View Full Version : Budget at MCO
gwendolinemary
31-07-2006, 17:16
We had our car hire booked from Budget before I realised I could have booked thru this site at better rates.(How annoying!! I'll know next time!!)
Anyway, my question is do you get to choose your car from all the ones at the airport like with Dollar, or does Budget just allocate you a specific vehicle?
We've booked an suv, does anyone know what kind we might get?
It's Alamo that allows you to choose a car, not Dollar. Although you can request something specific and cross your fingers with Dollar.
I haven't used Budget for years (since they were off airport) so don't have any up to date knowledge of them but I don't remember then being able to choose a particular car.
According to there website it could be a Ford Escape, Explorer or Expedition or similar depending what grade you have booked
We used Budget from Orlando airport last November and did not get a choice of car. You could ask at the desk if it is possible - they can only say 'no'
We're just back and used Budget. They will give you a choice at the desk if you ask, but they don't have a huge selection. We had booked a luxury full size SUV (hoping for a Navigator or similar), but they have a different view of "luxury" from me - the choices were an Expedition (which I like and would have been happy with) or a Dodge Durango (which is a considerably cheaper, inferior and smaller car). They had no Expeditions, only Durangos and so we got stuck with it. I tried several times over the course of 3 weeks to change to an Expedition, but they never seemed to have any available.
njstringer
20-03-2007, 01:31
Just to inform you . Budget is now on site at MCO.
Still did not get a choice of car.
I rented two cars from Budget a couple of weeks ago. I didn't rent via this website, but from the Budget website itself more than 6 months ago (large family trip). Never again...queues absolutely huge, staff very very slow and dis-interested (it took one and a half hours to even get to the front of the queue and then another 40 minutes to process our booking and actually get keys to vehicles). We booked two Expeditions and ended up with a Durango (smaller and not an 8 seater depsite what they say) and a Toyota Selina. At least we got the infant seat we booked, and they did agree to waive the additional driver fee because we didn't get the cars we asked for.
I don't know if it's because Budget are cheaper or what, but at that time (around 11pm on a Wednesday night) Budget were packed and the other companies were virtually empty - so tempting to nip across to Avis next door and ask if they had two Expeditions!
I normally book via Hertz as I'm a Gold member and get airmiles and stuff - the "get in and go" pickup takes about 5 minutes and is wonderful. But this time as we were needing two cars that wasn't possible, but I certainly won't be using Budget again.
Next time book thrm through us [msnsmile2]
Not only will you be able to pre-register (avoiding the queue) but also if you have a problem with the cars you ask for not being available, we have an emergency number on the voucher. If you call that, then they can arrange for cars to be moved over from Avis.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Sniff
I rented two cars from Budget a couple of weeks ago. I didn't rent via this website, but from the Budget website itself more than 6 months ago (large family trip). Never again...queues absolutely huge, staff very very slow and dis-interested (it took one and a half hours to even get to the front of the queue and then another 40 minutes to process our booking and actually get keys to vehicles). We booked two Expeditions and ended up with a Durango (smaller and not an 8 seater depsite what they say) and a Toyota Selina. At least we got the infant seat we booked, and they did agree to waive the additional driver fee because we didn't get the cars we asked for.
I don't know if it's because Budget are cheaper or what, but at that time (around 11pm on a Wednesday night) Budget were packed and the other companies were virtually empty - so tempting to nip across to Avis next door and ask if they had two Expeditions!
I normally book via Hertz as I'm a Gold member and get airmiles and stuff - the "get in and go" pickup takes about 5 minutes and is wonderful. But this time as we were needing two cars that wasn't possible, but I certainly won't be using Budget again.
[/quote]
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by roger
Next time book thrm through us [msnsmile2]
Not only will you be able to pre-register (avoiding the queue) but also if you have a problem with the cars you ask for not being available, we have an emergency number on the voucher. If you call that, then they can arrange for cars to be moved over from Avis.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Sniff
I rented two cars from Budget a couple of weeks ago. I didn't rent via this website, but from the Budget website itself more than 6 months ago (large family trip). Never again...queues absolutely huge, staff very very slow and dis-interested (it took one and a half hours to even get to the front of the queue and then another 40 minutes to process our booking and actually get keys to vehicles). We booked two Expeditions and ended up with a Durango (smaller and not an 8 seater depsite what they say) and a Toyota Selina. At least we got the infant seat we booked, and they did agree to waive the additional driver fee because we didn't get the cars we asked for.
