company to do business with.

+1

Meaning Enterprise, which, interestingly, doesn't have a position on FlyerTalk, even though they're the biggest in the world, on some accounts. (Pay attention to that man behind the curtain!) Anyway, Enterprise always has been odd. See old posts re the white shirts, ties and slow-motion walk around the car "encounters". Then recently we encountered the proscription from renting from Alamo (and National) at one's "home" airport. (In truth, some here say that that is a policy only in some Enterprise geographical divisions. Which is even more odd... Then again, only one applies to each of us...)

In my Alamo account it says no surcharge for Air Berlin...