Beware - IAD Enterprise low on cars
 

Enterprise has been running some great rates at IAD this spring, ditto for Alamo. A couple weeks ago I tried to book Enterprise and it said it was out of cars. I was surprised as I hadnt seen that before. Last week I booked a car and was wondering if they would be out but they werent.

When I arrived on a Wed AM at about 9am, they were scrambling for cars and about 4 of us waited about 20 minutes+ to get a car. They tried to upgrade me to a Trailblazer at no charge and I couldnt take it cuz it was too big to fit in the garage I park in! They offered it to a woman sitting next to me and asked for a $5/day upgrade fee!! HA! You gotta be kidding me.... she declined and said she would wait... she called their bluff... they then said ... "umm...ok, well we will give it to you no charge, will you take it??"... what nerve.

I was then offered an Optima "that just came in"... but then she drove up a PT Cruiser... ok... whatever... They did offer to let me return empty so I certainly will do so!

Now, the week before I did Alamo and since they work from the same pool of cars as National they had plenty... also you get to pick your car like National, so its a great way to get National at an Alamo price... only problem is you have to check in but I see they have an express service now which I may try.

I think it really is just hit-or-miss at the IAD location. I've rented from there probably about a dozen times in the past year, and it seems that some times (weekday mornings) they are scrambling for cars (although I've never seen anyone have to wait) and sometimes (Friday evenings) they are so packed that it's basically "choose anything on the lot."

If you go on Travelocity they usually have one of the lowest rates out there (them or Alamo) so all of a sudden their cars are all gone. For awhile they weren't appreciably cheaper but now they are. There are a ton of cars moving between all the agencies at IAD... the flow in/out of Hertz amazes me when I rent from there. The massive backup of cars on a Friday PM return is astounding.