I do not like the way the system software handles subforums. I think it would be better to keep the existing Car Rental Programs section, and within that section make Car Rental Programs the first forum, followed in alphabetical order by forums for Avis, Budget, Dollar, Hertz, National, Sixt, Thrifty.

I am not persuaded about the merits of grouping car rental companies with common ownership together. Generally, we break out discussion by loyalty program, not by ownership. For example, British Airways and Iberia Airlines are owned by the same company, use the same frequent flyer currency (Avois points), but have separate frequent flyer programs, and they have separate forums.

Okay I've taken the liberty of creating a thread in the Private TB Forum so we can discuss this there too. Please keep leaving suggestions and ideas here, I've linked this thread to the private one.

This makes a lot of sense to me.

Bruce

Just to be clear, I brought up the point about the consolidated ownership of the rental car companies merely to point out the reduction of competition, and the tendency for prices to rise as a result... which is good reason to have a cross platform discussion forum to share and ask questions about counter strategies, regardless of car company.

I was NOT suggesting that Avis and Budget be combined, or Alamo, National, and Enterprise should be combined, or Hertz, Thrifty, and Dollar should be combined, just because each cluster is under common ownership. That wasn't and isn't the point.

I just was looking for a general forum under the CAR RENTAL catagory of this website to ask questions that did not related to any particular rental car company in particular, because at the prices rental cars are today, I'll rent from any one, program or no program.

I'm in several programs.... Hertz Gold 5 Star, National Emerald, Avis Preferred, Thrifty Blue Chip, Fox something or other... I would NOT want to see the current subforums combined or reduced. I was just asking you folks to consider a General forum about rental cars... where topics ranging from insurance strategies to booking strategies, to in town plus cab versus in terminal bookings, depending on how heavy the levy is of the airport... where do you guys discuss this stuff that all pertains to general rental cars.... in that giant undefined "Travel Buzz", which to me sounds like "news"... you know what's buzzing?

I appear to have difficulty communicating on FT. Even the in the most innocuous posts, the meaning gets twisted in some way that I did not intend. Controversy appears to be the most driving dynamic of FT. From a pleasant thank you letter, to a hopeful forum suggestion... posts seem to get turned into some other meaning than was originally articulated, if only to deliver more fodder for debate. I have nothing more to add to the suggestion. I'm getting the car rental info I need from other resources. Thanks!

Flyertall, I don't think you've communicated poorly at all, IMO you've made a valid case for a general car rental topics forum that does not currently exist and it appears as though there is some TB support for it. The fact that others have brought up additional ideas of things to do within the car rental area of FT is not to try to mince the idea that you presented, but rather just to make any and all improvements that might be worthwhile at the same time.

Has anyone tried to quantify the activity there would be in "other rental car programs" and "general car rentals"? How many threads and posts about car rentals currently appear in TravelBuzz and MilesBuzz? Also, is there some discussion of this taking place in various destination travel fora?

There are 480 threads in TravelBuzz with the keyword "car" in the title. Two dozen of these had activity in 2014. There are 188 such threads in MilesBuzz, but none were active in 2014.

Other obvious keywords to check: "auto" "automobile" "rental"

I would not be in a hurry to close the less active car rental forums. I would wait to see if moving general discussion of the topic from TravelBuzz to Car Rental Programs produces additional activity in those forums. It is very easy to move all of the threads from, say, the Dollar forum to a general forum, but it would be much more difficult to identify the threads if you later decided to recreate the Dollar forum. A low velocity forum may still provide value to those looking for information.

I appreciate the information on the TB and MB threads. I feel differently about closing the other forums though. When you look at how little activity Dollar and Budget have to name two examples, it seems to make sense that there be some consolidation, especially if we're going to have a new general rental car forum. But, we won't be moving ahead without more discussion.

Also to mia's point, in Information Desk right now are:

Best car rental agency for award rentals

Best one way car rental

And that's just the first page, both would fit well into this new forum

As one of the mods who often have to decide what to do with a lot of "don't really fit anywhere" threads, count me among the supporters of this proposal. As pointed out above, the Info Desk gets many general car rental questions that don't belong there, but i personally don't feel that TravelBuzz is any more appropriate.

Agreed. I wouldn't be sad to see subforums go away.

Fwiw, I also agree with those who've said that the existing rental car forums ought to be eliminated and merged into the new general forum if they're being underutilized.

A perfect example of a thread that would be perfectly suited for a "General Car Rental Discussion" forum but currently doesn't really have a logical home: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...l#post24147268

While no longer having a vote I'd be supportive of the proposal. I like mia's suggestion of making General the first one listed, and then the various ones like Avis, etc.

Cheers.

More generally, I've always thought that FT would benefit from general fora in all of the major divisions: General airline issues (versus the other airlines fora), General budget airlines, General hotels (in addition to the other hotel programs forum), maybe General destinations (about RTW trips, travel books, TripAdvisor [which I believe is now discussed with blogs under external resources], tours versus individual tourist activities, etc.). When general fora do exist (such as destination Europe or Asia), people tend to think that this is about topics that don't fall under the other fora more than general topics in this area. It might be useful to separate the general from the other. By tradition, a lot of this material makes its way into TravelBuzz.

OTOH, the downside is proliferation of fora, possibly leading to some with very little activity. We also wouldn't want to decimate TravelBuzz.

Can we clarify the mandate of the TravelBuzz forum?

Is it:

a) a general "travel" forum?
b) a dumping ground for anything that doesn't fit anywhere else?
c) a place to check and discuss the latest hot, "buzz"-worthy travel topics?

I try not to use it for B, but in the absence of "general" topic forums elsewhere on FT, sometimes it's the only choice...

As much as I like to think it's A and C, it's become a lot of B as well. Hopefully, making this new forum will decrease the B-aspect, at least for rental cars.