jhagerman64

CAn anyone recommend a car rental to use at San Jose airport. Of course I have picked one according to price which is Payless. Has anyone used them? On the reservation for price it says an estimate. thoughts or opinions.

janisj

I always go w/ the majors (hertz/avis/national/etc) and avoid the off brands . . . but that is just me. YRMV

november_moon

I go with the major brands as well - Hertz and Avis usually.

Surfergirl

I was going to go with Payless this time because of the pricing at SJC (going in November for the Big Game). However, after looking at the reviews, I changed to Alamo, which was a few dollars more per day.

At SJC, they all have their good and bad points. I've used Thrifty and Dollar there before, and Budget too. All just fine. The line wait is not great at any of them. One year I was in a long line (can't remember which one) and saw one empty line - may have been Budget, I can't remember. I had my husband hold my place in line and went to the empty line and asked if they honor the price I was getting with the other company. When they agreed, I booked with them.

I had such a bad experience with Hertz a few years back (no cars in the price category I got with AAA -- upgrade that ended up costing me and extra $1k for the week) that I will never use them again. And Enterprise . . . an employee stole our CC # and it took months to sort that out. Granted, that can happen anywhere, but it kind of leaves a bad taste.

Just remember, whomever you use, they will push you to get an upgrade or a bigger car that uses more gas. And all of the extras you don't need. You have to be very firm. Especially with the bigger cars, since tomorrow California is adding a 12 cent per gallon tax on fuel when we're already being gouged on gas prices.

Surfergirl

If Hagerman ever makes it back to this forum, thought I'd give a brief update on the San Jose CA car rental.

The airport was hopping this past Friday, with the start of the Thanksgiving holidays and the "Big Game" between Cal and Stanford. (My team came in a close second).

Payless and Dollar had huge lines (same experience as last time I was there). Alamo and National share rental space and they were empty. Since I tried Alamo this time, we were able to walk straight up. Got our economy car no problem, great little Ford fusion, 350 miles on the car. Declined everything, and took off to Los Altos, and later to Berkeley and back for the bonfire. 3 days, plus the cost of gas (NEVER pay for the "full tank" -- there's gas stations everywhere) cost $75 total.

Very please with Alamo, both cars and pricing.

AustinTraveler

We always use Alamo and never have a problem.