Thrifty Rentals Barred in Canada
 

We received confirmation of our Thrifty rental today, which was meant to be Seattle-Seattle for 22 days, but most of our time was to be in BC. Without telling anyone, Thrifty has changed its rules, and their cars are now NOT allowed into Canada. They of course, told no one. I will spare you the details of what I have said both online and on the phone to their personnel, but we are dealing with the minions here who only read off their computer screens. I have managed, on a Saturday afternoon, to secure a rental from Alamo for Monday July 9, for the same time period, which may be taken into Canada without a problem. It will only cost me $400 more than the original rental. BEWARE!

Oh my goodness, that is disappointing!

Thank you for warning everyone else.

Thanks for the heads up. Unfortunately, changes in company policies can happen at any time, with or without warning. Because of that, it's always a good idea to verify reservations, etc. before heading off on your trip.

I am curious, how long ago you made the reservation and when and how you were notified of the change in policy?

I just looked at their "terms and conditions", and it does state "NOT allowed in Canada or Mexico", so they do now indicate it online at least.

This is a good reminder to ALWAYS check the terms and conditions EACH time you use a company, no matter how many times in the past you've used them.

Toedtoes,
I made that reservation in January. I have checked it several times -perhaps once a month- and it continued to state the same as when I booked - okay in WA, OR, ID and BC, but not Mexico. Today, when I received the auto confirmation, I inquired through "live chat" and I was told of the change. If I hadn't checked today, I would have discovered this at the counter on Monday in Seattle! If you book through Orbitz, they haven't received the new information yet! And if you think ANYONE at Thifty cared that they had potentially ruined my trip, you can guess again!

Oh boy, does this make me steam! Like you, I am careful to book far in advance to take advantage of the lowest rate. If not, we just could not afford to travel as much as we do.

Thanks for the additional details on that.

I really hate these "we reserve the right to change anything at anytime without any notice and it is your responsibility to look for the changes in the small print" policies.

I keep hoping that someone would take those on in court and force the companies to provide notification whenever they change their policies.

Thrifty also told me that if I took the car to Canada anyway and anything happened to it that the contract would be null and void and I would need to make the arrangements to return it to Seattle at my expense. Well, duh. Like I'd try to cross the border without proper authorization for a car. And of course, I was quite vehement in pointing out that I am not a terrorist. That said, this is my third Thrifty problem (two state-side, one in Italy)and absolutely my last.

Same here. Actually, I usually use Budget for leisure, National or Hertz for business.

I usually use Budget or Thrifty and haven't had any problems.

However, for my trip next month to Ottawa, Budget is requiring a hold on my credit card of $300 for the first day PLUS $75 for each additional day for the entire rental period. That's a $1650 on my credit card.

Thrifty only holds the cost of the rental ($636) plus $200 (or 20% of the rental whichever is greater).

I'm going with Thrifty because I don't like the idea of "locking up" over $800 on my credit card for 3 weeks unnecessarily.

Ouch! We have a Budget rental in September, picking up in Seattle and vacationing in BC. Now I'm going to have to check to see if they are doing this to me!

Be sure to check the specifics for the location. On the main page of Budget, it says 15% or $200, but once I made the Ottawa reservation, it states that this location requires the $300/$75 hold.

So you're paying $400 extra for this rental, rather than make a one-way, one-day trip from Seattle to Vancouver... then renting another car there for the Canadian arm of your trip, returning the Canadian car back to Vancouver, and then getting a one-way from Vancouver to Seattle again?

OR you could even take the train up, and rent a vehicle when you get to Vancouver, and then do the reverse upon return.

You have $400 worth of 'room' to wiggle around under.

Northwestmale - I believe the OPs hurdle is that he was flying out tomorrow (Monday) and didn't find out about the restriction until yesterday (Saturday). I'm guessing he did not have a lot of spare time to try and work out a lot of different options, etc. to find the best deal.

I was the OP with this nasty problem. Responding to NorthwestMale, all of our plans, ferries, hotels, etc. for 3+ weeks were in place and the rental had to start in Seattle and end in Seattle. We were booked on the Coho from Victoria to Port Angeles and didn't want to return to Vancouver just to drop a car, and no time to maneuver. Clearly I've learned my lesson on this one. But, as a add-on, NorthwestMale, that advice about the truck route to the border was absolutely spot-on and we crossed in 17 minutes. Coming back off the Coho was a breeze except for the immigration guy who put the "A" in arrogant American.