Philadelphia 30th Street Station (ZFV)
 

Any experiences here? Have only rented from Hertz here but renting from National this week.

Edit: Well, I guess the "renovation" is complete. All rental cars are now located through a walkway to the building next door and in a surface lot. This is much nicer than the disgusting basement the cars used to be in. Got an Altima with 16k miles on it, not much else in the national lot. Agent was super nice too!

Is there Emerald Aisle at this location....or does everyone have to go to the counter?

Neighborhood stores are too small to have an Emerald Aisle.

Emerald Aisle (and Executive Selection) is only at major aurports, even smaller airports don't have Aisle Service.

I just rented from here last weekend.

No Aisle service but they had expedited counter service. The lady already had a contract printed and a car ready. 2013 Avalon with 3300 miles on it. (PCAR)

Amtrak's doing LOTS of construction so the cars are in a new outside lot off 29th and Arch. They even moved the Zipcars and Enterprise CarShare vehicles to that lot. It's about an 8 minute walk from the counter in the main terminal.

The car I had was from a spot that was labeled "Emerald Club"...others in the section were the usual Chargers, Impalas, etc.

Return was easy...once you enter, you told the greeter you were returning and he directed you to a spot to pull into. They have the handheld computers so he was able to punch in mileage and gas. A receipt came out and I was on my way.

All in all, a pretty good experience...just allow yourself some extra time if you're trying to catch a train or somethin'...

Thanks, everyone, for the info. This location is about $100 cheaper than PHL and we need to head north anyway. (Unless anyone can tell me how to get a cheap(er) car rental at the PHL airport :)

Traditionally, this satellite location always has a better deal than PHL itself (although $100 less is definitely on the high end of the price differences I've seen). Usually the headache of heading into the city location, combined with the lack of choice it has offered when compared with the airport has always led me to stick with PHL.

30th Street is pretty decent. I rented from them again last weekend on another trip to Philly. Got upgraded to a 2014 Chevy Traverse LTZ with 2000 miles on it. I usually come into Philly by train anyway so this setup is just perfect.

Even still...you can easily hop on the commuter train from the airport and get off at 30th Street. The fare is at most $10...if you're saving $90 - $100 the extra 20 minute ride into the city by train is worth it.

Any recent experiences picking up a SUV at this location? Need to rent one-way using free day coupons and it doesn't give any option larger than a standard SUV. Wondering if i'll have any luck getting upgraded to a full size SUV?

I have been upgraded to Durangos here on a couple of occasions. Lately, though, their stock has more in the vein of Standard -- Santa Fe, Terrain. From conversations with the desk clerks -- who are better than average in my experience -- there's not much call for larger vehicles at this location

Any idea of this is a Corporate, Franchise, or Agency location? I am renting for two months to drive cross country and want to know if there are problems or a desire to exchange the car, will a rental originating from this location (ZFH) be eligible for an exchange? National has always been great about this wherever I've travelled, but it's always been corporate airport to corporate airport location. Just curious. Thanks.

@foxjkt all of our locations in the Philadelphia area are corporate owned locations. Please let us know if you have any additional questions. We're always happy to help or write to us at [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you again soon! Take care! - Carol H. Social Monitoring National Car Rental

EHI bought out most of their franchisees a couple years ago. I think the only ones left are in Salt Lake City and Alaska and maybe a few random others.

Salt Lake City Alamo/National is no longer a franchise. I don't think Alaska is either. I think Wisconsin National/Alamo may still be a franchise though...

Actually, I think you're right about SLC. I went back and found this thread from last year:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/nati...greements.html