Originally Posted by celliott
I'm a journalist working on a story about car-rental upgrades. I'm wondering if anyone has ever had the following experience:
- You arrive at the car rental location. You're told by an employee that your car is unavailable.
- You're given two options: 1) wait for several hours until a car in your class arrives or 2) upgrade immediately for only x dollars per day more.
If this has happened to you recently, I'd like to talk with you. You can contact me at
[email protected] or by phone at (407) 699-9529. My deadline is Thursday, March 24 at 3 p.m.
Many thanks,
Chris Elliott
That's happened to me on numerous occasions. I always refused to pay for the upgrade, and magically (sometimes with a 10-15 minute wait) they find a car in my reserved class or they give me the upgrade for free.
Even if they don't charge me for the upgrade, I'm usually irked when they give me too large a car, particularly an SUV. It's not so bad going from a subcompact to a compact or a midsize, but I really don't like driving large cars; I especially hate SUVs. I also don't like sports cars, especially the 2-doors without any real trunk space and barely enough room to fit 2 children much less 2 adults in the back seat. I detest convertibles.
It's very annoying when they "upgrade" me without giving me a chance to object.
Like when you go to your Hertz #1 Club space and see a huge SUV when you reserved a subcompact. I recall an incident last year when I went to the parking space with my rental and saw an SUV. I went to the counter to complain; and the agent said, "It's a complimentary upgrade, sir." I replied, "I don't really want an upgrade. Don't you have anything smaller." He very politely responded, "Of course, sir." After a few minutes, he gave me another set of keys and directed to another parking space. When I got there, I found a little red convertible (probably a premium car). At first, I was going to go back and complain and ask for another car, but it was late and I realized that I probably would not need to transport anyone during my trip. In all likelihood, the agent thought he was doing me a "favor" by giving me a premium car for the cost of a subcompact.