I don't know if it's because Budget are cheaper or what, but at that time (around 11pm on a Wednesday night) Budget were packed and the other companies were virtually empty - so tempting to nip across to Avis next door and ask if they had two Expeditions!
I normally book via Hertz as I'm a Gold member and get airmiles and stuff - the "get in and go" pickup takes about 5 minutes and is wonderful. But this time as we were needing two cars that wasn't possible, but I certainly won't be using Budget again.
[/quote]
[/quote]
That's worth knowing - thanks Roger!
andrewmckay5
24-04-2008, 16:19
Roger,
Ca you explain the "pre-register" please.
andrew
If you book Budget with us, and pre-register (we give a link on the voucher) then you don't need to go to the Budget desk at all. You go straight to the kiosk in the car park to get your keys. The only downside at presnt is that it only works if you have 1 driver per car. Apparently Budget are fixing this 'shortly' to allow all drivers to pre-register.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by andrewmckay5
Roger,
Ca you explain the "pre-register" please.
andrew
[/quote]
We have just come back from Orlando and booked our car (through this site) with Budget. They are onsite at MCO. We couldn't do the pre-register as we needed two drivers. They allocate the car but for some reason they had ours waiting 'on the other side of the airport'. This wasn't a problem and they gave us a free upgrade - we had reserved a mini-van but we were given a large SUV. If the SUV had not been ok they said we could have changed it at any time at Kissimmee. (We booked a mini van for luggage space rather than numbers). We enjoyed the Trailblazer they gave us and didn't want/need to change it. [msnsmile]
This is our second time of using Budget and have not had any problems - would use them again.
Is it possible to have this "pre-register" link as it's not on my Budget voucher.
Voucher was sent on March 5th so it may be this was not in place at that point.
Dave
This is the link https://www.budgetreg.com/index.php?11
Note, you can not usually use it if travelling within 7 days.<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by DaveL
Is it possible to have this "pre-register" link as it's not on my Budget voucher.
Voucher was sent on March 5th so it may be this was not in place at that point.
Dave[/quote]
sammibabe
26-04-2008, 23:51
We have booked our car through you for August so do we pre register 7 days before we go? How will we know about the 2 driver bit being sorted out? We've not used Budget before and I must admit to wondering if we have done the right thing after reading some of the comments[msnscared]
Budget are great, you'll be fine. We have lots of excellent feedback from our customers, and have used them ourselves on many occasion.
You can pre-register as soon as you receive your voucher. 7 days is the latest (not the earliest) you can pre-register.
When you go in to the pre-registration screen, you'll see if it allows more than one driver.
Neither Dollar, Alamo nor Budget allow you to pre-register additional drivers at present.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by sammibabe
We have booked our car through you for August so do we pre register 7 days before we go? How will we know about the 2 driver bit being sorted out? We've not used Budget before and I must admit to wondering if we have done the right thing after reading some of the comments[msnscared]
[/quote]
sammibabe
27-04-2008, 01:21
Sorry mis read previous post[msnembarrased] In your earlier post on this thread you said Budget sorting the 2 driver thing 'shortly'. Will you post if this happens? I usually only drive once or twice but it's handy just in case.
When a car rental company says 'shortly' it can mean several weeks (or sooner). i.e. very vague.
Note, this doesn't mean you can not have a second driver. It just measn if yu have a second driver that you have to go to the regular desk.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by sammibabe
Sorry mis read previous post[msnembarrased] In your earlier post on this thread you said Budget sorting the 2 driver thing 'shortly'. Will you post if this happens? I usually only drive once or twice but it's handy just in case.
[/quote]
sammibabe
27-04-2008, 03:59
Thanks for that. Hopefully it will be sorted by August then. We will go to desk if needs be but with 3 grumpy children after the flight shortest time possible waiting is much appreciated by wilting parents![msnwink]