Worst bus waits: LAX, ORD or other?
 

Something that really frustrates me about the surveys I get after rentals is that there isn't a way to comment on the bus service and associated delays.

LAX and ORD are both just brutal, with LAX worse by a nose because they have so many busses that are always parked and the competition seems to do a better job of preventing bus bunching.

Curious to hear others' experiences and your take on the best way to share this feedback in a way that it might get heard.

Odd... I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes to get a bus at LAX. Maybe it's just my luck?

Assuming you are referring to car rental busses, LAX is indeed poor! Many times I will see several passes of Hertz busses, for example, while I am waiting for Avis or National....or vice-versa. There does not seem to be any steady flow of busses that are interspersed for the different rental companies and they do (as you mention) bunch up...even to the point where it is difficult for one to get to the curbside where the prospective passengers are queued.

My experience at LAX has been fine, but ORD is abysmal. Last time I rented there, Hertz, Enterprise, Alamo/National, and Budget all had 4 or more buses pass before Avis showed up. Each time one of the others stopped, a couple of people would get on, and the bus would go on with a reasonable load. It was at least a 15 minute wait before Avis showed up with two buses. One stopped, the other went on. Ours was the first stop, with the long wait there were a lot of people for Avis, so the bus filled to the point where several people were standing (around 25 people). Driver took names, but I doubt he had the time to do anything with them, but I was in the back and couldn't tell. Because we leapfrogged with the other bus, we only had to make one more stop, another 15 or so go on, and the bus was crammed with standees.

Make it to the lot, about 1/2 the preferred customers were not on the board, and formed a long line at the preferred booth. Luckily (so I thought), my name was on the board, I went to my designated spot, found my car, got settled in, seat and mirrors adjusted, ready to go, and look for the contract. None to be found, so I joined the line, now down to 6 or so people. Got to the agent, explained the situation, she printed my contract. I headed out to the car, got ready to take off, and decided on a hunch to check the contract. I'm sitting in a gold Galant, and the contract is for a white PT Cruiser. Back to the booth, luckily the next round of buses hadn't arrived yet, so no line this time. Given a new contract and space number. Get there, wrong car again, back to the booth. This time the car and contract match, and I'm on my way. Total time from stepping out the door at the airport to leaving the rental lot, almost an hour.

I had a lot of problems at ORD last year and I complained and complained. It has not been too bad the last few months.

They blame it on the airport claiming that buses need to line up for security check to get into the airport. I did not buy that as other companies did not seem to have the problem. They told me that their standard is every 4 minutes but frequently there are multiple buses coming at the same time after you have waited for a long time.

I would complain to corp via their website. Complaining to local management just got a bunch of excuese and blame on O'Hare.

Avis at LGA is worse - they run a separate shuttle to the Marine Air Terminal and I've regularly waited 20-30 mins for one. Bus after bus after bus to the main terminals will go past until you go inside to complain.

You mean to/from your Delta Shuttle flight... For "normal" flights, the AVIS bus comes pretty quick. There was a time when AVIS always was the worst one, but since a couple of months it's fine. Nothing to complain about anymore.

Well, more accurately, "to/from the closest terminal to Avis that also never has a taxi line, even in the pouring rain," but yes.

That reminds me...once the Hertz bus driver gave me a ride from the Marine Air Terminal to the Avis lot. I guess it must be well known that Avis does not have buses running to the MAT that frequently?

At LAX, Avis does a better job than Hertz.

For the past 23 rentals at LAX, I have been recording the sequence of arrivals of buses--Avis is probably the best. I have to say Hertz is the worst.

I showed the survey to a manager for Hertz at LAX; he acknowledged they have a problem. I had planned to publish the list on FT. I want to see if Hertz improves--as he said they're trying to do--before I put my findings online.

Publish away, so someone can dispute it if they see it differently. I am APPALLED at the Avis service at LAX. Not only do the buses come infrequently, but many of the drivers (you seldom see the same one more than a month or so) stop at every pickup point, opening the doors, regardless of whether anyone is even at the stop. It's like there is no management of this operation.

My perception is entirely different than yours: I rent from either Hertz or Avis about 3x a month at LAX, and Avis is the one without frequent bus service. If you publish, perhaps someone else can replicate it and see what you're saying. If not, my rule is to rent from Avis based solely upon price, because it's just so much faster to rent from Hertz.

(Note: my rental on Sunday at Avis featured a bus who ignored me while I was running up at Terminal 4, and left anyway, but then another bus came within about 3 minutes. However, he had no record of my reservation despite being Avis One or First or whatever they call it; I gave him my Wizard number and the confirmation code, and they still didn't have it set up by the time I arrived (it was for a Prius). THEN, they gave me directions to a spot with a Focus in it, and although there were 5 Prius's around, none were the license number on the Rental Agreement. Finally, I trotted back in and they gave me a new car assignment. On the return Tuesday, I note that Avis is now levying a new $10 "Facility Fee" at LAX which they've never levied before..... wonder if it's LAX or AVIS? Anyone know? My rental four weeks ago didn't have it (I checked the receipt). Hertz didn't charge it 10 days ago.

And on the return, the helpful reset clock which tells you how long it is between buses (Proudly displaying the words "Shuttles leave every 5 minutes") was up to over 9 minutes when the bus pulled up, and the driver drove right into the trip mechanism, so I have no exact figure on how far MY bus was behind the previous one, but my guess is 14 minutes because even though the bus filled up immediately, the Driver didn't care enough to take off, and hung around until the aisle was full, too.

THIS is not good service. And when I've asked a manager in the past why this is so, I get a standard response that "Oh, it's shift change time", which is entirely pretextual, because I'm there at all hours of the day or night. I think this just buys off the customers, so like everyone in the travel industry they pretend to give you an answer and then just cover up. Back to Hertz next time, probably. (Don't get me wrong, Hertz is no winner. Just less frustrating than Avis. And judging by my $235 rental for three days including a weekend day, it's often less expensive to use Hertz, too.)

Flew into ORD Wednesday 5/13 afternoon. Waited 20 minutes (others estimated 25). At least 8 Hertz buses passed! At least 3-4 from National and Alamo and Budget.

Finally, a small bus came and filled up right away. Then a larger bus (regular sized) showed up.

Are they kidding? 20 minutes durnig a weekday afternoon?:mad:

Everytime but once, when I use Avis at ORD, it's because my connecting flight was cancelled due to snow. I remember MANY cold waits for a bus, cursing about how bad Avis was, while I watched repeated busses pass for other rental companies.

I really like IAH and CLE, where they have a consolidated bus for the rental car counter. While I was in DTW a few months ago (another usually brutally cold wait), the Avis bus driver was complaining to me about how they were probably going to lose their jobs because of a consolidated facility coming into the picture. I don't like to see anyone lose their jobs, but more so than that, I don't like to come close to frostbite while I wait for their busses.

:td: Not sure how this happens. ORD Is jumpin with passenger traffic. I’m surprised Avis can accommodate the volume of people with those infrequent pickups, unless business is really that bad?

I've seen a similar 20 minute wait at ORD, and then two busses show up, leapfrogging each other from stop to stop. And of course, both were packed like a Tokyo subway car by the time they reached the lot at the same time, creating long lines at the preferred booth from all of the people who's names weren't on the board.