Avoid Going to Counter with AWD at LIH?
 

Anyone know if I can avoid going to counter at LIH if I booked using a corporate AWD? I normally use Hertz and while I'm PP through credit card it's been almost 4 years since I rented with Avis so maybe I'm headed to counter no matter what. Is it possible for me to drop by a local Avis to validate my AWD before arrival? Ultimately just hoping to avoid counter at LIH given the likelihood of long lines.

Last time I was at Avis LIH in January, everyone had to go to the counter and no one had a car assigned. Antiquated reservation system too.. reservations were listed on a piece of paper (it's possible their computer systems were down). While waiting for my car which was not yet ready (folks were waiting between 30 min - 1 hour) I was able to walk across the street to Hertz where I had a second reservation and they had a car ready to go for me. Ended up renting with them instead. Also, don't count on any upgrades. Folks were being given exactly what they reserved. In my case, I booked a full-size sedan, was given an Altima. I let them know I had switched my reservation to a mid-size SUV (which they didn't know about because everything was being handled with pen and paper) and switched me into a Jeep Cherokee.

I doubt a local Avis will be necessarily be much help. It's likely to have a different owner than Avis LIH. And differently-owned Avis locations often don't communicate very well which each other, and don't necessarily have the exact same policies either.

What you might try is seeing if you can get a similar enough rate with an airline discount code, which nobody will question.

But if you haven't rented with Avis for 4 years, do you still have the exact same credit card, with the same expiration date, as you had the last time you rented with Avis? Because if not, that may require you to stop by the counter (either the main counter or the Avis Preferred counter) to show your new credit card in person.

Thanks for replies. While I got a new email promoting their app that says "you can skip line" given the corporate AWD and expired credit card I'm guessing I'm headed to counter. Crossing fingers it's not too bad, only two other mainland flights ahead of me and neither is a wide body so even if I head to counter maybe I'll get lucky. I had a reservation with Hertz I cancelled earlier this month because Avis beat their price by over 50%...I'll take another look at Hertz just in case but doesn't sound like much I can do so is what it is.

I haven't seen the Preferred shack in the rental lot open since pre-covid. Last couple of rentals they had an occasionally staffed Preferred station on one end of the counter. I was able to jump the general line both times.