whimike

Had a 4-day rental for a Luxury. Showed up and not a single Luxury on the lot. The greeter was nice and we walked to Alamo where they only 2 cars they had above a Luxury was a BMW 7-series and a Jaguar. He said I could have the BMW, and I thought great, but then the manager came out and said "no way", and the Jaguar would have also been a "no way" but somebody else came out and it was given to them (no idea what they reserved).

I was offered a Buick Enclave, which would have been fine, but it had no Nav. They offered a portable Nav, so I agreed, but in the meantime I asked the nice National guy if they had a Tahoe with Nav, and he ended up finding an LT with Nav. So, that is what I left with.

IsleOfMan

The Enclave would have had OnStar Nav which I'm usually fine with (can't remember the last time I had a GM car through National where OnStar wasn't active, even when XM had already expired). That said, good snag on the Tahoe with Nav.

piper28

I had a Malibu the other day that onstar was expired. Only reason I knew was because I accidentally hit the button while trying to flip the mirror to night mode.

Gotta admit, I've never tried using the onstar nav, the idea of calling in to get the directions sent always was enough of a hurdle to me to stop me from doing it .

IsleOfMan

Sometimes if you're looking for something that you don't exactly know what is (you kinda know the name but not exactly, and something it's close to but not the street or address) the addition of the human element on the other end can be invaluable... kinda like calling a friend to look on Google Maps when you couldn't find it in the GPS's way points (if you're not smartphone savy or time-warped to 5 years ago). Only having arrows on-screen and not an actual map can be a big annoyance, though.

agero2k5

Hi just to let you know s Buick enclave is not a luxury at all or near it. Ft lauderdale when it comes to bmw Jaguars and Infiniti there job is to upsell them for a higher price. As an executive member you should call customer care and complain about this. Me at other locations when I had a luxury reservation they make me pick from a Cadillac to a bmw 5 series. I don't see why that manager refused to give you that and get at least some dollar off your rentals because the enclave us always available to executive members always..

IsleOfMan

I'd say both the Enclave and the Tahoe LT w/ Nav are legit upgrades with no LCARs available. I wouldn't say that either is any worse than a Cadillac SRX or Lincoln MKT, both of which I've received on a LCAR res when none were available. A PGAR/FFAR/PFAR like the Tahoe is also an upgrade over LCAR in the technical sense and almost always higher in rate also (though, as a counterpoint, an MVAR is as well). I agree it's not what the OP reserved and he should complain both to local management and corporate customer care if he wasn't happy with the alternatives that were available.

The issue with the BMW 7 or Jaguar is they likely fall into the "Exotics" category and a free upgrade to such is likely impossible for a front line employee to do and a manager overriding it would probably draw attention from higher ups. Your anecdote of receiving a 5-series (likely a 528i with leatherette and no navigation) doesn't really compare to receiving a 7-series which is a vastly different car in price, features, and category.

I hate when my reserved car class is not available too, and I would probably TRY to get the crazy upgrade as well, but I wouldn't be shocked or infuriated when it didn't happen... the mentality of "my reserved class isn't available, I should get whatever on the lot catches my eye" just isn't workable and shouldn't be the expectation.

bocastephen

Although your results will vary by manager, FLL is one of the most notorious upsell stations and they use the Alamo side to pound tourists hard for upsells to fancy cars - making sure none of the good stuff ever gets to the National side for elite customers unless the location gets desperate.

I've shown up here with a luxury reservation and been offered a full size - and when pressed, I've been shown a couple hidden Cadillacs at Alamo with almost 40k miles and engines that shake and rattle like diesel trucks, complete with ripped leather seats and the strong stench of tobacco hidden by industrial carcinogenic air freshener - and that was before the french fry bits, hair and other debris sitting on the console, cup holders, etc - as if the cars were never washed.

If I have a luxury reservation and keep escalating and pressing them without backing down, they will usually find me something agreeable.

whimike

I was OK with the Tahoe, but still wasn't what I reserved, and in the prior week I had 2 Tahoe's and 1 Yukon, all 2015 models picked in the ES, so to me these seem pretty regularly available for a mid-size booking.

