Wow, that's worse than my experience. I had a Ford Fusion booked at YEG. I actually could've paid $10 less to rent from National for TWO days, but went with one weekend day at Hertz. When I got there they tried to tell me I had only booked a fullsize car and make/model wasn't guaranteed. Once I fought hard enough for a Fusion and was offered every other fullsize they carried first, they went to look for one and makde me wait over half an hour to get it. I fought it with Hertz and ended up getting most of the rental charge refunded.

Makes you wonder why they go touting about the make/model guarantee with the Green, Fun, and Prestige Collection and then they don't honour it. I have a Prestige booking coming up in a little while for a BMW 328i (or similar it says, which frightens me). I really hope I don't show up to get put in a base Chrysler 300 as they call it a similar luxury car.

Hertz lately has been lacking, it ONCE was a HUGE asset to the rental community. Loyalty or not, they are loosing members left and right.

Hertz's new business model, either like us or walk.

I agree with vrbaba, I don't get the appeal of Hertz. To me, their main selling point is that they have secured the best counter location and the best garage location in just about every airport I have ever been in. That doesn't impress me. My legs aren't broke, I can walk a little further.

Other than that, their prices are not good, and their LDW is usually very high. I have used Avis a lot in the past, but settled on National, because they are good at providing one-way drops, their pricing is fair, and their LDW charge is modest. Avis is usually higher on the LDW. I actually made Exec with National this year, once I stopped spreading my business around. I actually like Enterprise as well, but they just don't do one-way drops, so they don't fit my needs. They also need to modernize their check-out process.

At any rate, National fits my needs, and with their other advantages, I don't even use Hertz anymore. I would use Avis as a backup. Sorry if I derailed the thread a little bit.

I am very surprised to hear this. Take a look at this post which recounts how well Avis Tel Aviv handled the problem when Avis MXP tried to mess over me.

Test 3 (pdx)
 

OK, so here is test 3. Two fullsizes at PDX, Hertz (camry), Avis (Dodge Magnum)...

I took the magnum, avis was approx $5 cheaper w/ nav. I didnt have the problems that i had with my last hertz rental, and this car had ~28k mi on it. the interior had been thoroughly abused, but i guess we are going to be seeing more and more of this.

One thing I have noticed that's weird when I cancel the reservation, and they ask why "I'm not happy with the car", I just get an "ok", no manager, no attempt to placate, even though I'm a P/C member.

I'm going to do one last test with SUVs just to see... but I think I have a winner.

I know a lot of you have talked about national, i have used them a couple times in the past and been happy, but i don't have a corp rate code with them anymore, so my testing is hertz and avis for the time being...

You don't necessarily need a reservation to test them -- you pick any car on a particular aisle, so you could just look at what's there. They only tend to put serious upgrades on the Exec aisle, though.

Too bad. Show some sense to the company's best customers. Still one of the nice things about rental cars, too. You can make a reservation and simply not show up and not get charged for it.

I've gotten some of the nastiest rentals with Hertz lately. The last one was the worst -- at PHL I got a Toyota Corolla. When I asked about my upgrade, I was told if I wanted a bigger car I should've reserved one. When I asked whether status had any meaning at all, the person at the counter rolled her eyes and said she'd find me something, but it could take a while.

I took the Corolla, but it's the last time I rent from Hertz in PHL.

I had the same story with Hertz in PHL years ago. I had a certificate for an upgrade but was refused one being told it was "subject to availability."

The agent then proceeded to try to sell me the upgrade.

If there were no cars available, how did would they suddenly appear if I wanted to pay?

There was a thread in the US Airways forum a few months ago about the, "Philly 'tude," this sounds like a perfect example of it. Here's the thread.

Maybe notes on your profile that staff can see, so they know not to waste their time trying to placate you?

olivetti, what's your problem? you are the only person threadcrapping this, for no particular reason, are you that in love with hertz you aren't interested on how someone else would treat you?

this is a comparison of how hertz and avis treat their "pc" members. that's it there is no emotion... its an experiment. one that i like to believe is doing a service to all of us... its not about "placating" me, i'm not asking for upgrades i'm not asking for anything, i'm trying to see how they treat their members with default effort. which i'm pretty sure the majority of us do, frequent travelers don't always have time to go in and beg for an upgrade.

the overall goal of this is to see who values their frequent travelers the most.

and right now, it's not looking like hertz does. hertz used to, as a 5-star i always got amazing upgrades, but their service has changed drastically the past year or so. by taking opinion out of it and using empirical data as i am all we are left with are facts.

if you can't respect that, why don't you go find some random chat board and force your opinions on them.

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if i'm off base and am just wasting everyone's time, i apologize. if you guys still want me to continue, feel free to chime in and let me know, otherwise i can just stop.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=817473 This explain why olivetti is pasionate about comments. He/She works for them

I like knowing the results keep it up

I think this is a neat experiment. The effort each company puts into allocating you a vehicle does tell a lot. If you see lower-tier member has an Impala LTZ in their stall and you got an LS with cloth seats and a big scrape on the rear door, then it's at least partially indicative of the effort they put in. In a case like that, it appears like they just throw whatever into each stall without any thought. However, if the allotments are reversed (and the scraped Impala isn't there in the first place) then it shows that they're rewarding their most loyal members with the best available vehicle.

In relation to the above post, YES, very true!

The last booking I had in Honolulu, I was treated like royalty for a change, now I would like to think it's because I am 5* now, but I have been in that catergory for a while now....

Got on the bus, driver asked for my surname, and called it in.. The reply was he has the Yellow Corvette, help with the bags and drop him right in front of the car.

The car was in the best possible location anyways, but it was nice to be driven to it and extra help with all my baggage!

The next rental in Maui I had a 20k+ mile bottom of the range Mustang :td:

Upset PC member tries a test, thanks FT
 

So as a disgruntled PC member (with about 90 rentals/yr) I tried my own test too! My company has a corp deal with Avis, and I am a NO STATUS member there. Also have a corp deal with Hertz, where I am PC!

Booked full-size cars for 2 days recently, pick-up Wed, drop off Fri. Walk to the Hertz counter first (no #1gold service board) and was given a MAZDA 6! Thats right...Mazda 6 on a FULL SIZE reservation!

So I walk over to the Avis counter, get the keys to a Cadilac DTS!

So...Avis 1-Hertz 0!