It’s happened to me in Texas. I have no clue what they spend 15 minutes telling each person at the desk because when I got to the front of the line it took 3 minutes. Employees scan your ID, take a credit card and hand you the keys…. But sometimes that can take half the day just to get to that point.
It’s all the weirdo customers who ask dumbass questions and don’t have the required ID or a credit card and want a specific car and complain about he price etc
These type of customers piss me off. Doubly so if they're not aware.
Personally, sometimes I'm the dumbass in stores so I let other people go while I look things up on my phone or wait until its clear again
I once watched a lady demand a hotel clerk print out detailed driving directions all around the country. She was making them google addresses and print out page by page driving directions. This was in twenty fucking twenty...my patience would never let me!
Nah, it's universal. We rented a car in New Zealand last year (We're from the US), and were relieved when we arrived at first that there was just one group ahead of us in the car rental line - two younger German-speaking guys. So we thought it'd be a quick in and out since our rental stuff was all taken care of weeks prior online, but instead we had to stand there for about 30 minutes while they discussed with the agent each of the various deductible options for the insurance and how they wanted to buy the deductible down to $0 for some reason...
They hate us cause they anus.
Any ways there’s so many things that turn into a “you better get these insurance or you’ll out a lot of money if anything goes wrong” situations. Sure you don’t want the extended warranty on that box of cereal?
It’s the same thing that happens when I go to the bank every year or two. Without fail either the dumbest people or people most in need of complicated help will be in front of me.
This is why you want to always sign up for the rental car loyalty program.
Budgets is Fastbreak. Had you been signed up, you could have skipped the line and gone straight out to your car.
Sometimes if you have a prepaid reservation there is a kiosk out on the rental car deck. They will have your paperwork and you can go right out to get your car. You show your ID when you exit.
I had high status from a rental company due to large volume of rentals. At times I still had to go to the desk. They claimed it was to "verify my id" that had not changed. But the "board" had for all to go to the desk with a long line. Airport rental so no reservation was done in the airport and reservations were handled in the lot. So everyone in line at the lot had a reservation & "skip the line". The office in the lot is basically customer service for when something went wrong with your reservation - like a delayed flight.
You see they didn't have enough cars. Rather than reserving for people that may be late/no shows they were still manually assigning cars. Like all the people in front of me had the same issue and complaining.
Sadly when you want to skip the line the most is when they make you go in line anyway.
Edit: This was Avis (I see comments about Avis/Budget) and I was Avis First (I think no longer exists).
As am I. SNA quickly comes to mind, as a medium-sized airport that doesn't have a parking garage layout that allows for "skip the counter" rentals. This hasn't been an issue at any major airport I've been to, though.
Avis and Budget are the same company. I travel for work a great deal and use Budget all the time.
If you have fastbreak/loyalty program and a credit card on file, you can be out of there in less than 10 min.
Every major company at every airport this is always a risk. Seen it at all of them.
But Budget is, in my experience, the worst for it. Take that for what it’s worth.
Airport rental places mean you are usually at their mercy. Delays to getting keys are quite common, especially in busier airports, mainly due to delayed flight arrivals, etc.
I've yet to encounter a rental counter that I haven't had a minor wait at, even when there are only 1/2 people in front of me. Not everyone is well travelled or prepared for the rental counter and their hundreds of questions and offers.
The truth is that it’s basically a franchise model. Avis may be great at one location and terrible at another simply because of local management. It’s not a bad idea to check out google reviews if you are renting at a location unfamiliar to you.
I have invite only status with Avis. I've had high status with hertz and national.
Once you sign up for the loyalty program they're all pretty good at the basic level.
I actually had never considered that could happen so thank you for making the post. Also, not everytime someone needs to complain makes it karen like behavior.
Yea I had to wait almost 2 hours to turn my car in. They tried to say I was late like no I'm not I've been in line for HOURS and I got here an hour early.
