My friend wanted to rent a car from Jersey City to EWR and the going rate was a ridiculous $500 for one day. Adding the USAA code reduced it to $50. So I had her sign up for USAA the same day and at the counter she was denied the rental because they requested either a physical USAA card or for her to "download the app and show them statements / activity in her account." She showed them her email and USAA number but that was not enough. She did not have much time so she had to take Uber instead of renting which basically added $100+ to the cost. One thing that might have tipped off the budget staff is that she called earlier (before signing up for USAA) and was quoted the $500 price (so the staff knew she would be might be coming in to rent the car and were aware of the non-discount price).

Did anyone else experience this? Is this consistent with Budget policy? If not, is there anything she can do at this point (e.g., call corporate and complain, etc?).