Swapping cars
 

I've got an upcoming reservation at my neighborhood location for a full size. I'm going on a 8 day trip with 3 friends and to the mountains, so we need AWD and I'm hoping for a SUV. As a Presidents Club member, at an airport this would typically not be so hard to get, but at a neighborhood location I know its a crapshoot. If they don't have anything that works for me, can I just take something and go to the nearby airport to swap it out for, hopefully, the SUV I'm seeking? Alternatively, would you call the neighborhood location in advance and tell them that I'm looking for a AWD car or SUV so they know? Or will that be a non-starter on a full size reservation even with status?

If you want and need an SUV you should reserve an SUV in the first place. With a fullsize reservation, even with PC status, it's far from guaranteed that they will be willing to give you an SUV. If they want to be nice and they have one available, then maybe, but if for example, they have have confirmed reservations for others for SUVs, they're not going to be able to accommodate you even if they wanted to.

Airport locations obviously have more stock on-hand, but there is no guarantee that they'd let you swap to an entirely different class, so I definitely would not count on it. It would be at the discretion of the on-duty manager and your powers of persuasion may come into play as well. :)

Very true, thanks [MENTION=103960]AutoSlash[/MENTION]. This is a situation where if we had to pay the SUV rate (almost 2x as much), we would probably take one of our own SUVs -- its just at $200 for 9 days that it looks more attractive to put the miles onto Avis's car instead. We'll probably just see what we can talk our way into and then if we can't, drive our own vehicles.

Swapping cars at other locations is very hit or miss! Sometimes as a CHM, they'll give me whatever I want. But most times they'll just swap for the same category, with NO exceptions.