Originally Posted by
mtofell
Yeah, my experience with Costco/Skip the Counter has been to register with my DL#, etc. and to enter a CC after I get the confirmation email. I've never paid attention to when they charge the card. One word or warning that burned me once was trying to use an Alamo gift card. I had to go stand in line and it turned into kind of a nightmare. If you don't/can't "Skip the Counter" or use one their automated kiosks, the wait in line can be a pain (like any other company, I suppose).
I think it's very random if you don't skip the counter - depends on city, time of day, day of week, etc. I don't fault any one company - they all have their busy times. I've had to stand in line to add my son-in-law as a driver with Alamo and it wasn't bad at all in OGG and SNA. Or maybe I did it ahead of time? I can't recall if we had that option, but I do recall in OGG we did stand in line but it was pretty quick, and in SNA the two of us went ahead to the garage, added him there, and we were waiting a long time for everyone else to come after getting their bags. What a weird garage that place is - goes on forever.
I used to rent from Thrifty (before Hertz ruined them), and no matter what, even though I was Blue Chip for YEARS, I was never, ever on the board as having an assigned space, always had to stop and give all my info. What a pain.