Enterprise, USAA discount, and Underage Fee
 

Howdy,

Hopefully someone here can offer some insight. I had a crazy and hectic travel day on Friday the 20th. My flight was severely delayed, so I had to drive instead of fly from Bakersfield, CA to LAX so that I could make my flight to Denver. I figured up that it would be cheaper to get a one-way rental both ways instead of driving my own car and paying for parking since i'll be gone for 2 weeks. I booked with Enterprise using the USAA travel discount so that the underage driver fee would be waived (i'm 23) for a total of $79. When i went to pick up my car, the total came out to $94 because they charged me a $15 underage driver fee. I talked to the manager and tried explaining to him that the USAA rate code waives the underage fee, but he claimed this was only true for USAA insurance claims. He called his manager, and he said the same thing. As I was in such a rush, I didn't have time to go to another rental company (i was in a neighborhood location). I got both managers' contact information, but before i follow up, i wanted to see if there's anything i am missing. The only thing i could figure is that i still had to pay the underage fee because it was a one-way rental. Any other ideas before i follow up with corporate or the managers seeking a refund of the underage fee?

And FWIW...i've booked Avis for $58 on the way back already... haha

Are you a USAA customer or in some other way entitled to use that discount? If so, I'd suggest contacting USAA directly to see what their interpretation of the policy is. They will likely want to go to bat for their customers if they think Enterprise is ripping them off.

If you were simply poaching the code, just suck it up and move on.

Email coorporate -- [email protected]

I had this happen to me too when I did the $9.99 weekend special. Told them to enter my cooporate rate (which waives the underage fee) but was still charged for it. I rented from a local neighborhood Enterprise branch as well.

I emailed coorporate and they refunded me the underage fee without any hassle.

Although I am not a paying USAA customer, I have a free USAA account to take advantage of the retail discounts as anyone can. I did email USAA, and they promptly responded with a direct phone number to call and told me I should not have been charged the underage fee.

Good to know! I got a direct number from USAA to call, so I will try that first. If it doesn't pan out, I will shoot off an email to Enterprise corporate. Thanks!