Originally Posted by
halls120
I stopped renting from Hertz years ago. They are almost always the most expensive alternative, and their customer service at large airports is generally poor - not enough staff, I’m guessing.
We landed at SEA 2 weeks ago, and proceeded to the Rental car center. We walked right up to an empty Alamo counter and quickly got our vehicle, and shook our heads at the people standing in the Hertz counter, which extended our of their area and into the common area of the rental center. I saw at least 4 “Cars available” at other vendors in the building, but people doggedly stood in the Hertz line.
You do realize that, with PC/Five Star, you never go to a counter? You just go to the the PC or 5 Star lot and take any car. I find Hertz at the PC level to be the quickest, best service that I've ever experienced. Even better than Enterprise.
I rent cars ~60-80 days per year (on 10-12 rentals), and always select by price. I find that Hertz is cheapest around 60% of the time (excluding FOX and other poorly rated companies which are often the cheapest for a reason). I am entitled to multiple corporate and CC discounts e.g. USAA, AMEX Plat, VISA Infinite, COSTCO, SAMS, etc., so that makes it easier for me to find discounts.
Do you use
Autoslash when searching for rental cars? They find me the cheapest rate most of the time. My search pattern is the following:
1. Get an
Autoslash quote.
2. Get a UA-linked
Rentalcars.com quote.
3. Get a USAA quote.
4. Get a AAA quote (sometimes it's better than with
Autoslash even though their search algo includes AAA), or a corporate discount quote.
5. Book the best price.
One more tip:
Lately, prices have been dropping as you approach the day of rental, so I check multiple times as my pick-up date gets closer, and just cancel and rebook for any price drop.