trekwars2000

Yesterday morning I was denied a car request for a car that I knew was not reserved and asked to upgrade about $75/day. Have any other CHM members been denied a car?

ETA: What is odd is the car originally requested costs less new than the car I was given (45K vs 40K)

GNALUZU

Yes, as a CHM I have asked for specific cars before and not received them. It is frustrating when you see them sitting on the lot as you drive off, however, I always try and remember that upgrades are not guaranteed so that usually keeps my ego in check.

Most of the time, as a CHM, I do get either what I request or something very close.

What were you trying to request that Avis wanted an extra $75/day?

drzoidberg

All the time. My conversation usually goes something like this:

May I rent that 528i?
No.
May I rent that 328i (which has been sitting on the lot for several days now)
No. Sir, your Chairman upgrades only extend to luxury cars.

At which point I go downstairs and take a bmw from National.

trekwars2000

It was a stripped down X3. It's funny becuase my last few rentals have been a QX56 ($60K+ car), Denali Yukon ($55k+ car) and X5.

I thought the chairman upgrade was from an intermediate or higher reservation to ANY car. I understand upgrades aren't garuenteed due to availability, but when you try to charge me an upgrade price for the car then it is available.

drzoidberg

My understanding is that the upgrades ARE guaranteed; the welcome packet says "our best car, always". Why would they say "always" if it's not guaranteed?

However, the fine print on the welcome packet specifically says that the upgrade to best car excludes Cool Cars, so your location is free to deny you the X3.

GNALUZU

More importantly, the X3 (stripped down) pretty much sucks. I had one out of Chicago a couple months ago and I would have rather had any Infiniti SUV product instead. Don't feel bad, you most likely wouldn't have enjoyed the X3.

IAHtraveler

However, if you go to your profile on Avis and hover over the "See all the benefits" link, #4 is "Free Upgrade to Best Available Car". There are no exceptions listed at all. It's absurd that the website shows free upgrade, the site has cars on the lot and Avis.com shows they are available for the same time period, but locations still deny some upgrades. If you complain to Avis.com, they typically respond that "the locations are free to do what they want, and we cannot enforce them to honor specific requests/upgrades". Even though it's false advertising, they don't care. And whenever I respond with the "false advertising" line, no matter how polite my emails, they go without responses to them.


Exactly. Every BMW I've been in (and Volvo) in the Avis fleet is very poor. I'd take (and have taken) a 2013 Fusion, and many other non-luxury cars, any day over them.

drzoidberg

It's a pity that they made the new XTS a Cool Car.

IceTrojan

The rule I've been quoted is that CHM can upgrade into any car that is not in the "X" category.

While I've had plenty of discussions about no exceptions being listed to the "best car available" benefit, my experience has been pretty much gone with the no "X" rule. Knowing that, I request anything else and I'm given that vehicle 98% of the time.

Once in a while, I'll get the X anyway.

For the 2% I don't get the non-X car I want, it's always a training problem, and a manager or quick call to the CHM line will take care of that problem.

IAHtraveler

I've seen it a few places (PHL/ORD and another.. maybe BUF?) and it already had paperwork in it so I couldn't get it. In ATL last week, they had about a dozen lined up, with 3 already having CHM paperwork in them.

They are the base version (not surprising), but still a good car. It's a good change and I'll put together a ride report once I'm done with the car (2 weeks and ~4500 miles later), but I'd rather have one of the new Lincolns or a Fusion Platinum. I love the lane departure system in the Fords and the center display on the Ford is easier to use.

drzoidberg

Fusion Titanium..if they had a Fusion Platinum that would be awesome! If you need the extra room the XTS is appropriate but I agree, the Titanium handles much better and has commensurate tech. A shame their '13 Lincoln MKZs aren't better optioned.

They let me take an XTS with a CHM res a few weeks ago, and I thought it was just a Luxury vehicle until I saw the classification on Avis's website.

IAHtraveler

Ford/Linc had production issues with the MKZs (getting certain parts) and cars pre-ordered in fall 2012 are just now hitting dealers/customers. Most of the pre-orders are well appointed models. And the time on dealer lots for the MKZ is short right now. As such, any Avis can get their hands on are stripped down. You've got much better chance of getting a loaded Fusion than an MKZ.

trekwars2000

So what is an "X" group car? Looking at old receipts, my Yukon Denali's and QX56 were "Cool Car"'s. My M37 was a Luxury.

BTW, no big deal for us getting the Lincoln vs X3. We just have our son who was in a rear facing car seat, so the Caddy STS (maybe - it had a small backseat) wasn't going to cut it and we asked for an SUV and I saw the X3 sitting there first. The Lincoln is bigger than the X3 anyway.

Mrp Alert

This has generally been my experience as well. X seems to be the magic code that stops the upgrade. When the lot is slow, I have received the X upgrade, but it is not my expectation.

bkafrick

They said "best" car. Not "cool car". Haha