Rent pickup truck class, use aisle?
 

Seeing much cheaper rates for pickup truck class than midsize car.
What are the chances that the attendant would let us take from the aisle instead? It doesn’t hurt to ask. I will have a backup reservation at Avis in case.
I’m EE and location is San Diego airport.

Have you ever seen National putting pick-ups at the aisle?

yes, frequently.

Yes it's fine. I booked a pick up and take from the aisle.

yep seen them at a few USA airports. I love to drive them as they don’t even sell the ram, F-150 or Silverado here in the U.K.

Isn't OP question strange? I've never even fathomed an exit attendant question ANYTHING in reference to reservation (if reservation is Mid-size or higher)

Maybe you're not trying hard enough.

I have never seen any small pickups like the Ranger but yes, you see full-sized pickups like the F150 a lot. Ironically sometimes quite a bit in big cities, where I'd think nobody would want to drink such a large vehicle.

I had a Minivan reservation at FAT (as that was the cheaper than midsize) and picked a Nissan Maxima from the aisle. The exit attendant told me to take a minivan or he would charge me a walk up rate for Midsize that day. I went back to the aisle and got a Chrysler Pacifica, which was fine.

That is a bit odd - I had a pick up at FAT and there was not exit agent since all the keys were kept in the Alamo booth. The exit gate was kept open too. Agent gave me a choice of 20 vehicles since they did not have a pick up or pick anything from the aisle. Out of curiosity - was your Pacifica with Louisiana plates?

Sound like a major discrepancy with Aisle Policy: says "Reserve Mid-size or higher". I'd love to be corrected

The only "higher" classes than mid-size are full-size, premium, or luxury. Minivan, pickup, and all of the other parallel/specialty classes aren't "higher." Technically speaking, you aren't supposed to be able to book one of these other classes and utilize aisle service. As a practical matter, however, your mileage may vary and many locations aren't as stringent on it.

I'm not clear about that. Many times they don't have my mid-sized and say they "upgraded" me to a SUV. Everybody here has had that experience. SUVs are considered an upgrade. So if they aren't "higher" then what are they?

I think we are now getting into the semantics of what qualifies as an "upgrade." If you look at the verbiage of the program, it's clear that you have to book mid-size or "higher" to qualify for access. But they don't really define what "higher" means. In the past, it used to be full/premium/luxury. This is also borne out by how the (old) website used to work; book a mid, full, or premium size vehicle and it used to say "aisle eligible." And if you had a luxury reservation, they'd usually give you pick of the lot as that was technically the highest reservable class. The new site doesn't do that anymore. A manager at an airport location once explained to me that it was EHI's interpretation that those 3 classes were what they were supposed to allow people to choose from the Aisle for; the rest, they were supposed to do Emerald Reserve/specific class selections. This is because the station would get dinged on its metrics if someone with an SUV reservation took a full-size, or whatever; the same principle is why many Executive members will not be allowed to take a vehicle with >20K miles; it's a ding on the metrics, even if that's what the member wanted.

As to your specific question, many people prefer SUVs (larger, more luggage space, etc.) so often times they are billed as upgrades over a standard mid or full-size vehicle. But in the hierarchy of rental classes, they are not in the direct line of mid-size.

I've seen Nissan Frontiers regularly.