Duplicate reservations, or avoiding the Town Car
May 23, 2007 | 6:24 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat, Hertz PC, Avis PC, Hyatt-ist, SPG/Marriott Gold
Posts: 136
Duplicate reservations, or avoiding the Town Car
Does anyone have experience with having duplicate reservations - same location, same (or close) date/time, different car class?
I am thinking about doing this as a way to avoid getting a Town Car when I reserve Group H. If a TC is at my space with no unassigned DTSes on the lot, use another reservation for a Group E. I refuse to pay Group H prices for a Town Car, a much inferior product to the DTS.
The Group E reservation should theoretically be upgraded to Group G as an Avis First member. Of course, Group G seems to be infested with Crown Vics and Grand Marquis rather than the Lucernes and 300s I prefer.
Since both of these would be preferred reservations, I am wondering if the computer would catch this, as an airline's would, or if one of the credit card authorizations would be denied.
I am thinking about doing this as a way to avoid getting a Town Car when I reserve Group H. If a TC is at my space with no unassigned DTSes on the lot, use another reservation for a Group E. I refuse to pay Group H prices for a Town Car, a much inferior product to the DTS.
The Group E reservation should theoretically be upgraded to Group G as an Avis First member. Of course, Group G seems to be infested with Crown Vics and Grand Marquis rather than the Lucernes and 300s I prefer.
Since both of these would be preferred reservations, I am wondering if the computer would catch this, as an airline's would, or if one of the credit card authorizations would be denied.
May 23, 2007 | 6:38 am
#2
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: IAD
Programs: UA GS, Avis CHM, Marriott & SPG & PC Plat., Hyatt & Hilton Diamond
Posts: 4,548
If you reserve Group E and get a Marquis, you can always go the the prefered counter and say that you want a Ford Taurus instead.
May 23, 2007 | 12:24 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: QLA
Programs: SBUX Gold
Posts: 14,508
Exactly. It must be early morning cobwebs, but this whole two reservations thing seems too complicated... why not just go back and downgrade yourself?
May 24, 2007 | 7:47 am
#5
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: N. Texas
Programs: AA EXP, Marriott Plat, HHonors Diamond, Avis CHM
Posts: 151
I have had this happen several times where I booked online and called the CHM desk to change the reservation. The system is about 50/50 on catching this, then the site is about 50/50 on catching the duplicate. 25% of the time I have two cars waiting on me. The other 75% it is caught and fixed well before I get there. Gretchen, the manager in San Antonio was the first one to catch it at the site and let me know about it. We chatted about how this could happen while waiting for the DTS to be pulled up to the terminal and she said that it is uncommon for the system to let this through.