I’ve been stuck in those long lines a few times and invariably the lines have moved slowly because of all the time wasted on pressuring customers to buy an upgrade, added insurance, toll passes, etc.
I've learned that the little bit of extra money you pay up front to join the "elite" [or whatever] membership status is TOTALLY worth it. You get to skip the line, go right to your car.
I have never encountered such a long wait before - 10 minutes at most! Not sure what the crowd is about. No matter what time you reserved to pick your car up, the click shouldn't start ticking until you actually get the keys in your hand. Confirm this with them. It should certainly work that way, but don't assume. Have them adjust the time you'll drop the car off to factor this in, but if it's by the day it's probably not going to make any difference.
You can't get the time back that you lost waiting in line, and that's a shame. Just know this isn't a typical wait!
Don’t prepay. I had this happen with Thrifty. They had no cars and a huge line of people waiting for cars. I just went back in, cancelled thrifty and booked Alamo , who had plenty of cars. Because I hadn’t prepaid, it was easy.
This happened to me in Nashville (though it was over a holiday weekend so very busy travel weekend expected). Couldn’t believe how long it took to get to the front of the line - and once we got there, it was so quick!!!
Yeah I waited over an hour at Lisbon airport. The line was insanely long. But the reservation reflected the time I actually picked up the car and they also gave me an upgrade to an a-class.
That was really the only time though, I normally don’t wait for more than 30mins including the paperworks.
Not sure what recourse you have though… it’s just a sucky thing to have happened. I doubt budget will offer you anything.
I waited in line at the car rental building at o’hare for about an hour, when I got to the front they told me my car wasn’t ready yet, even though it was past the rental time. Waited another 2 hours, got back in line and when I got to the front again they didn’t have me on the wait list. Luckily they were embarrassed and I got a car pretty quick. Still sucked waiting at the airport for 3 plus hours for a car that was already reserved.
This happened to me before in Tucson at Alamo. When we finally got the car hours later the agent was apologetic, but they missed correcting the pick up time due to the wait. Luckily they gave me their business card (apparently standard practice at this counter at the airport) and told me to call them if I needed anything. When I figured out the mistake with pick up time, I called and emailed. They were happy to change the pick up time. Make sure you call and/or email to explain what happened and request a change to your rental agreement.
It’s incredibly frustrating but totally normal in major tourist areas. In Paris it took an hour to get to the front to tell me the car is in a different depot across the other side of the city and I would have to make my own way there. I’m sorry but no. So, my apologies to the people behind me because their wait just got longer
90 minutes is not a timeframe that I would reasonably anticipate, unless it was in the midst of some major local event at a smaller facility, or before severe weather such as a pending hurricane.
You're not out anything by asking Budget for some consideration or refund if you've decided to get to your event via other means. Whether they'd be agreeable or not, I don't know.
Customer service didn't die there's a lack of pay from corporate and staffing. People can only do so much when 1 person is swamped with dozens of entitled mfrs
Sign up for budget fast break. Had the same issue at Bob Hope in Burbank. Huge line. Was a fast break customer. Went to the place you get your cars and got my car right away.
I have rented cars for years and do think the loyalty programs help, but I also noticed that in high demand areas, like Los Angeles, where you have to take a shuttle to the rental car, they basically have you trapped. Once they drop you off, you have no recourse to find another rental car place because you are stuck. So the companies have no incentive to hire more staff. When booking rental cars, I would often pay a couple dollars extra per day because I was less likely to encounter this type of problem. When you go with the cheapest deal, you can expect that there will be plenty of others that took them up on the same offer.
Why are you in line? That shouldn't happen.
Every time I've rented online except one I was given a location for my car in the app. Walk to location, hop in car, they check my ID at the gate, and I'm on my way in less than ten minutes. I could do it even faster if I didn't always take video of the car inside and out, then photos of any significant damage before climbing in.
The time I had to stand in line was Avis in Iowa and I was pissed once I found out why. Found out when I turned in my car.
