Believe it or not, the opportunity for the $9.50 charge is the reason I switched my business from Avis to Budget. I rent every week, and always drive about 45 miles. I was refueling at a cost of about $5.00 each time.

The problem is, the flight schedule is such that my weekly meeting usually ends 1 hour 15 min or so before the flight. Stopping at the gas station for $5 worth of gas often made me lose enough time to possibly miss the flight. I called Avis and asked if I could work out a deal, but this was before they had the $14.50 charge, and they turned me down. The only option with Avis was to prepay for an entire tank ($55-$70) or to pay about $7/gallon at their ridiculous mpg rate (in which most vehicles get about 10 mpg) for a cost of about $30.

The $9.50 charge is a great convenience for me. I know the cost upfront, don't have to fill up the car, don't have an extra receipt to mess with when I fill out my reimbursement, and the extra $4.50 spent on it is well worth my time to not stop to fill up. I could not really justify the $30++ charges.

I've been happy with Budget as their pricing is better than Avis, and I seem to get the same cars - I think Budget and Avis share cars at the location I frequent.

My only complaint is that even though I am a Fastbreak member, they don't ever have the contract printed out when I get there - it is still a 5 -10 minute wait and waste of time. This alone may make me go back to Avis, since they now have a $14.50 refueling option. Also, Budget seems to have no perks for frequent renters (at least none I can figure out), but I would guess that is due to their lower prices.