Thanks for the very quick response. I would love to do that. It's just that it says right in the reservation: "Continue to the counter to obtain your rental agreement."

The last thing I want is for the exit agent to somehow force me to go back to the counter. I have also read that new EC sign-ups have gotten similar messages in their first reservations to go to the counter.

But I'm happy to ignore that counter request, if people think it will really be OK not to stop at the counter. Am hoping to hear from other first-timers/people with new credit cards that they've really done this with no problem.

I wish National would make it clearer in their reservations what to do and why someone needs to go to the counter after signing up for EC. Alamo has probably swayed customers over to Alamo simply because they make it clear even first-timers can go right to their loyalty aisle.