mapleloaf

4 rentals in a row now, my credit to my BlueChip account doesn't post... and still hasn't. Calls and emails to thrifty, documentation faxed, and nothing. These are all out of YYZ.

I think I'm done with Thrifty -- and judging by the low traffic on this board, I think almost everyone else has reached the same conclusion years ago.

So who should I go to next? I've had good luck with Avis and Hertz in the past, but their prices ex-YYZ seem to be much higher than Thrifty usually.

jackal

Thrifty Canada is a separate entity from Thrifty in the U.S. I've never had any issue with Blue Chip credits posting in the U.S. I would suggest that your comments may apply to Canada but not the U.S.

Thrifty has always been one of the smaller agencies. But they're growing faster than industry average. They've outperformed their competitors in many markets over the last couple of years, and the larger competitors are now in a bidding war over DTG (Thrifty's parent company) because they see Thrifty as an opportunity (or a formidable foe).

It's also possible the low traffic on this board is because a) Thrifty's systems are far less complicated than the others' (less complicated = fewer loopholes to take advantage of = less need to post) and b) maybe people aren't having a lot of problems with Thrifty and so don't need to vent here.

Bing--you hit the nail on the head why Thrifty has been growing at others' expense. For the majority of the traveling public, price is king.

mapleloaf

Absolutely -- I suspect this is the issue. Even phone numbers that show up on their Canadian site were clearly going to US call centres and they weren't able to find my reservations in the system. I haven't rented from other locations in Canada in a long time except YYZ so I'm not sure if the disconnect is there, or if it is just Canada in general.

Very true -- even though all my travel is paid for and my clients would have no problem with any arrangements I want to make, I always look for deals just as I would if opening my own wallet. No need to waste money!

jaimelannister

I keep thinking i should change to another agency with a better reward program, but at the end of the day Thrifty is cheaper and the quality of car I get is far superior to the guys charging twice as much, so I just keep clicking on Thrifty in our reservation system.

jackal

And honestly, Blue Chip Rewards is one of the better-value reward programs out there for redeeming. Unless you typically rent for just one day at a time, you can earn free days faster with Thrifty than with any other program. The closest to Thrifty (other than Dollar) would be National, which will give a free day after 7 rentals, but that would need to be 7 one-day rentals. If your average rental is two days in length, then that would be 14 rental days--just about the same as Thrifty's 16 rental days for a free day. But compared to Avis's worthless free weekend days (only for higher-tier members, anyway) and Hertz's spend-based system (where cheap rentals don't count as much towards your point balance) are not very attractive from a free rental rewards standpoint, and Budget and Alamo don't have a free day rewards program to speak of.

Of course, if you're looking for status benefits, you'll need to factor that in the mix--I do particularly like National's Executive level and the Executive Selection concept, and some people at Avis and Hertz have gotten some nice upgrades to some cool cars in the higher levels of those programs. But bang for buck, I think Thrifty's Blue Chip Rewards is one of the best programs out there. (The double Blue Chip Credits promos that come along often make it even sweeter.)

You're right about the cars, too--I'd rather take a ~10,000-mile fun/interesting Chrysler/GM product from Thrifty than a ~30,000-mile boring Toyota product, which is what Hertz seems to be putting everyone (including me in ORD) these days...

jaimelannister

And I'd take the Ford Fusion I get at Thrifty in MIA over ANYTHING in the GM lineup, which seems to be what most of the other guys here have! I'd seriously rather the Fusion over getting upgraded to a Cadillac...I hate GM that much! =P

Edit: It helps considerably that they are almost always under 10k miles, too, and with free XM/Sirius on account of being so new.

sm0421

I had the exact same problem, I called and they credited me. I got my 16 day credit but they say it will take 4 weeks for me to receive the certificate.

Also EVERYTIME I rent a car the credit doesn't get posted until next week, you have to call and verify, it sucks.

rrgg

In the past I've had to call to get completed rentals to show up in BlueChip and to get frequent flyer miles credited. What is the usual turn-around time that most people see now? Thanks.

jackal

Corporate locations--like 3 days. Franchises take a little longer.

orknot2be

It's been 6 weeks since my rental car in PR. Miles haven't posted yet. What is the best way to chase this down?