Originally Posted by
AutoSlash
Just to close the loop here, I can confirm that if you book a prepaid rental through a 3rd party website (AutoSlash, Chase UR, etc) you can access your National Emerald Club benefits. A member of our team tested this exact scenario with National at the Orlando Airport (MCO) a few weeks ago by reserving an Intermediate car and pulled a Jaguar F-Pace SUV from the Emerald Executive Aisle (he had Emerald Executive status) and he was able to drive straight to the exit gate and the gate agent associated his Emerald Club member number right there based on his driver's license. To confirm, his Emerald Club member number was not associated with his reservation ahead of time.
Hmm. I actually had a slightly different experience. Admittedly, I didn't actually make it to the gate agent with a car from the aisle, so can't comment on if that works or not.
I recently rented from JFK with a reservation for a midsize booked through Chase UR. Got to the aisle, and the manager, who was hanging around, asked me what I had booked. I told him a midsize through Chase UR.
He said that I needed to go to the counter to fill out a contract. I told him I was an EE, and should be able to add my EC# directly at the gate. He said he didn't think so, and he called up some other manager who agreed with him.
So I went back to the counter, he printed out the contract, I signed, and then he says - you know, because you booked through a 3rd party, you can't pick from the aisle.
I showed him a conversation I had with the National twitter rep, who said that adding my EC# at the location is fine - but he was adamant. (At this point, I didn't think showing him the flyertalk thread would have helped any more
)
Eventually, after seeing how much luggage I had, he was willing to let me "upgrade" to an SUV at no added cost... So all's well that ends well.
