Recently rented a car out of a regional airport. I booked my reservation the morning of (~2 hours notice) through the Costco travel portal. While booking, the portal showed options abound from compact to luxury SUV. I settled on a reasonable economy car for about $186 for two days (no indication of limited availability on the website).

Upon landing, I went to the desk to obtain my car. The friendly and helpful rep said that this was a “new reservation” (within 24 hours) which I get and stated that she would have to check availability. She went out and came back shortly after. She stated that the only availability they had was full-size and that I’d have to be charged for that. Because I had a meeting within 1.5 hours, I didn’t have a choice to argue and rented the car. The price increase was about $50.

I get that I rented the car and signed the rental agreement. However, how is this not “bait and switch?” You rent a car that shows as available for an agreed-upon price, show up to the airport in a hurry to leave, and then get told that the car you booked because it was available on the website isn’t really there and that you have to pay more. How is this not like an airline selling you a basic economy ticket and then saying, “no standard Y seats are left—you can pay $50 for an exit row” on check-in?