Mr. Letts, thank you so much for clearing the air on unauthorized use of discount codes.

Let me be frank: although this is really not a matter of your concern, Avis is really not very competitive in most markets against other brands, particularly Dollar and Alamo. The use of the codes helps make them a little more competitive.

As many have stated, your missive, although undoubtedly well intentioned, probably is a loser for AvisBudget. Actually, a big loser. I'm sure you can appreciate people are going to want the best deal possible when renting a car, and most people in this forum are much smarter shoppers on average than the average renter. Then again, that's because we spend the most on travel than average renters.

Particularly in this challenging economy, you might want to consider that there is much more grey area in using these codes than you might suspect. At the end of the day, business is still business, and turning away business needlessly by, what's that again, threatening prosecution, is absolutely the wrong tack to take here.

I would suggest your energies are better directed to preventing real fraud and theft, not the relatively penny ante stuff which goes on around these parts.