I was also not impressed with a recent Avis rental.

Having rented almost exclusively with National the past few years, I recently did an Avis rental out of SFO only because I would be returning downtown and National’s SF downtown locations close early on the weekends.

Truly eye opening. My flight was delayed by 90 min and I ended up getting an email from Avis only 45 min after my booked pickup time, saying my reservation was sort of cancelled and if I still wanted to rent, I needed to stop at the desk in person. Doing so, I lost the upgraded car I had originally been assigned (Avis Presidents Club status though AA), and the car I was assigned actually had a tear in one of the seats- where I felt I needed to swap the car out to avoid getting charged for damage. And the car I ended up with was far dirtier than what I’m used to with National. (While waiting in line I overheard another guy swapping out his car because the one they gave him still has trash from the previous renter inside.)

National is rarely the best deal amongst Hertz and Avis, and I’ve typically gone with National regardless because I have the impression that they have better CS- and this experience reaffirmed that.