Has anyone experienced long waits in line for a car rental from Alamo in Kauai recently? Frommer%26#39;s 2006 mentioned this and suggested travelers use another rental agency. I will be there end of September.
car rental problems in Kauai?
Boston,
frommers may have a point there.....although, I have found that a problem with other kauai car rental agencies, both Alamo and Dollar..
Especially when booking the smaller compact cars.
What I see is that the agenices have to wash and refuel the cars.
And, when I walk up to the counter.....usually the first one there, and not really any line....I have seen people standing out in the breezeway waiting for their cars.
So a litle premptive strike, with aloha, has seemed to work with Dollar.
I tell them NOT to wash the car, and not to fuel it, I will take care of that myslef. Since I have my lady waiting at the curb of the terminal in the baggage area. And I do not want her to get impatient and hop in some good looking local guys pick up truck and not be there due my to waiting for the rental car.
they would just laugh, and ';upgrade '; or get a car to me immediately.
I would imagine that they have just checked in a whole load of cars from those who are now in the terminal leaving the island, and they can only get so many cars washed, interiors cleaned , and tank filled, hence the wait.
Renting a larger vehicle that we usually order, Jeep,or SUV , may help out that problem. Not positive, but call the rental car people and talk to them.....tell them your concerns, and see what they say.
It is definitely a problem in Lihue, not sure about other places.
Denny
car rental problems in Kauai?Thanks for your comments! Really helpful to me. Now I%26#39;m wondering if it%26#39;s better to pay the extra $$ and go with AAA Hertz which is about $140 more than Alamo%26#39;s quote. Sigh!
The wait is exaggerated. Occasionally, you%26#39;ll get a plane load of people who all rented from Alamo standing in line in front of you (none of whom seem to have ever rented a car before in their life and are confused about all the fees %26amp; add-ons) but its completely random. Certainly, its not so bad that you need to avoid the company - especially since they often have the best rates.
We rented an SUV from Alamo last month. Since we arrived in on a full Hawaiian flight from Honolulu (and it was a weekend) my husband and I split up. He went to get the car and I got the baggage. It took longer for me to get the luggage and over to Alamo then for him to get the car. We had actually reserved a ';mini'; SUV or whatever they call it and we ended up with a full size for the same price.
On a different but related note (I plan to post this as part of our trip report when I get the time to do it) make sure that the car you rent has the owners manual, jack and you know where they are in the car. We had a bit of a scare out at Polihale during our trip. We eventually found everything under the backseat which needed to be lifted up and not owning a fullsize SUV we needed the owners manual to tell us how to get the spare out from under the truck.
Guess I have been fortunate to have only short waits at Alamo in Lihue when I compare same to major mainland airports, shuttles and service desks. More often than not, Alamo has had the best rates when I planned a visit.
makes no difference. I%26#39;ve waited in line at Avis (not that long a line though). When the mainland non stops hit with 200+ people there%26#39;s only so much they can do to speed things along.
they all have the same lines
the problem is a flight comes in and everyone rushes to the rental car agencies at the same time
a flight is leaving, everybody is returning cars at the same time
I have never had to wait long for pickup or return from Alamo
Actually, we have not had long waits at Alamo in Lihue. I%26#39;m not sure about Lihue, but for some Alamo rentals, you can do everything on line and then bypass the counter and go directly to the lot to pick up the car; we%26#39;ve not done this at Lihue. We did have to exchange a car this past trip; some lights were not working, and they did the change through the regular return line. It all went very smoothly.
Just want to reiterate what others have suggested and I always do, i.e., beat the crowd by doing a 50-yard dash from the plane to cross the street and get on board one of the circling Alamo shuttles, all the while your co-traveler heads to baggage claim, collects the baggage (carts available ?$) and then waits on the sidewalk just outside baggage claim. Works well for departure too, rather than lugging bags on and in the shuttle.
we%26#39;ve always done the national emerald isle thing to bypass the counter. i assume they have the same setup in lihue.
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