Car Rental At Orlando Airport

[jacksmomtobe]

DS and I are going to a tournament outside of Orlando and need to rent a car for a weekend. Any recommendations on rental agencies to use or any to avoid?

Thanks!

Update I rented a car with Alamo. Overall that part of the process was smooth. We arrived at @8:30pm. I had two emails from Alamo with differing instructions and ended up checking in at the terminal. There was no line so it was no big deal. The major bump was the shuttle to the rental cars. We were at Terminal C. There was a long line to get on the shuttle. One of the workers seemed to indicate that there was a shift turn over at the time we arrived so there was only one bus making trips to the other terminal where the cars were located. The bus driver said he was the only person who could load and unload the luggage. I sort of wished the ground person organizing the line could have helped him a bit. We couldn’t bring our luggage on the bus with us because it was packed so they wouldn’t alllow it. it was a large touring bus so you can imagine how long it took the one guy to load up the bus. Then getting out of the rental garage took quite awhile. That airport aspect was really frustrating. We got to our hotel which was 20 min from the airport 2 hours after we landed. The rest of the rental process was smooth. The return right at our terminal was much easier and the people working for Alamo were super friendly.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Alamo and use their Skip the Counter. It’s free to use and you don’t have to be a member. You just fill out stuff on the website and it’ll email you a check our code. Costco often has good deals with Alamo too


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[AnnieW625]

No recommendations for Orlando but I have been happy with National for the last 6 years or so. If you sign up for National’s Emerald Club and the airport has an Emerald Aisle you can get any car in the aisle for the price of an intermediate (Corolla/Sentra) and the selection is anything from a Corolla to a small to mid size SUV or even sometimes a truck.

If I am at an airport that doesn’t have the Emerald Aisle I still try to book with National just to get the points but then will check each individual rental car site and Costco Travel for the best deals, but tbh I can’t remember the last time I rented a car from somewhere other than National.

I absolutely love skipping the counter most agencies have it as an option, it used to be an executive perk with many agencies but now it is more common.

The only agency I might prefer not to rent with is Budget. I had one rental with them in Oakland, CA in 2016 and I just didn’t care for the desk staff at that location. Absolutely nothing was wrong the car though. I find that Avis and Hertz tend to be the most expensive, but so much is dependent on the airport.

You might also check the Hertz Local Edition and local Enterprise Rent A Car locations as sometimes those are cheaper and you won’t have airport return fees. You will have to Uber to and from the airport so keep that fee in mind but if it is a lot cheaper then look for that option.

My comfort for rental cars is no more than $35 per day and you can usually find deals.

My dad rents with Fox in Los Angeles and is happy with them and it looks like they have a location in Orlando.

Fwiw Alamo, National, and Enterprise are under the same corporate umbrella but all have different loyalty programs.

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[jacksmomtobe]

Thanks so far for the info. I am finding some pretty good deals but trying to figure out which company will be the easiest to deal with and to access at this airport. Budget has some horrible reviews.

[jgenie]

Stay away from Budget. We had an awful experience with them in Las Vegas. We will never rent from them again.

[Gracemom]

We rented from Hertz in December in Orlando. They were just ok. Car was fine but the counter was the furthest one and the guy was slow. If you have gold status you can go straight to the parking garage, but we do not.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Don't do Fox. They get really bad reviews on the Trip Advisor Orlando page.

[AnnieW625]

We rented from Hertz in December in Orlando. They were just ok. Car was fine but the counter was the furthest one and the guy was slow. If you have gold status you can go straight to the parking garage, but we do not.

Look for ways to get status. I feel like I have it but I have never used it. I feel like it got it from the Auto Club (AAA) or sometime travel bloggers like The Points Guy have links. I also like to follow GeoBreeze Travel on Instagram and Erika Kullberg on Instagram as well for travel and finance deals. I got IGHotels elite status from one of those two and I can’t tell you the last time I stayed in a Holiday Inn and have never stayed at a Kimpton or Intercontinental Hotel. I probably should in the next year, but their link totally worked.

Total side note but Starbucks was also having a deal where you could link your Starbucks account to your Delta Sky Miles account so I did that. I don’t fly Delta often but any little bit helps.


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[wendibird22]

We used Alamo at MCO last summer. I downloaded the app and used the skip the line feature. I did still have to use a self-check computer terminal (maybe that was unique to my reservation) and ironically there was a line for them because of how busy it was that day/time, but it was way quicker than having to check in at the counter with a human.

[MSWR0319]

We always use National at MCO, and it's been painless. We use the Emerald Aisle. I probably just jinxed myself for Spring Break.