AVIS @ ELP?
 

Hello all,
It's been quite some time since I've rented with Avis and I don't have status. I'm in ELP and W Texas in the next few weeks and have found some good rates there.

This might be a non-issue these days but I've heard horror stories from Hertz (hence avoiding my usual supplier) but does pre-paying a reservation make it more likely that I'll actually get a car in the event of that station being very short of stock on the day? In other words, if the place is a mess and they're running low on stock does pre-paying have any benefit?

Again, this might be a moot point at Avis and at that station but any views or recent experiences at ELP would be welcome. My plans completely fall apart if I can't get a car.

Thanks in advance,
Ferg

No, prepaying doesn’t make it any more likely you’ll get a car if they run out of vehicles.

We’ve seen numerous situations where people with prepaid reservations and pay-later reservations (those with and without status/elite status) were all waiting for cars to be returned in order to pick up.

Thanks AutoSlash. By chance do you have feedback from ELP in particular? It might be a relatively quiet station to begin with. I have a pre paid reservation made anyway. Hopefully it’ll work out.

We have had zero feedback on ELP in the last year or so from customer. No news is usually good news as they say. We think you’ll be just fine.

Thanks! I’ll keep you posted.

Your chances of getting a car (including possibly an "upgraded" car) increase if you sign up for the free Avis Preferred program. That way, when you get to the airport, the car you're assigned should be shown on the Preferred board and you can go right to it. However, the car you get assigned might be an "upgrade", so it depends if you like that or not. On my last Avis Preferred rental, at ABQ, I reserved an Intermediate (such as a Toyota Corolla), because it was the cheapest category several months out, and when I got there they had assigned me a Toyota RAV4 high-clearance SUV, which was great, because I actually had to drive -- and park in pullouts -- on an an unpaved sandy road in White Sands National Park and on a fairly bumpy unpaved road at Ghost Ranch, and I felt much more comfortable with that kind of vehicle on those kind of roads.

Thanks all. Signed up to the programme but alas no upgrade!

As a data point - most of the rental lots we’re almost empty when I arrived but no one was left car-less.