Originally Posted by Viajero Joven
Advantage Car Rental has one of the easiest, most generous programs: Make 2 online bookings, get a free day. The 2 bookings can be for any length-- so 2- 1 day rentals at like $20 yield a free day that can be used mid-week.
Check out
www.arac.com for details.
The biggest limitation is that Advantage has locations only in the Southwest: SoCal, AZ, NM, CO, and TX for the most part, with a few random outliers like RNO, SLC, OKC, and SEA.
Their rates are very competitive- most times, among the best for a given city. A few pitfalls are their locations can have restrictive hours, shuttles may not run often, and they have been known to simply run out of cars. But as far as rewards for Dollar spent, even promos with other companies don't come close to mayching Advantage.
I think there are several long, detailed threads in Travelbuzz about the "Not Exactly" car rental companies like Advantage, Payless, etc. Many horror stories, and lots of problems with dishonesty on the part of the agency.
Personally, I will go with a second-tier agency like Thrifty, Alamo, or Budget on occasion - if there is a very attractive cost savings. Those companies have never done anything dishonest to me: it's just a matter of trading cash for time-risk in the form of fewer buses and bad processes. But I have only rolled the dice with third-tier agencies twice, and neither rental was any fun at all. I won't say "never again", but it would be a dire scenario that had me picking up a Payless or Advantage car ever again.