V-Flyer

Hi, need to pick up a car at LAX and am keen to minimise time spent sorting the collection.

Any tips or advice, am Avis Pref and Hertz Gold - and am prepared to pay $$ more for a better service but not used the LAX rental depts for a while.

thanks

Andrew

If you're Hertz Gold then I'd use them. Straight to your car so no queues anywhere, can't really get quicker than that - took us about 5mins in total. Imagine would be very similar with Avis preferred.

Queues were horrendous when we arrived at Dollar last August, probably coz it was a Friday evening. Thankfully we were registered with Dollar express and were seen in 5 mins. As long as you have some sort of express service then you should be fine enjoy LA !

thanks guys, its the memory of Dollar rentals via VHolidays that still haunts me re LAX - so will follow up on Hertz and Avis..

Andrew

I've only ever used Alamo (at LAX) and had no problems

Used Alamo last time, no problems with queues as we picked up early morning after overnight in LA, choice was very limited in our chosen group intermediate SUV.

Might have been because of when we did pick up only three cars available.

Another vote for Hertz at LAX if you have status. I'm PC with Hertz but the Gold benefits are almost as good ( save for the drive back from return ).
They usually have a great choice of cars for Gold upwards if you don't like your assigned choice (and I never do LOL).
DL

Also remember Alamo offer the online check-in service at all their airport pick-up points if booked via VS or VH as well.

Agree with Neil & DL, Hertz are excellent if you're Gold. They send a text with the parking bay number of your reserved car and, so long as you're happy with vehicle, you just walk straight up to it and drive off, showing ID at exit barrier.

Decided to use Avis in the end as I was more than happy with the car and price.

Collection was fine, although as a result of VS 7 getting in early and our sprint through immigration it was not ready as we were early.

Reason for the post though is to update what happened on return! One of the benefits of travelling with a 5 years old as you'll see.

We dropped the car off late afternoon, early as we are on VA2 to Sydney and I was keen to see the Tom Bradley terminal and also the new Air NZ lounge, both of which are excellent.

As soon as the fuel had been checked and the car zapped, as I was about to start unloading our bags for the shuttle, the girl checking the car said would we like to be driven to T3 in our hire car and dropped off there, rather than take the bus? Reason for the offer was a courtesy to us as we were travelling with a lot of bags and our 5 year old daughter.

Would I indeed! Oh yes, so in we climbed and ferried straight to T3 for an easy check in and within half an hour we were in the Air NZ *A lounge.

Well done Avis, if this is a new and permanent feature it's a keeper.

Andrew

In fairness, Hertz do the same thing.

I picked up a car at LAS (Booked a Chevy Tahoe, got upgraded to a Mercedes GL450)

When I arrived at LAX to drop it off, the hertz guy offered to drive us to the terminal so save us getting the bags out. (4 people with a boot full of bags)

Cannot complain!

(I am a hertz gold club member, it seems that nowadays it is a simple case of signing up to be gold with them)