Getting into Preffered Under 25.
 

Hi, is there a way for me to get into Avis Prefered without being 25? (i am 21). also is there a way for me to rent without getting charged an underage fee? Is there any AWD code that I can use?
Also would this code work in jfk?

Thankx

From my experience, Avis is rather strict about the under 25 rental policies. The only way I know around them is if you happen to work for a company that has a corporate agreement with them somehow.

Looking at the Avis website, that's one hell of a fee for NY. $110? More than twice the cost of the daily rental in the first place.

there are quite a few AWD's that allow for underage driving. the most popular is US Military. If you have a military ID, you can rent at 21 and up no fee. The age is 18 if you have military travel orders.

There are some select starwood employee codes that allow it as well, but ID is required. I dont know of many rental agents that will rent to under 25 without the fee simply on the basis of an AWD without some sort of ID proof of association with the AWD.

I applied for my Preferred card before I was 25 thru my company (which has a corporate account with central billing). We are not a large company, so you don't have to be in a Fortune 500 or anything. Unfortunately, I did not rent on my Preferred card before I turned 25, so I can't comment on that. However, I did rent several times using the company account (for business, but without a card) before I turned 25 with no problems. Everything was billed correctly, no questions when renting the car, and there was no underage penalty, I mean ummmhhh charge.

BTW, since JFK is in NY, I believe there are special laws in NY that change the minimum rental age to 21, but there can be a different kind of charge. You can look on the Avis site for details, but I seem to remember there being exceptions in NY.

I rented from Avis in upstate NY: ITH, ROC, SYR, ELM, and also in CA: SJC. Even in update NY, I was able to rent from them when I was under 21, without an additional surcharge.

Of course I had a preferred card that was affiliated with a company I was working for at that time.

I think Avis has recently relaxed their restrictions to more commonly allow renting by persons under 25. There will be a fee, however.

My experience was that in most cases, renting from enterprise was the best bet when under 25. Their under age fee averaged $10-$15 instead of $25 with most of the other players. By the time I turned 25 I was so glad that I wouldn't be renting from those @&%$heads any more, I swore never to go back! Avis is SOOOOO nice compared to dealing with enterprise!

Same thoughts about Enterprise. They were good about renting to under 25 and the fee was reasonable. One thing to note, in my experience, the local neighborhood Enterprise locations (i.e. not at the Airport) did not even have an under age fee. I would have someone pick me up at the airport and then rent from a neighborhood Enterprise when I was travelling home for the holidays.

Worst experience was Budget. I had to go home for a family emergency and had to take whatever I could get. I had a coupon from the Entertainment book for 20% off a weekly rental. After the coupon, the dang under age fee at $25/day ended up being more than the car rental. The coupon did not apply to the under age fee of course. I never understood those fees. I carry my own insurance, for a much nicer car than they are renting me, with high limits that covers my rental car, so what does that fee provide and how is it not age discrimination?