This is very weird - that the rate showed as the current rate, not the rate at reservation - Before everyone says the rate reverts to full rack rate, it is not - it is still a discounted rate. That is why it is so strange.

We reserved a Corolla (was classified an Intermediate at SJU... what a joke.) for a weekly rental 11/07-13 back on July 30, with base rate at $185 before tax and fee.

The week before our departure, I looked up the rate again. The new rate was at $240 under same discount code. I pulled up our reservation, as expected, it still showed the same $185 rate. I printed a fresh copy of the reservation bearing the date of 11/07 (after midnight) just in case.

At SJU rental counter, the agent ignored our confirmation printout and insisted us to hand her the driver license and credit card. We had some difficulty communicating with the agent as she spoke very little English. So instead of verifying the rate first, we handed her the CC and driver license. When she handed the contract to us to sign, we noticed the base weekly rate shown was $240, the same as the current rate, NOT the rate on our reservation. Trying to explain to her was a frutile exercise. She finally called the pickup location to connect to the Manager. The manager also insisted the computer showed a rate of $240 and claimed they could not modify price.
He said we needed to go over to the pickup location for him to actually look at the reservation printout then determine what to do with it.

We felt this was an unacceptable explanation, especially the reservation was printed freshly again on 11/07 in the early morning hour, still showing the rate of $185 made on July 30. This is the First Time we ever encounter ANY rental car company showing a rate that is way above what is shown on the reservation. On top of that, the $240 is supposedly an already discounted rate - with the regular rate in the $300 range.

We actually have 2 backup reservations - one from Budget, and one from National - both are about the same rate, except for a smaller car - Chevy Cobalt, instead of Corolla. We decided not to go with Budget as it is the same company as Avis and they share the same counter, literally.

The National reservation was made only 2 days ago when it lowered its rate a lot, even with the Triple UA miles offer code. We decided just go with National, its counter was accross from Avis on the other side of the hall. For some reason, National at SJU was unable to locate hubby's Emerald number but did show the correct rate as on our confirmation.

We never sign the Avis contract. However, our credit card has been swiped so now it has a $295 authorization from Avis. With Citi, it probably will take 30 days before it finally drops off.

Lesson learned, ALWAYS ALWAYS verify rate first, before handing out Credit Card to the rental car agent!

This kind of practice of the rental car companies literally encourage double- triple- reservations if they could change rate on existing reservations.

One final note is, whenever we rented cars with Budget or Avis, in US/Canada, we always received a reminder of the rental about 48 hours before the rental. We never receive any reminder from either company on the rentals at SJU.