Originally Posted by
AutoSlash
I think your assuming it somehow got attached
before the OP got to the exit gate, when in actuality it happened
after. Here's the theroretical timeline:
1. OP books with Chase UR portal. No way to add his EC# there, so no possible way it could be on there. All they have is the OP's name, email and maybe phone.
2. OP arrives at location and picks any car from the aisle corresponding to his status.
3. OP drives to gate and hands gate agent his driver's license. He either tells gate agent he's am Emerald Club member renting on a prepaid res, or National's system is smart enough to put one and one together when the gate agent scans his DL and auto-associate the res with his EC profile (yes, I'm aware that the likelihood of this is pretty small).
In short, the working theory is that you can have your cake and eat it too by booking a prepaid res without your EC credentials attached and have it done as you exit the lot--AND without stopping at the counter first. Someone here needs to test it, or I'll ask someone at AutoSlash to take one for the team to find out.
I had that thought, but AFAIK, gate agents can only look up active rental contracts. They don't have the ability to interact with unopened reservations.
A contract gets created one of two ways:
1) automatically by the system on the day of rental if a valid EC profile is attached and the credit card authorization goes through, or
2) by an agent at the rental counter
If neither of those happens, then I don't
think the exit booth agents can see the record, and their default reaction would be the same as any other non-EC member trying to leave the lot without an active rental contract and to send you back inside to process it.
That said, it's possible that if you tell them you're an Emerald Club number, they can look it up and process it into a rental quickly or that the system will automatically associate the account and quickly/automatically process the rental contract and credit card authorization right then and there. If so, I'd be impressed, but I have a hard time attributing that much competence to
any entity in the rental car industry.
