Originally Posted by
miles_navigator
I was returning a car to my local Avis location (non-airport) and we got on the conversation of the $8 fuel dings me/others have reported earlier, especially at airports.
The gentleman said:
- - If you don't drive the car for 100 miles they automatically ding you for fuel, especially when returning to these large airport locations where they are trying to cattle herd you through.
- - If you fill up within 1 mile of the location it considers it a satellite lot and still dings you (again at those larger locations). This probably what happened to me at ABQ (earlier thread above) since I tried to find the closest gas station to the rental return lot.
Is anyone able to confirm on the above?
The only way I found to fight these 2 is to go to the counter, wait in line, see a human, show proof of fuel receipt, etc. Usually the people working the counter don't want to deal with this nonsense either and they will quickly fix it. But who has the time if you are running to catch a flight.
1. As someone said before, the cutoff is 75 miles. Had this twice in Las Vegas for a short rental, first time I showed the receipt to the person checking in my car and didn't have to stop at the counter. Second time I deliberately chose to accept the charge when I drove 65 miles, since with the car I had and the price of gas, the charge was less than the actual cost of filling up.
2. Not sure about that but I had the small charge happen after filling up across literally across the street from the LGA location. Next time I went to LGA, I let the car run for a minute and it seemed the sensor just needed to register the new fuel level. So you may want to try running the car for a minute or 2 after filling it up to avoid the charge.