I understand that the BMW 7 series may be an "exotics", but I drive a 7-series myself and not the lowest-end 740 model, so to me it was no big deal to get it or not get it. I just wanted a luxury car, and that was the closest thing to it on the lot.

Overall I really like the ES of National, but as a comparison with Avis recently, I booked a Luxury via Avis at DEN. They assigned me a 3-series BMW, when I went to the car the key was missing. They had over a hundred other luxury cars, it seemed, but they had a BMW 7-series sitting out front and I asked if I could have it, and sure enough they just handed me the keys. No fuss. At National/Alamo they acted as if I was trying to take their national treasure.

IsleOfMan

I love finding great upgrades on ES, but I've stopped expecting them. Just because you've seen or grabbed a vehicle on the ES in the past doesn't mean you're entitled to it every time. If that were the case I'd lust make a midsize reservation and demand a Grand Cherokee, Durango, or Tahoe every single time. There have been reports of K900s being on the aisle at times in some locations, but I've never even been able to get one even on an LCAR res without paying the PS fee (though other LCARs were available).

If you weren't happy with the Tahoe, you should 100% let the local station manager AND corporate know. With FLL, you'll probably have better luck getting some kind of compensation out of corporate.

I think you were more than right to ask for the BMW 7 or the Jag, and I definitely would have too, but I think having an earnest expectation of getting it because no other LCARs were available is a bit much. Since your reserved class wasn't available and you took a vehicle that does show up on ES, asking for a rate drop down to ICAR along with the Tahoe would probably be a legit request. Asking for the BMW is exactly what I would have done first... giving you the BMW would have been a good customer service move on the station manager's part since they couldn't honor your reserved type... expecting that it was the only serviceable solution to not having any LCRARs would be taking things to an extreme (not saying the OP pushed it that far, though others above may have).

Another way of looking at it... would you have rather had the Tahoe LT w/ Nav or n Cadillac ATS, Volvo S60, Audi A3, etc? If it were me, I'd take the Tahoe most of the time given features and space. But if an ATS, S60, or A3 had been around, that's what you would have received on an LCAR res with very little wiggle room for something like the Tahoe LT w/ Nav outside of an upgrade fee... these are probably 3 of the 4 most frequently received LCARs (with the A3 being a fairly new addition, but it looks like it's being purchased in fairly high volumes) so the most common LCARs you would have been likely to receive wouldn't have had nav either.

I think there needs to be some perspective when we don't get our reserved car class. We can receive an acceptable alternative (whether just an alternative car class, or alternative car class + discount) without flipping into the mode that many do where only the highest-end car on the lot is an acceptable alternative.

seawolf

Wednesday 10PM

Not much in ES/EA. A bunch of pickup trucks, Mustang, Maxima, Challenger, a couple of minivans, two 2015 Chrysler 200s, Camry, Corolla, Jetta.

Took the shuttle to Sixt. Booked FCAR and got upgraded to BMW 3-series GT as a Sixt Platinum.

IsleOfMan

Did you notice if the ER sections were operating or not? I have an LCAR res for next week and don't have high hopes based on my last visit with a PCAR res... (my wife enjoyed the Mustang Convertible we took since it was July and a short vacation for her... I wasn't thrilled with an Alamo car having 24k, worn leather, no SXM, and a slight smoke smell).

seawolf

Did not check the reserve aisles. Probably should have given the unappealing selection in EA/EE

IsleOfMan

~3:00pm today the ES was pretty well stocked... I saw multiple '14/'15 Impalas, 300s, Grand Cherokees, a Durango, and some smaller SUVs. I didn't see EA. I was on an LCAR res and, of course, no ER aisles working... the greater brought up a '15 Lincoln Navigator which I was a bit worried my boss might think was too much... I made the comment to him "maybe we shouldn't pull into a customer in this". Luckily his response was "They're not waiting for us at the curb are they? Let's roll!". Cool guy. Anyway, I guess this time the lack of an ER section wasn't so bad. Only real complaint is the Navigation SD Card is missing (as it seems to be with every Ford I get), but SXM was working just fine.

hearna

Picking up a *convertible Mustang or similar* on the 24th; what do you guys thing is the best I could pick up on a 1 day one way to MIA?

Looking to cruze down to keywest and back.

dwbf11

You'll get a Mustang or Camaro.

Enjoy your trip.