My Avis/kona rental experience
 

First off, I'm sure this might happen at any company.

I chased rates thru discount and Costco for a couple of months and went with standard Subaru legacy for a decent rate. I signed up for member check in. No lines.

They were out of our category. I could either downgrade for same rate or upgrade for $10 a day to Altima, which we know is great on gas. Fleet obsolete. No altimas either. No free upgrades. After 18 hours travel time I had no fight in me or desire to wait for my car category to arrive and changeover, and settled for up charge to a ford which gets lousy gas mileage, but at least has a sun roof.

The agent was nice. Just following company procedure, which is lousy. Gone are the days of upgrading if they don't have a lot of your category in their fleet. I have noticed the past few years, inventory is much smaller at many companies.

No bitch here. Just a warning that the great rate you search for can quickly change with wheels on the ground.

If that is indeed the new "company procedure", it's not gonna work for me. If I reserve a car that seats 5, I don't expect to be offered a car that seats 4 at pickup time, nor do I expect to pay more if the only car that they have that seats 5 happens to be an "upgrade".

And if I have a choice at reservation time of a compact car @ $150 or a mid-size car @ $200, I don't expect to pay $200 at pickup time if the only car they have available is the compact. They'd better throw in a tank of gas or something.

I've been having great service from Alamo lately.

We went with the "compact or larger" last time and ended up with (despite protest) an 8 person van. Well, at least we were able to fit a lot of gear, and a last minute guest:)
However, I wouldn't put up with being charged extra if my reserved class was not available, even if I had to take a car and come back the next day.
Agree about Alamo, not thrilled with Dollar.

I knew and wouldn't usually fold, but a long commute in cattle class sucked the air out of me. Hence taking the time to warn others.

Are you Avis Preferred? Or is that what you meant be member checkin? Usually that makes a big difference. And were you pleasant to the agent or as snarky as you are to people here? That often makes a difference too.

Signed "the old curmudgeon" as you like to call me.

Well my fodorite friends and faux

A happy ending to a terrible start. Upon returning our car, I wasn't even on the shuttle to the terminal when Avis asked me to fill a survey. I thought why wait? I have time to kill, as we tend to always be too early. I figured I was talking to a computer algorithm, but it was a way to vent.

Low and behold, a human - an Avis Operations Manager read it, emailed me with a sincere apology and assurance that he would send in an adjustment to reimburse us the up charge.

Again, I just wanted to remind people that after a long journey, sometimes you are vulnerable to the agent at hand.

Glad it turned out well; they should indeed have apologized! (And if we get giant van instead of compact next time, I'll calmly tell them we'll be back the next day)

Low and behold, a human - an Avis Operations Manager read it, emailed me with a sincere apology and assurance that he would send in an adjustment to reimburse us the up charge.

Was he just following company procedure as well?

I have NEVER been refused a free upgrade when the reserved car was not available. If I were they would soon find a complaint on the desk of the president.

But I admit I use Hertz and am a Gold member and that may make a difference. (Due to corporate rates from DH this is almost always the best rates available for me.)

Since you deleted 71 posts of this thread, I have received multiple failed mail postmaster messages from Fodor's which failed to accept my reply.

yes it seems when i flag a post it is shot back at me as undeliverable. So you likely never received the email in 2013 or the ones I sent recently.

Yes, I just flagged this thread again and it immediately kicked back to me as undeliverable.

I had my husband read the article about the lillikoi couple. He got misty eyed and is sure, although we never met her, we enjoyed her and her husbands puree.

Another find was a juicer on the last Waimea farmers market. A gentleman sold great fresh squeezed juice in Masons jars. We especially enjoyed the strawberry/guava. We found out too late that we could have saved a dollar by returning the mason jar. Good stuff!

Huh?

The article in the Kohala newspaper about the woman who made passion fruit products was one of the many deleted threads. Perhaps start a new thread about farmers markets? We got stuck in the Hawi market and talked at length with all kinds of vendors, most of whom were transplants.

deleted comments, not threads, of course

Youth in Asia?
Oh. ok. nevermind!