FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - What happened to hotdeals?
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Old Feb 15, 2009, 3:54 am
  #5  
jackal
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Join Date: Mar 2004
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Originally Posted by randix
If I was the CEO of Thrifty, on their Board of Directors, or a shareholder, I might care; as a consumer, I'm looking for the best "deal" considering price, service, etc. I feel no worse looking for the best "deal" on Thrifty as I do when I take a flight, book a hotel, or decide where to shop. If the business model doesn't work, it'll change; I'm not here to support their business model, I'm here as a consumer, I bear them no fiduciary obligation.
Understood. But when you come here whining that selling you a car AT COST is "ridiculous," expect to be called on the carpet.

Originally Posted by randix
Any allegiance I may have had, is lost when one week they offer me their product for $116 and the next week the same service is double, triple or as was the case last year, quadruple the price.
I'm sure Hertz or Avis or National will all be happy to rent you a car at well over cost. Good luck finding $116 per week rentals with them.

And it's really nothing that you can get angry about: it's not like they're doing a bait-and-switch on you. You are free to rent with whomever you want and whomever offers the lowest rate. Usually, that happens to be Thrifty, but occasionally not.

I'd understand getting angry if Thrifty had a monopoly on a given market and then suddenly started charging well over cost--basically forcing you to pay those prices or else not rent a car (the effect AS currently has over the ANC market)--but Thrifty is usually the small guy in town, and I know of no places where they can hold the market hostage. But it seems silly expecting them to be a charity and continue to give you cars at below cost if something causes them to be able to raise the rates to at least the break-even point.

Originally Posted by randix
And when I have to play the "game" of getting their "hot deal" only by NOT putting in a promotion code, well, all bets are off. Not meaning to start anything here, I'll go back to my cave.
Uh, that's because the Hot Deal *IS* a promotion code. If you pay attention to the screen when you click "Hot Deals," you'll see that it basically enters a promotion code in the promotion code field. It can't do that if you've manually entered another promotion code.

The Hot Deals are intended to be the bottom-of-the-barrel rates which do not qualify to be mixed with any other promos (other things you might enter in the promo code field--10% AMEX discounts, triple airline miles, etc.), which is why they're not offered when you take advantage of other promotions.
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