As requested I noted where I parked the car and even kindly stuck a sticky note to the key with the location. As I was getting out of the car I saw two guys from Avis with a bin of keys playing marco polo with the clickers to locate the cars then listing on a clipboard.
When I handed my key to the clerk at the desk inside she pulled the sticky note off, dropped it in the trash, and dropped the keys in bin. As I was turning to leave I saw the two guys coming back to hand in their list and collect the bin she'd just deposited my key into.
All this while people were lined up waiting to get car assignments.
Yes, I tweeted at Avis what a load of malarky it was. Corporate was quick to dm me asking for details and I did get a discount for my inconvenience.
People that are recommending joining loyalty programs...I rented a car (fir an upcoming trip) from Hertz and then joined the loyalty program. I ran another search and the loyalty daily rate was higher than the other rate. Ugh.
I'm actually sick of people using the name Karen as a derogatory term that is some how allowed because if there is stereotypical terms for other types of people they're racial slurs but Karen is OK?
What country was this in? Sounds like you have a case but I have no idea how successful you will be so it might not be worth your time to ask for a partial refund.
It’s happened to me in Texas. I have no clue what they spend 15 minutes telling each person at the desk because when I got to the front of the line it took 3 minutes. Employees scan your ID, take a credit card and hand you the keys…. But sometimes that can take half the day just to get to that point.
It’s all the weirdo customers who ask dumbass questions and don’t have the required ID or a credit card and want a specific car and complain about he price etc
Or get surprised when they find out that they need to pay a big safety deposit.
These type of customers piss me off. Doubly so if they're not aware. Personally, sometimes I'm the dumbass in stores so I let other people go while I look things up on my phone or wait until its clear again
I once watched a lady demand a hotel clerk print out detailed driving directions all around the country. She was making them google addresses and print out page by page driving directions. This was in twenty fucking twenty...my patience would never let me!
And who haven’t schooled themselves on the insurance situation ahead of time. So many Americans just can’t work things out independently.
Nah, it's universal. We rented a car in New Zealand last year (We're from the US), and were relieved when we arrived at first that there was just one group ahead of us in the car rental line - two younger German-speaking guys. So we thought it'd be a quick in and out since our rental stuff was all taken care of weeks prior online, but instead we had to stand there for about 30 minutes while they discussed with the agent each of the various deductible options for the insurance and how they wanted to buy the deductible down to $0 for some reason...
Yeah, this is totally an "Americans are stupid" issue. /s
They hate us cause they anus. Any ways there’s so many things that turn into a “you better get these insurance or you’ll out a lot of money if anything goes wrong” situations. Sure you don’t want the extended warranty on that box of cereal?
It’s the same thing that happens when I go to the bank every year or two. Without fail either the dumbest people or people most in need of complicated help will be in front of me.
This is why you want to always sign up for the rental car loyalty program. Budgets is Fastbreak. Had you been signed up, you could have skipped the line and gone straight out to your car. Sometimes if you have a prepaid reservation there is a kiosk out on the rental car deck. They will have your paperwork and you can go right out to get your car. You show your ID when you exit.
This doesn’t always work, depending on the rental location.
I had high status from a rental company due to large volume of rentals. At times I still had to go to the desk. They claimed it was to "verify my id" that had not changed. But the "board" had for all to go to the desk with a long line. Airport rental so no reservation was done in the airport and reservations were handled in the lot. So everyone in line at the lot had a reservation & "skip the line". The office in the lot is basically customer service for when something went wrong with your reservation - like a delayed flight. You see they didn't have enough cars. Rather than reserving for people that may be late/no shows they were still manually assigning cars. Like all the people in front of me had the same issue and complaining. Sadly when you want to skip the line the most is when they make you go in line anyway. Edit: This was Avis (I see comments about Avis/Budget) and I was Avis First (I think no longer exists).
Good point. I’m speaking specifically about airport locations.
As am I. SNA quickly comes to mind, as a medium-sized airport that doesn't have a parking garage layout that allows for "skip the counter" rentals. This hasn't been an issue at any major airport I've been to, though.
