Jlove

Glad they agreed to refund the fee, robbert. I hope it goes through ok.

I just did a similar ANC rental with a different company (rented in town, returned to airport). They said it would be a $15 fee (new this year), but they ended up not charging me. I can see where this would be a popular idea for renters (renting off airport, returning to airport), and hence why they'd have a fee. But like you say, they should figure out their procedures, be more upfront about them, and then honor them.

Just as an fyi - while it's certainly quicker, and more convenient to drive yourself to the airport, there are city buses that go to the airport. And if you had bags which you didn't want to carry, you could probably drive to the airport and drop them off, then return your car to the off-site rental location, and bus back to the airport.

jackal

I know who you rented from.

The fee is because that company is trying to prevent all of its cars from congregating at the airport, necessitating additional staffing to move cars back from the airport to the offsite location when rental demand at the offsite location increases.

The difference between the fee Dollar Thrifty imposes and the fee Avis imposes is that the fee is disclosed on dollar.com or thrifty.com (or any third-party travel agency site) if you specify a one-way rental, while the situation described here is that avis.com did not include any mention of the fee when making the reservation even when the reservation was specifically made for a one-way rental. Dollar Thrifty also discloses the fee in the terms and conditions when making a reservation and also clearly displays it on the contract, so there is no stage along the way where it can be missed.

Due to the way Dollar Thrifty's computer program is set in Anchorage, they have no real way to enforce the one-way fee if you simply drop the car off at the airport without telling them. They can only add the fee on when you pick up the car and tell them you are dropping it off at the airport. So, the secret (for now, at least, until their computer system gets updated--which is likely to be never) is to book it as a regular round-trip rental and then drop it off at the airport without announcing it. (This only works for Anchorage, though.)

Both companies are better than Enterprise, though, who charges a minimum $50 one-way fee for any inter-location rentals in Anchorage. This is because each office is considered to "own" its own cars for accounting purposes, and so any car that ends up at another office can't simply be absorbed by the receiving branch and must literally immediately be driven back to the renting office. (This is changing in some metro markets as Enterprise begins to embrace its new subsidiaries' [Alamo and National] concept of floating fleets, but Alaska is slow to change.)

johndoe123

All Alaska Rentals are funky

Most charge drop fees

Most are cheaper in town.

Others do strange things to like enterprise no executive club points in town but ok at airport. It's also the first suburban I've ever rented with the basic work uk package.

If your rental conformation showed one way rental from downtown to airprt then I'd expect them to honor it. If you booked a round trip rental good luck.

There are other independents who own their car. Example Cayce, sc ... Capital u drive it llc. And boy do they have a nice selection of well equipped cars but the drop fees are often 400 or more out of town.... Ie cost to ship them back home with a carrier... Ad not reservable online in many cases.

But not common...

jackal

No National Emerald Executive credits at Enterprise at the airport, either. I rented several times there and got credits for two of the rentals but not the other six. I wrote in to ask for credit and they told me that location was not eligible. I wrote back that not only is that asinine but I also got credit for two of the rentals (sandwiched in the middle of the non-crediting rentals), blowing holes in their story that the location changed participation mid-stream during my series of rentals. I did end up getting them to extend my Executive status for another year based on the rentals, but don't expect future National credits at any Enterprise location in Alaska.

robbert

Thanks everyone for your insights, it is very interesting to read how the ANC locations are so independent of the national chains, and not just AVIS.

I hate to to shock you any further but the refund posted! All it took was a friendly request by email and they immediately responded that the refund would be made. Apparently this was in the pipeline to be processed when I mailed a reminder but now it is all done.

It seems that they know they should not have charged this extra amount and simply count on people not following up. But that's the power of Flyertalk, it has given me the background, knowledge of the rules and how to follow-up. And it all worked out this time. Thanks guys!