bchandler02

Was in SLC in April, and not excited about renting here based on FT stories.

As stated above, no aisle until the new facility opens (2020 I think?). Have to go to the booth in the garage. They tried to offer me a car first, I declined. Next was a minivan - also declined. Told them I wanted an SUV, preferably a Ford. They ended up giving a Nissan Armada with about 3k miles, fully loaded. Overall, a decent experience for a non-aisle location, I had no major complaints.

Yellowjj

Haven't rented from SLC before, but from looking at google maps it appears the rental car garage is right across the street from the terminal; is this correct?

GW McLintock

AMflier

I rented there this spring. It's a little better. Per the overworked Emerald Counter manager, they are now a corporate location. The Airport won't let them have an Aisle until the new rental car center is open.

There was no longer an overachieving employee looking for damage at check in.

jak456

Rented out of SLC last week (on the Alamo side). Service was outstanding, no queues at counter, in fact there was plenty of staff available both on the National and Alamo side (glad I was not renting with Thrifty or Budget for that matter), and I got the car cat that I reserved (Convertible). Was a bit worried that in Oct Convertibles were not that easy to get at a location like SLC, though my worries were completely unfounded. Return was a breeze without any hassle.

Overall, a pleasant experience. Still no Aisle or Reserve service but as stated above that is supposed to come with the new rental car center.

Yellowjj

Rented today with a fullsize reservation. Agent asked whether I wanted a SUV, Sedan/ Premium or anything else in mind. I thought that was nice, but I wanted a small sedan. Agent swiveled his screen around and was offered a choice between 4 Fusions/ 3 Rogues/ 1 Altima/ 1 Camry/ 2 Jetta's/ 1 Compass. Chose a Fusion and was assigned a Titanium Ecoboost model. All in all I was happy and service was quick and proficient.

GW McLintock

Was this at the desk or the Emerald booth? I've only rented here once and just went to the desk since there wasn't a line. Good to know they have some decent cars now, at least wherever you went.

-J.

m907

I'm oddly curious what the screen looked like. Usually it's an 80s-looking dot matrix display at rental companies.

Qwkynuf

I'm gonna go off topic and fully pedantic here....

"Dot matrix" is a printing technology that produces text on paper by impressing a matrix of independently addressable pins - typically arranged in either a vertical column of 9 pins, or two staggered columns with a total of 24 pins - onto an inked ribbon suspended slightly above the paper. The 24 pin version can achieve higher dot density, which results in better perceived print quality.

What you are describing on their screen is most commonly described as "Terminal Emulation". It is a text-based interface to a back end server/mainframe. These types of system eschew graphics, decorations, buttons, etc in favor of achieving the maximum data density on the screen. The text is often displayed in green, though there is no practical reason for it to be so these days. In the early "dumb terminals" that were physically connected to the mainframe, the displays were monochrome and green was the most common option (amber/orange was also fairly common).

</pedant>

xienon

Speaking of dot matrix, I noticed the Avis counter at my local mall is still using dot matrix printers that uses paper that has holes along the side. Is Avis's computer systems that old?

Qwkynuf

Dot matrix printers are super durable and dependable and cheap to operate. They are easy to program for because you can just send text, tabs, and carriage returns to format the printed output. Printing to a laser or inkjet printer would require setting up the backend system to handle either Postscript or PCL print language. Unlike laser and inkjet printers, you can easily print on carbonless paper to fill out multipage forms .

Many organizations don't even try to repair them, they just keep a couple of new ones in the closet.

So, the net is, dot matrix printers are the most efficient solution for many organizations.

Auto Enthusiast

Believe it or not, there are both refurbished and brand new dot matrix printers for sale online, including through Amazon.

Yellowjj

The best way to describe it was it looked like a interactive Excel sheet. The full size cars he showed were listed in a table by row.

Yellowjj

Emerald Booth outside. The desk was empty as well, but they had the sign out for all Emerald members to head straight to the booth outside, so I obliged.

kbean

What's the latest on National at SLC? I need a 4WD SUV for my trip Jan 29-Feb 2. Rates seem sky high right now so I got the cheapest I could at the moment but will keep an eye out to cancel for something less with a major company. Right now National is the lowest major company. Last time I rented through Hertz which happened to be the cheapest, and needed a 4WD "Mid Size" SUV and had no issues. They had 6 or so to choose from, no change in price.

What's the luck with National for this? Dead of winter so may actually be easier, but the last thing I need them to say is "All we have is full size 4WD, so that will be a $1000 more."

Any experiences?

Thanks in advance.