Hard to decipher restriction on Alamo rentals for RR points
 

I posted this in a car rental forum, but since it also involves Rapid Rewards I thought it could also be beneficial to ask in this forum:

I collect Southwest RR points, and my next three rentals are with Alamo (been renting with Hertz, but their rates have become non-competitive at the location I rent from).

My rental pattern is weekly, Saturday-to-Saturday. I pick up a car on Saturday mornings, return it the following Saturday, and immediately pick up another rental while I'm there. The reason for weekly, vice monthly, rentals is that it provides me with the flexibility to cancel a rental in the event my client has a schedule change and wants me to work from home for a week rather than come into the office.

There is a somewhat oddly worded restriction on the Southwest site concerning Alamo rentals. It states:

"With Alamo, a flight is not required in order to receive points except in the case where the Member has multiple rentals on consecutive days in the same market. If more than one rental occurs in the same day or consecutive days, a flight must be taken within 24 hours of each rental."

So, here's the puzzle. I rent locally (never fly in) and drive in-state. The wording of the restriction is a little confusing -- would dropping off and picking up a rental on the same day void the award of RR bonus points? If so, I may have to use a different car rental company every other week to keep the bonus points coming in.

I think this is to keep someone from renting a car for one day, collecting points returning the car then renting another care the next day to collect more points.

Some of the hotel programs pay a fixed number of points per stay, regardless of how long it is so some people apparently try to check out and check back in to collect two sets of points.

That's how I interpret it. Thought I've never actually attempted.

Basically unless there's a day off or change of location, a bunch of rentals strung together would count as a single long rental from a point awarding perspective.

Now whether that's actually enforced, especially in a situation where it's not really being abused, is another question.

Given your rental volume, I'd consider ditching Alamo for National (owned by the same and usually co-located in same lot) and collect Free Days which have been more valuable to me over the years (for vacations) instead of the (small?) amount of (fixed?) points. Y Opinion MV.

I've been trying to switch, but National's rates at TUS are too high. Just a few minutes ago I was fishing around for a reservation and National was nearly $200 for a week, while most of the others were around $120. This has been the pattern for months. I don't know how National stays in business at TUS airport.

For the most part I've been using Hertz and Enterprise this year. The sudden switch to Alamo for two or three rentals was because I couldn't squeeze a decent rate out of Hertz. For TUS airport, weekly rentals should average between $100 and $150 a week (total, including all taxes and fees). Hertz keeps edging higher, and they're about to jump the shark with me, with rates approaching $180 or more.

Also, I collect Southwest points rather than car rental points, so much depends on what rates come back with the Southwest codes.

Gotcha, that is weird pricing since National, Alamo and Enterprise are owned by the same conglomerate.

Several here have suggested Costco for good car rental codes / rates.

I understand collecting WN points but *think* they are relatively small and fixed per rental while at least National give you credit based upon length of rental. They aren't points per se but credits towards free days. But it sounds like the last thing you need is more rental cars!!

My guess is that language was added after several very lucrative rental deals were greatly abused. US Airways Grand Slam (2010) and Delta 10k/rental (2009) come to mind. There were reports on FT of people trying to rent the entire lot on a Saturday morning. If you are only holding a single vehicle at any time you should be fine.

The pricing is beyond weird -- it's like dynamic pricing run amok. I always eventually find a good rental deal, but it takes perseverance. The mechanisms the car rental companies use to set pricing (which can frequently vary from HOUR to HOUR) are an absolute mystery to me. So I just play the game and keep hunting and working the codes until the price is acceptable.

The WN points for a car rental can be excellent, but you have to use the bonus point offers to make it worthwhile. I'm pulling in 2400 WN points a week for a car rental, or roughly one free airline flight a month. Costco does have excellent rates, as does AAA, but I can't get the WN bonus points that way.

The car rental points vs. airline points depends greatly on where you live and travel, I guess. Here at Tucson I have no need for free car rental days and if the wife and I go anywhere the car rental costs have never been a financial issue (we're not "big city" folks). Getting to where we want to go, however (via WN), makes the airline points much more valuable!

As a quick follow-up -- kudos and hats off to the excellent people at Southwest customer service, who I spoke with today. They agreed the language was confusing, discussed it internally and with their partners, and told me that I could, in fact, rent a car every week at the same location without the need for an airline flight. They said the way it's stated online is, at least in part, incorrect.

A lot of us come to these boards to gripe. I'd like to break the mold a bit and pass along a "job well done" to Southwest customer service.