Originally Posted by sullim4

Trust me when I say that the grass is not greener at Avis and Hertz. I'm stuck with Avis as they have my employer's corporate contract and they are at least one or two orders of magnitude worse than any of the EAN brands. Cars are old, preferred service/counter bypass seems like it doesn't work more often than it does, and they can't even bother to scan cars back in on the return. My last couple personal rentals with Avis at FAT and YHM had to be abandoned due to lines of people 10-deep that were not moving. I ended up booking National while waiting in the Avis line. Last year I had a rental that wasn't scanned in until 48 hours had passed after my return. It's just constant headaches with these guys.

National and Alamo "just work" - they're boring, sure, but the cars are generally in okay shape, counter bypass works reliably, and locations are generally well staffed with good employees. Yeah, you get the Altima or the Compass many times, but every once and a while, you get a decent upgrade. That last-minute switch at FAT got me a Mustang convertible from the ES which was a nice treat in Yosemite. Totally worth the extra $40 over the Avis rate - gotta keep telling myself it's not always about the price.