I rented a car from Alamo in Nov/Dec and picked it up at their Bermuda Road location. I signed up for "Quick Silver" and at the Quick Silver office the card didn't work in the "swipe' machine. I told the desk clerk about this and was told that the new Quick Silver cards don't work in the machines and have no magnetic strip. The desk clerk prints out the rental agreement, gives it to you and you go to the lot and find the car.
The process didn't take any longer than it would have taken getting a slip out of the machine because there were only two other people in the Quick Silver office at the time.
When i rented the car, the price was $140 for a compact and another $11 for an upgrade to a Grand Am midsize, total for a week. The average daily price was about $20 then, but their web site the other day showed an average of $29 day for the same thing.
I'd like to use Alamo again, but not if the price is $9 more than other agencies.
Has anyone had same experience with the Quick Silver card ? I know that Alamo is in chapter 11, but other than that, anyone know what's up with the price increase ?
Rental cars are a supply & demand thing. Check your dates with Las vegas conventions that are in town at your time of travel. You might find there is a big one going on, on your dates of travel. What I do is check other rental agencys and book the cheapest price you can find, then keep checking back to the place or places you really want a rental car from. Chances are some where along the line the rate will take a dip, then book that rate cancel the other car. M2C
We usually are able to come across with a really decently priced car. Not this time, so far. I checked and there are a couple good sized conventions in town when we are, and the price of the cars sure show it. They are almost twice as much as in November when we were there. If they don't come down we'll be going the Las Vegas Limo route, along with taxis if we need them. Since we won't be going outside of the city this trip, shouldn't be much of a problem.
I had checked for big conventions around the middle two weeks of May and didn't find that there were any. That's why it seemed odd that Alamo, which is usually one of the lower priced agencies, compared to Hertz ect., was significantly higher than expected evan considering Nov. is a slower month than May.
If Alamo hasn't changed their price structuring policy i guess it's just a matter of- keep checking prices. Thanks for your replies.
I've been a frequent Alamo user and became a big fan when they dropped the drop off charges over 9/11. We were stuck in Vegas and ended up having to drive home. At the time I thought I'd be using them anywhere they had an office.
However, since filing chapter 11, their rates have gone through the roof. I do check frequently and they haven't budged for some time. We have in less than 3 weeks and Alamo's rates are still among the highest.
As it stands now, I have a car reserved through Thrifty for considerably less than Alamo. Thrifty has a Blue Chip program, similar to Quicksilver. The only diference is you have to go to the counter.
As for your Quicksilver card not working, I've never actually had one. If you swipe the credit card you reserved with, that should work. At least it has most of the times we've rented from them. Every now and then there's some glitch, like the receipt getting stuck, that makes us use the counter.
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