AndieNarwhal

I have a reservation for August and am Executive Elite. My confirmation email says "Due to current events, your rental will be serviced by the Alamo Rent-A-Car brand in Lihue. Upon arrival, proceed to the shuttle bus pick up area located outside of baggage claim. Board the National or Alamo bus to proceed to the counter and obtain your rental agreement." Anyone know if this means Executive Aisle is still available or do I lose any perks I have with National because it's now serviced by Alamo?

Any reports recently of how LIH has done with the rental car shortage? Have there been long lines and waits to pick up your car?

AndieNarwhal

How was your experience?

topkekkekkonen

Longtime lurker here, but I was in LIH in late May and also am Executive Elite. Flew in at 10:30am on a Monday and their lot was basically full with no wait and no lines. This may change later in the day though.

I'm not actually sure if EA is available - I showed up and was assigned with no other choice to a Chrysler 300 with a LCAR reservation (swapped that out for a Jeep Grand Cherokee later). That being said, it seemed like people were taking whatever cars they wanted when I was swapping.

VAFlyerSAN

Alamo is servicing all National Car Rental reservations at LIH. Cars will be ready at the time listed as your pick-up time on your reservation. My flight time changed and the Manager wouldn't let me take the car until the time I booked on the reservation. Plenty of cars available if you have a confirmed booking. No Aisle service available or free upgrades. No lines in the morning as I was on the first mainland flight (SJC-LIH). By noon, the lines were super long due to multiple mainland flights arriving. Ended up with a 2020 Tahoe with ~9K miles on it.

MSP_Monopoly

We rented at the end of May. Had a Luxury reserved and they basically just pointed us to an aisle of SUVs to pick from. We took a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited.

slariz

Picked up here yesterday and they had plenty of vehicles - as Exec Elite, I got upgraded from a midsize to a Standard SUV. The biggest issue here is there is no Aisle service, everything is handled at the counter, which is shared with Alamo and Enterprise. They also are limiting the numbers on the rental car shuttle (also shared). So, it took a few shuttles to get to the location and then about 40 minutes in line to get to the counter. I actually thought it would take much longer, but they were very efficient.

Once I got to the counter, I was directed to the corresponding row of cars to the vehicle type and could choose anything from that row, similar to National’s aisle. Most were higher mileage and lower trims but i did see some better options too if you’re patient enough to seek them out.

dkc192

Is there no priority line/counter for Emerald Club/Executive/Executive Elite members?

slariz

Nope. Same line for Alamo and Enterprise renters, which based on what I overheard them saying was 90 percent of the renters in the line. I seemed to be the only National renter and most certainly the only Exec Elite do not sure why they can’t have a “priority” line but they definitely don’t as of now.

mixmastermark

Rented from National at LIH in early Sept around 2PM. All National, Enterprise, & Alamo reservations are rented at the Alamo lot.

After the shuttle, you wait in line inside Alamo, as a National Exec there was no priority line, but it moved quick and didn't wait long.

Reserved a full size, but mentioned I wanted an SUV, and she said no problem, and wrote the SUV car class down next to full-size class on the envelope she handed me.

Walked outside and there's another employee at a table who looks at your paperwork and tells you what car to grab (or let's you choose, in my case).

I grabbed a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

On the lot there was also:
-1 other Grand Cherokee
-1 Jeep Compass
-2-3 mid-size crossover SUVs
-1 Suburban
-1 Chevy Silverado Pickup
-a few Mustang Convertibles
-4-5 Jeep Wranglers lined up along the fence
-a few Altimas, mid-full size sedans

While not as smooth and predictable as the normal experience at National LIH as an Executive, everything worked out fine.

In hindsight, if I wasn't National Exec, I probably would have rented with Hertz. I peeked at all the major rental company lots at LIH, and Hertz was packed with way more cars than any other company I saw.

zerolife

As a EE with full sized reservation, was initially directed to the full sized and below row of cars which also had a few compact SUV and pickup trucks. Maybe only a total of 15 or so cars to choose from. Went back to the counter and they agreed to let me pick one of the SUV section. Nothing too exciting their either, just your standard SUVs. They also have a Jeep section that was well stocked with choose your color Wagner but asked for a ridiculous upgrade fee.

slippahs

Might want to avoid renting from National at LIH for awhile. Due to the huge demand for cars, with 3 agencies all packed into the same house, there was a line 15 people deep when we arrived waiting for cars, and an even bigger line when we dropped off the car. Asked the shuttle car driver when he thought National would move back to its own location, and he said, "when there are more employees."

msp3

As mentioned, National/Enterprise/Alamo are all operating out of the Alamo, and when I arrived I was the only customer (but had to go to counter). Was told to pick whatever car I like in the middle of the aisle, except the only cars available at the time were Nissan Altimas of different trims, minivans, minivans everywhere, a Ford EcoSport, and a Chevy Trax.

ChristopherJN

Arriving in LIH this Wednesday with a PCAR reservation with Exec Elite status, but really hoping for a Jeep Wrangler for our 2 week stay on the island. Based on the above it looks like LIH has transitioned back to counter-only service, so was curious there any recent data points on how flexible the agents are with what cars we might be able to take?

jj_lgkr

Arrived yesterday at LIH, we where on the "first" plane from mainland so there was no line. By the time we left the line was 20 people-deep. On the shuttle they shout out for status holders and direct them to a separate employee. All 3 Alamo self-checkin machines were out of order. Had booked a Standard SUV and asked for a Jeep Wrangler instead, was told it would be a paid upgrade so declined. The SUV selection was a mixed bag: a Durango, a Ford Edge Titanium (2019 model though), 3-4 poverty spec Cherokees, a couple of almost-base Jeep Compass Latitudes and a single Jeep Compass Trailhawk with rear off-road tyres(!). I chose the later, despite the mismatched tyres but am regretting the lethargic gearbox. Oh well.

OutofToiletPaper

Arrived yesterday afternoon and took the Alamo shuttle to the Alamo lot. National and Enterprise still operating out of Alamo, however National will be directed to a National agent standing outside. Enterprise/Alamo renters will still have to go to the counter. I had an FCAR reservation and the agent told me to pick anything out of the full size or SUV aisle. SUV aisle was full of base model Jeep Compasses while full size was either an older Maxima, Chevy Malibu, Challenger or pick your color Altima. Initially took the Maxima but it was beat up with tearing leather seats, so decided to switch to the Altima with less than 1k miles. On my drive out leaving the airport, a glimpse at Hertz didn't show anything better either.