My First Time With National-The Situation
Aug 9, 2010, 9:39 pm
#16
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: YYJ
Programs: Aeroplan, Priority Club, National Exec Elite, Hertz #1 Gold, Avis First, Thrifty Bluechip
Posts: 1,924
National's system is VERY finicky about making changes to res's. I can understand if you book a car 5 months in advance, and then suddenly the day before you want to change the dates completely, that the agency should be under no obligation to honour the 5 month old rate since, at the core of it, what you're doing is no different than someone walking up off the street and asking for that car for those dates.
However I once tried to just change my flight number, and the system interpreted that as a modification to the whole rental and promptly told me they were sold out of all cars. Naturally I just left the res alone.
Once I had to go up to Newmarket, ON to pick up a car for 9 days and found out enroute that I wouldn't make it on the bus before they closed. I walked into a local ERAC office and they gave me a reasonable rate for an intermediate car for the night as I had a funeral to get to. I called the National office to tell them that I would be in the next day to get my car... "Sorry we are sold out of cars". Yet had I arrived on time, I would've been in the car sitting on his lot at that very moment for 9 days, all I was doing was shortening it by one day. Not extending, not chaging car class, just coming in later. "Sorry we are sold out". I ended up just rebooking it invoking my National Exec Elite privilege of getting a car with 24 hours notice, and managed to get it for the same rate. But I thought it was odd since, in the grand scheme of things, nothing was really going to change how that car would be used, only that it would sit an extra day before I picked it up. Would that really be worth losing 8 days of revenue over?
However I once tried to just change my flight number, and the system interpreted that as a modification to the whole rental and promptly told me they were sold out of all cars. Naturally I just left the res alone.
Once I had to go up to Newmarket, ON to pick up a car for 9 days and found out enroute that I wouldn't make it on the bus before they closed. I walked into a local ERAC office and they gave me a reasonable rate for an intermediate car for the night as I had a funeral to get to. I called the National office to tell them that I would be in the next day to get my car... "Sorry we are sold out of cars". Yet had I arrived on time, I would've been in the car sitting on his lot at that very moment for 9 days, all I was doing was shortening it by one day. Not extending, not chaging car class, just coming in later. "Sorry we are sold out". I ended up just rebooking it invoking my National Exec Elite privilege of getting a car with 24 hours notice, and managed to get it for the same rate. But I thought it was odd since, in the grand scheme of things, nothing was really going to change how that car would be used, only that it would sit an extra day before I picked it up. Would that really be worth losing 8 days of revenue over?
