Cars at SFO
Mar 23, 2015, 11:33 am
#361
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: PDX
Programs: DL Plat, UA Plat 1MM, AS MVP, Hyatt Discoverist, Avis Presidents Club, Hertz President's Circle
Posts: 3,938
Thats pretty much the long and short of it. I had a Premium Reserve reservation for a weekend in October. Arrived Saturday morning, and was pointed toward the ES. There were no premium cars on the aisle. I asked, and was pointed to a Maxima. Said, "I would rather not drive a Maxima. Do you have anything else?" They sad, "what would you like?". I said "Something more luxurious -- Caddy, Infiniti, Audi, BMW, Hyundai Genesis..". They punched a bunch of keys in the computer, said "you can have this Buick Lacrosse over here, you can wait 30 minutes to see what else we might bring, or you can spend $25/day to upgrade to luxury into this Ford Explorer.". I took the Lacrosse.
Mar 23, 2015, 2:29 pm
#362
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: YYJ
Programs: AC SE*MM, Bonvoy LT Plat, HH Gold, National EE, Sixt Plat, Hz 5*
Posts: 2,439
Apr 12, 2015, 12:26 pm
#365
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 694
Was there last week (Thursday midday) and the selection was pretty bad. Take your color pick of Hyundai Sonatas with a handful of Altimas thrown in for the hell of it. Had a few smaller SUV's on the Executive line including a Captiva and a Santa Fe (which we took). They pulled up a Dodge Journey as we left. Far cry from what it used to be - we've gotten fully loaded Tahoe's, Maximas, new Impalas in the past, but haven't seen anything good like that last couple visits.
Apr 12, 2015, 2:11 pm
#366
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Chicago
Programs: AA EP, UA Gold-MM, UA 1K (former), GS (former),SPG LT Platinum, Hyatt Diamond, HH Diamond
Posts: 2,299
Monday might be a slight anomaly though as that's probably the busiest business rental day (at most locations) and so they just keep filling up the slots to keep up with demand and therefore there isn't always a rhyme or reason to the selection (it's just based on how the cars are stacked in the overflow area)
Apr 21, 2015, 6:48 pm
#369
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 6
First -- thanks for the input from all the regular visitors here...
Was in SFO on 4/6 about 5pm -- came in through the Alamo section and there were a lot of cars everywhere. Rep came up and asked me if I was Emerald or Executive, told him we had a premium reserved. He said he had a new 300 ready, asked him if we could have a Caddy or a Camaro - we were on vacation -- he says wait right here - I got something -- comes back with a brand new black Camaro - 400 miles on it, leather, XM working, shift paddles on the steering wheel - nice car - it drove great down the PCH and across the Mojave to Vegas, where I left it. Makes you wonder where a new car ends up....
Saw tons of Altimas, Maximas, Impalas, and the normal stuff - there was a 380 with an upgrade tag -- I asked him if there were any convertibles - he said a red mustang for an additional fee.
Again - thanks to the regular posters for keeping the info current. It was a great help to know what to expect.
Was in SFO on 4/6 about 5pm -- came in through the Alamo section and there were a lot of cars everywhere. Rep came up and asked me if I was Emerald or Executive, told him we had a premium reserved. He said he had a new 300 ready, asked him if we could have a Caddy or a Camaro - we were on vacation -- he says wait right here - I got something -- comes back with a brand new black Camaro - 400 miles on it, leather, XM working, shift paddles on the steering wheel - nice car - it drove great down the PCH and across the Mojave to Vegas, where I left it. Makes you wonder where a new car ends up....
Saw tons of Altimas, Maximas, Impalas, and the normal stuff - there was a 380 with an upgrade tag -- I asked him if there were any convertibles - he said a red mustang for an additional fee.
Again - thanks to the regular posters for keeping the info current. It was a great help to know what to expect.
Apr 21, 2015, 11:40 pm
#370
Used to be bulldoggolfer05
Join Date: May 2007
Location: São Paulo, BR/Miami Beach, FL/NYC/DXB
Programs: HGP DMD, HHonors DMD, SPG PLT, MR PLT
Posts: 2,295
Apr 28, 2015, 9:34 pm
#371
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 68
Got an Enclave three weeks ago Saturday. I think there was one other large SUV, don't recall seeing any minivans. I was also there a week from last Saturday and don't recall seeing any large SUVs or Minivans. Also didn't see anything else I thought was very interesting, took a Corolla with 30k from the Emerald section.
Last edited by MaputoBound; Apr 28, 2015 at 11:28 pm
Apr 28, 2015, 11:58 pm
#372
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 2
@Ck713: I saw at least one minivan there last sunday evening...
May 4, 2015, 10:31 am
#374
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Boston, MA
Programs: AA Million Miler, Mosaic, Delta Platinum
Posts: 1,561
Friday night at about 10:30. There were about 15 cars in the executive aisle: 2-3 Hyundai Sonata, 2-3 of the Kia equivalent, a couple of Camrys, 1 Camaro, 1 Mustang, 1 Charger, a few others that didn't really register. I took a Chrysler 300 with 8K miles.
May 10, 2015, 10:22 am
#375
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: based out of LAX
Programs: UA 1K, AA Platinum, Hilton HHonors Diamond, National Executive, Starwood Gold
Posts: 701
If you book a midsize and have ES and want one of the above and do not see it on the ES aisle, you can ask for it. I did that once when I had to drive about 6 people and one of the National employees found me a Yukon or something similar - a HUGE SUV and did not charge me extra for it - as if it were already on the ES aisle. But I had to ask for it. I just told them I was "executive selection" and did they have a really big car I could take. Other times I've seen minivans on the ES aisle that no one else wanted. One time there was a long line of people waiting for cars and the minivan was just sitting there. I was at the end of the line so I asked what was up with the minivan and the others said they did not want it. So I took it. Fully loaded town and country. A bit of a pain to drive in Berkeley but it had a backup camera for parallel parking which was very helpful. And I did not have to wait for a car. My sense is that the really big cars are less popular at SFO than at other places.