Originally Posted by
IAHtraveler
I had my first "Seinfeld Rental Car" saga last night. My original flight was delayed significantly, so I was rerouted to OAJ. At 9PM, I booked an Avis car at OAJ for pickup at 1130pm to use to get home. Returning this morning to ILM, where my vehicle is. I showed up at 1130PM and the agent says, "Oh, yes, Mr. IAHtraveler. The Chairman desk called earlier to confirm your reservation. But we're out of cars so there's nothing we can do. Sorry. Maybe another agency can help you out."
After a bit of conversation, he said the earliest I could pick-up a car would be midday today.
Instead of calling me (local agent, or CHM desk) or holding a car for me through any other agency while they were still open, they told me when I showed up. At this point, only Alamo was open and they didn't have cars. And all the other agencies were closed. After a long call with the CHM desk, I was told to call today and speak with a manager. I'm calling them shortly to see what they'll offer since I had a $106 cab ride home last night, $47 cab ride this morning to the other airport to pick-up my car and a missed meeting.
Wow... the last time something significant happened to me and I had to call the CHM line for assistance, I never saw that manager again. I'm sure the CHM desk and the OAJ manager (who has hopefully been "briefed" by the CHM desk) will reimburse you those costs and throw you vouchers for service recovery.
I have to dig it up, but I thought it said in the documentation that rental car availability was guaranteed for CHM. Internalized that to mean that if they had one last car that was in safe running condition and a CHM came walking up, the rental in that car would be the one who walked. I've also been told by the LAX manager that the only car a CHM can't take is one already assigned to another CHM.