Returning and picking up another reservation -- could I keep the same car?
 

Has anyone ever done as the title suggests? Next week at LAX, I have a weekend F reservation returning on Sunday, at which point I have to pick up a weeklong F reservation. One is for work, and the other is personal, so I can't extend the weekend rental, or combine the reservations.

If I happen to get a nice upgrade over the weekend, any chance I could "return" the car, and then take it out again for the week?

Thanks for any input! ^

You could certainly ask, but often times it's a logistics issue at big airports. When you return your car in the return lanes, there are probably dozens of cars in the way, you'd never be able to pull out again.

If you want to try this, you'd have to go to the customer parking area, do a manual return, and see what you can work out.

If this were a small location or a local edition, it wouldn't be a problem.

One thing to note, don't let them know you want to keep it because of the upgrade. Just ask if it's possible, you thought it'd be easier. If they think you want to keep the upgrade, they'll ask you to pay for it.

I have done it at stations where the agent knows me.

At my HLE in Toronto I never even had to return to the location, the agent returned the car and checked it out again for me. It made expense reports so much easier for me (and I ended up getting more FF miles as a result :D)

Maybe a phone call will suffice and you don't have to return?

I've done it once at SJC about two years ago. But it was Alamo, not Hertz ...

Just don't pull it into the return stalls. Park in an empty space, go to the counter, explain that you want to check in a car (write down the mileage) and check it out again under a new rez.

I do it all the time with Avis, and have done it in the past with Hertz, National, and (gasp!) Enterprise.

Thanks all, I'll try it out and see what happens. ^ Of course, my upgrade luck at LAX is usually not the best anyway, but perhaps this time around I'll get lucky. :D