National rates frustrating me!

[Minnietta]

If I can get a better rate adding a day to my reservation, can I do that and bring it back early or will I get penalized in some way?

 

[Wendy]

I'm not sure if they would charge you a penalty or not. Let me bump this back up and see if anyone else knows the answer to that. If not, you can always call and ask.

 

[auntiex300]

I've returned the car early to National with no added charge.

 

[pixie dust gal!]

They most certainly will charge you the higher rate! It happend to us! We rented a car for 12 days, but the rate was cheaper to rent for 14 days (2 week rental). So we tried to save the extra dollars and reserved the car for 2 weeks, but dropped it back off on the 12th day. The prorated the charges (the system automatically does this) and charged us the 7 day rental plus 5 extra days!

We went to the counter with our bill, but they showed us in writing their policy for returning a car early!

 

[Ralph&Pam]

My confirmation indicates "Rules & Conditions" which include "A Minimum of 5 Day(s) will be charged." and also "The Minimum Rental Duration is 5 Day(s)." This is on a reservation for 5 days and 2 hours (which qualifies for a weekly rate). Price estimate includes 6 days of FL surcharge @2.05/day and FL license fee @0.41 per day.

I had a weekly rate reservation (again for what was barely 5 days to qualify) in January when our arrival at MCO was delayed about 6 hours. When we returned the car, the rate was reverting to a much higher daily rate, for what was now only 4 days worth of rental. This was adding about $70 to the bill! Yikes, the difference between daily and weekly rates can be really significant. I had to go to the Counter and try to straighten this out. I explained to the counter person that we had spent the entire arrival day waiting around O'Hare Airport and that it was really out of our control that we arrived and picked up the car so late. We were returning it right on schedule. Fortunately, she took pity and worked out the daily rate so that the total for the rental period matched my printed confirmation. She had to change the daily rate being charged, since she could not get the computer to accept a weekly rate for the shorter rental period. That confirmation also indicated a 5 day minimum, so National had every right to charge the higher rate.

Ralph