The last 3 Alamo car rental reservations I've made on their website over the past few weeks, the option to SKIP the counter (and the kiosk) and go straight to the car pick-up area, has NOT been appearing as it has in the past. The option to "check in" does appear, but that particular option is basically useless--you still have to go to the counter. In the past, the option to skip the counter appeared AFTER you did the check in option.

I'm a Vegas resident and was thinking they were extending their effort against fraud (if you're a local Vegas resident and you're making a LAS reservation, the kiosks in LAS are DISABLED in Alamo's effort to combat fraud). I spoke to the Alamo manager at the LAS location and she indicates that is not the case, eg the option to be able to enter some additional information on the website and go straight to the car pickup area should still exist (because you are still required to present your credit card and ID at the exit booth). I thought that was the case as one of my 3 reservations was at MRY so it wasn't making any sense.

She indicated they have no control/direct input over website issues, and although she would forward along the problem, she recommended that anyone not seeing that additional option when making your reservation (to skip the counter AND the kiosk) call the Alamo insider phone number, and they would manually process that option.*

*I should add for clarification, Alamo does not offer the option to go straight to the car pick up area at every Alamo location, just at selected locations. There's a list online which I've accessed in the past that shows which locations.

fyi and fwiw