I just joined the Emerald Club. I'm traveling to SFO in a week.

My biggest -- really, only -- criteria for this rental is not having to wait in line. I want to be able to walk right to a car and go.

I made my National EC res, after joining the EC, but it says that I need to go to the counter, not directly to the EC cars.

I also have an existing res with Alamo, which says does say to go directly to their car and includes a barcode. Although I don't want to use Alamo (would rather have an EC car), I'm tempted to do so just because it's clear I can go right to the car, which is the most important thing to me (beyond type of car, etc). My questions are:

1) With my National res, would you recommend I just go to the EC and choose a car anyway? I have entered all my credit card/DL info, and have an EC number now. Can't they handle any credit card imprinting at the exit?
2) If not, would I be able to handle this locally before I go -- i.e., go to the National office here and give them my CC imprint (or whatever they would need me to do at the SFO counter).
3) Assuming not waiting at a counter is the only important criteria, would you just go with the Alamo res, since it's explicitly clear in the res that I can walk right to one of their cars?

Any advice is appreciated! Thank you.