I have an Avis reservation made through British Airways for pickup at SJC San Jose Airport on Monday 27 July. During the online booking process BA were unable to add my Avis Preferred Number to the booking "because my credit card on the avis website had expired" (which was true, but it seems a strange reason). I have tried calling Avis in UK and USA and contacting them through Twitter and they are all unable to add the Preferred number to the booking either - they say only BA can do this as the original bookers, but I know BA will try to charge me for this or it will take so long on the phone that I will lose the will to live.

My query is whether I can go straight to the preferred desk (in the car park) to process my rental rather than joining the normal line at the main rental desk, even though my preferred number is not attached to the reservation ? After an 11 hour flight and immigration I am keen to use the benefit of fast pickup rather than a (possibly) long queue. Thanks for any advice.