Ijones027

I'm 99% sure there's no ee aisle by sea it could be they have a VIP aisle but it's nice to see a Escalade the best car they had when I was there was a charger

dwbf11

What you saw is the Premier Selection. EE's get a slight price break on the upgrade fee, but it's not an EE aisle.

bocastephen

There is no such thing as an Executive Elite Aisle. SEA has a separate "aisle" to the left of the Emerald Booth where cars are held for VIP clients or reservations for a specific high-end car class, and the keys are locked in the booth - you are not permitted to take a car from this area unless specifically authorized by a manager at SEA.

SpeedRicer

As I'll probably hit 50-60 rentals this year, I too wish that there was something more meaningful for Exec Elite, or at least a level with better perks in between Exec Elite and VIP...

That said, the ability to use free days for almost any car class (including Luxury, Sports and Luxury SUV, etc.) is pretty useful. Last year, I was at 23 rentals and after realizing that Executives can only use free days up to Fullsize, I did a couple of short rentals to put myself over the limit. What's the car rental equivalent of a mileage/mattress run?

BTW, for those that have issues with certain locations playing games with availability for the Luxury or other higher classes using free days, I've always been able to book them on a paid rate and then call National to manually apply my free days without issue. At more generous locations, if I just book the highest class available (i.e. whatever has the highest paid rate before the free day discount), they usually are pretty flexible with what I end up taking anyway...

Bob Mill

Hello everyone I am a Former National greeter at MCO. I am Executive Elite with National car rental with 200 rental days so far this year. I did not get a employee discount while working for National this year so I did pay full price to use my Executive Elite benefits. There is not a Executive Elite at MCO but being Executive Elite means that we really go out of way to try and give you a vehicle that your want. One way rentals we are strict on about what vehicle you can have. But as long as the vehicle is on the executive row then it is able to go one way. Usually for Executive Elite you can usually always get a luxury vehicle upon request. All vehicles that are given to National have to be under 20,000 miles or the location gets dinged automatically on our customer service report.

yvrnycracer

interesting you say that, franchise locations must have a completely different set of rules. Some of the franchised locations in BC, Canada have cars pushing 50,000km. Working for an automotive OEM I find this somewhat shocking all things considered. The corporate locations are always great and seem to have more and more luxury brands on hand (not a good sign for the overall economy) but I almost always opt for a different company (enterprise usually because they are corporate owned) when I have to visit the cities that don’t have an Emerald Isle or a more reasonable franchisee.

m907

Thanks for the info - very interesting.

I saw a Nissan Rogue with 90k miles on the aisle at CMH a couple weeks ago. I wonder how that affected their metrics.

Auto Enthusiast

Executive Elites can redeem free days for one-ways involving car categories not necessarily on the Executive Aisle, like luxury, large SUV, etc. These would presumably be chosen from the appropriate Emerald Reserve section. Are all cars available in the category choice aisles also able to go one-way? Is it only the paid upgrade sections with exotics, sports cars, luxury SUVs and such, that are assigned to specific locations?

m907

As far as I know there are no restrictions on one-ways with National. I think he's talking about their willingness to give you a luxury car when you have an aisle reservation.

Auto Enthusiast

It sounded like he was saying that some vehicles can not be allowed on one-ways. "As long as it is on the aisle, it can go..."

UAFAM

No one has ever asked me if I am executive or to prove it by showing a card or something, when I am picking up the car, so I am assuming even regular emerald club member have all the benefits of executive or E Elite.

m907

No. I'm sure you can get away with it fairly easily at some locations but you're definitely not supposed to do that.

s0ssos

For all the people saying "luxury" cars, is it just me or has National degraded their "luxury" cars? Luxury now means premium. A true luxury car would be "elite"

glostix

^That's how it is with all rental companies. Can't say if this was the case 10+ years ago, but it's laughable and I just downgrade a couple tiers in my head. The cars that rental companies want us to believe are exclusive, exciting, and "elite" are just regular cars leased/financed by regular Joe Shmoes across America.

Even "exotic" is cringeworthy, i.e. Enterprise Exotics lists a category of Ford Mustang/Camaro SS/Dodge Challenger. Since when is that "exotic"? Exotic should be Lamborghini, Ferrari, McLaren, etc.

I say this not to be an elitist snob, as I personally have ZERO interest in "luxury" cars and could care less if my car even has leather seats or an audio screen. All I care about is tire-shredding fun, so I actually love cheap American muscle cars, but come on, rental companies stop outrageously lying to us about "luxury" "premium" "exotic" cars

xienon

It's just inconsistent. A Cadillac CTS is a real luxury car but a base ATS or MKZ probably shouldn't be. Then again, a Mercedes CLA is classified standard elite and that's a much cheaper car than most LCARs. National is not as nearly bad as Hertz where a Buick Lacross or Chrysler 300C is a Luxury.