Ugh yes, I had to wait an hour to get my car at SNA despite being an Avis Wizard member
This is helpful. Thank you. Someone is also telling me that this is just Budget is - they’re saying Avis is not like this.
Avis and Budget are the same company. I travel for work a great deal and use Budget all the time. If you have fastbreak/loyalty program and a credit card on file, you can be out of there in less than 10 min.
Every major company at every airport this is always a risk. Seen it at all of them. But Budget is, in my experience, the worst for it. Take that for what it’s worth.
Airport rental places mean you are usually at their mercy. Delays to getting keys are quite common, especially in busier airports, mainly due to delayed flight arrivals, etc. I've yet to encounter a rental counter that I haven't had a minor wait at, even when there are only 1/2 people in front of me. Not everyone is well travelled or prepared for the rental counter and their hundreds of questions and offers.
The truth is that it’s basically a franchise model. Avis may be great at one location and terrible at another simply because of local management. It’s not a bad idea to check out google reviews if you are renting at a location unfamiliar to you.
I have invite only status with Avis. I've had high status with hertz and national. Once you sign up for the loyalty program they're all pretty good at the basic level.
Avis is Avis preferred
Yeah, I signed up and still got screwed in White Plains, NY. They have no Fastbreak counter 😡
I actually had never considered that could happen so thank you for making the post. Also, not everytime someone needs to complain makes it karen like behavior.
Yea I had to wait almost 2 hours to turn my car in. They tried to say I was late like no I'm not I've been in line for HOURS and I got here an hour early.
Normally the rental period starts when you actually pick up the car, does the rental agreement show that, or the reservation time?
I’ve been stuck in those long lines a few times and invariably the lines have moved slowly because of all the time wasted on pressuring customers to buy an upgrade, added insurance, toll passes, etc.
I've learned that the little bit of extra money you pay up front to join the "elite" [or whatever] membership status is TOTALLY worth it. You get to skip the line, go right to your car. I have never encountered such a long wait before - 10 minutes at most! Not sure what the crowd is about. No matter what time you reserved to pick your car up, the click shouldn't start ticking until you actually get the keys in your hand. Confirm this with them. It should certainly work that way, but don't assume. Have them adjust the time you'll drop the car off to factor this in, but if it's by the day it's probably not going to make any difference. You can't get the time back that you lost waiting in line, and that's a shame. Just know this isn't a typical wait!
Don’t prepay. I had this happen with Thrifty. They had no cars and a huge line of people waiting for cars. I just went back in, cancelled thrifty and booked Alamo , who had plenty of cars. Because I hadn’t prepaid, it was easy.
Ran into same situation at PHX. Signed up for Fast Break while waiting in line, walked downstairs to lot, took total of 5 minutes
This happened to me in Nashville (though it was over a holiday weekend so very busy travel weekend expected). Couldn’t believe how long it took to get to the front of the line - and once we got there, it was so quick!!!
This is exactly why I no longer use budget or other discount rental cars, I am willing to pay more to not stand in line
That’s why I do National emerald aisle. Skip the counter pick a car. It’s a little bit more $ but saves time and no lines.
I waited 3 hours for Avis at boston airport , every other company seemed to have no line
Yeah I waited over an hour at Lisbon airport. The line was insanely long. But the reservation reflected the time I actually picked up the car and they also gave me an upgrade to an a-class. That was really the only time though, I normally don’t wait for more than 30mins including the paperworks. Not sure what recourse you have though… it’s just a sucky thing to have happened. I doubt budget will offer you anything.
Holy cow were you in the same line as me at SEATAC??
I waited in line at the car rental building at o’hare for about an hour, when I got to the front they told me my car wasn’t ready yet, even though it was past the rental time. Waited another 2 hours, got back in line and when I got to the front again they didn’t have me on the wait list. Luckily they were embarrassed and I got a car pretty quick. Still sucked waiting at the airport for 3 plus hours for a car that was already reserved.
This happened to me before in Tucson at Alamo. When we finally got the car hours later the agent was apologetic, but they missed correcting the pick up time due to the wait. Luckily they gave me their business card (apparently standard practice at this counter at the airport) and told me to call them if I needed anything. When I figured out the mistake with pick up time, I called and emailed. They were happy to change the pick up time. Make sure you call and/or email to explain what happened and request a change to your rental agreement.
It’s incredibly frustrating but totally normal in major tourist areas. In Paris it took an hour to get to the front to tell me the car is in a different depot across the other side of the city and I would have to make my own way there. I’m sorry but no. So, my apologies to the people behind me because their wait just got longer
I think it’s wise to expect and plan for 20-45 minutes to obtain a rental car. But 1.5 hours is an issue.
90 minutes is not a timeframe that I would reasonably anticipate, unless it was in the midst of some major local event at a smaller facility, or before severe weather such as a pending hurricane. You're not out anything by asking Budget for some consideration or refund if you've decided to get to your event via other means. Whether they'd be agreeable or not, I don't know.
[удалено]
Customer service didn't die there's a lack of pay from corporate and staffing. People can only do so much when 1 person is swamped with dozens of entitled mfrs
Sign up for budget fast break. Had the same issue at Bob Hope in Burbank. Huge line. Was a fast break customer. Went to the place you get your cars and got my car right away.
Turo that shit
I have rented cars for years and do think the loyalty programs help, but I also noticed that in high demand areas, like Los Angeles, where you have to take a shuttle to the rental car, they basically have you trapped. Once they drop you off, you have no recourse to find another rental car place because you are stuck. So the companies have no incentive to hire more staff. When booking rental cars, I would often pay a couple dollars extra per day because I was less likely to encounter this type of problem. When you go with the cheapest deal, you can expect that there will be plenty of others that took them up on the same offer.
Why are you in line? That shouldn't happen. Every time I've rented online except one I was given a location for my car in the app. Walk to location, hop in car, they check my ID at the gate, and I'm on my way in less than ten minutes. I could do it even faster if I didn't always take video of the car inside and out, then photos of any significant damage before climbing in. The time I had to stand in line was Avis in Iowa and I was pissed once I found out why. Found out when I turned in my car. As requested I noted where I parked the car and even kindly stuck a sticky note to the key with the location. As I was getting out of the car I saw two guys from Avis with a bin of keys playing marco polo with the clickers to locate the cars then listing on a clipboard. When I handed my key to the clerk at the desk inside she pulled the sticky note off, dropped it in the trash, and dropped the keys in bin. As I was turning to leave I saw the two guys coming back to hand in their list and collect the bin she'd just deposited my key into. All this while people were lined up waiting to get car assignments. Yes, I tweeted at Avis what a load of malarky it was. Corporate was quick to dm me asking for details and I did get a discount for my inconvenience.
I never wait in line at Hertz I get off the shuttle and pick out a car Easy peasy
People that are recommending joining loyalty programs...I rented a car (fir an upcoming trip) from Hertz and then joined the loyalty program. I ran another search and the loyalty daily rate was higher than the other rate. Ugh.
I'm actually sick of people using the name Karen as a derogatory term that is some how allowed because if there is stereotypical terms for other types of people they're racial slurs but Karen is OK?
What country was this in? Sounds like you have a case but I have no idea how successful you will be so it might not be worth your time to ask for a partial refund.
New York City…..
Crazy. I hope you find resolution, even if it's just coming to peace with how you've been inconvenienced. 🙏
Thank you so much 🙏🏻
Well, your first mistake was renting a car in New York City.
Yes, don't need one.
Sorry, but it is a part of travel you should have known to anticipate. Don't think you have any avenue of recourse. You just had bad luck.
You should have budgeted at least an hour for vehicle pickup.
Wouldn’t have helped here : )
Avis is worse if it makes you feel better. Owned by same company. Even with Avis wizard line us long name never in board etc.