I don’t rent cars nearly as much as I used to. There are several reasons for that, as we prefer to use public transportation if we can and the availability of UBER and Lyft to get from an airport to the city. The astronomical cost of hotel parking fees also makes renting a car more expensive than just the price of the car itself.
Eventually, there have been trips where renting a car was necessary, such as our road trip through the Southwestern U.S. and when we resumed our multiple trips every summer to visit Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, TX. As it turned out, it was one of our Schlitterbahn trips where I got my best car rental upgrade ever.
To find the best price for a rental, I always use AutoSlash. For the rental from this trip, I saved over $180 from the original price to what I ended up paying for the car. Honestly, I saved even more because our arriving flight was late and I didn’t have to pay for the extra hours’ charge in the rental price.
When I reserved the car, I didn’t know it would be the source of the best upgrade I ever received.
Rental Car Counter
Dollar Car Rental ended up being the best-priced rental for our trip. I’m a member of the Dollar Express Rewards program and provided my membership number when renting through Priceline.
I’m not loyal to any rental car company, but it’s a good idea to sign up for all the rental car programs. This will save you the time at the counter of answering all the questions about insurance and refueling options.
Dollar doesn’t have the pick any car policy that other companies have, so I didn’t have any pressure to pick the best car from the aisle. The lowest price I could find for a rental was for a Mid-Size car, which Dollar describes as a Mazda 3 4-door or similar.
It was well over a year since I had rented a car from Dollar, so I stopped by the rental desk before heading to the lot. There was only one person in line, and I decided to wait inside with air conditioning instead of possibly updating my information in the parking lot.
When I got to the agent, I explained my situation. She looked up my rental and had to call the lot to release the car to the counter. We had some small talk about the reason for our trip. She was fascinated that someone would fly to Texas for a water park and how most people renting cars in Austin are there for business trips.
Then out of the blue, she says, “We have some cars available for upgrades. Would you be interested in either a Camaro or a Jeep Wrangler?”
That didn’t fully process, and I think I said something like, “For free?”
She said, “Yes, for no extra charge.”
It was about then that I started rambling about how my wife would be so happy if we got a Jeep, but she’d be jealous because, unlike at home, I’d be the one driving it.
Sharon and her Purple Jeep Jeep
I also mentioned how much more gas it uses than a smaller car, but she said it was a newer model with a fuel-saving mode that switches off the engine when the car is stopped.
Walking To The Garage
Upgrade sold. She gave me the keys and showed me the way to the lot. Sharon had no idea we were getting a Jeep as she was sitting on the other side of the rental car building with our luggage. I could barely contain myself as we walked to the Dollar section of the lot. What was the first car in the row? It was our Jeep Wrangler, but only I knew it at this point.
Sharon looked at it and said, almost unconsciously, “Kermit Green Jeep Jeep!” I chuckled as we started to walk around the Jeep, and then I clicked the remote.
I don’t think she believed it until I swung open the back and started to load our luggage. For the next 10 minutes, she looked at all the things different from her Jeep. This one had door handles instead of pushbuttons and a backup camera, something she’d always wanted since she’d had her Jeep.
We sat in the Jeep, playing with all the controls, tuning in our favorite SiriusXM stations (even if that’s not necessary anymore), and figuring out how to do everything in a car that was like the one we own but slightly different.
Not to say that I loved driving a Jeep Wrangler for a few days, but I did take a minute to have a photo shoot in the hotel parking lot. 🙂
When I returned the car, I had to laugh at Dollar’s receipt, which listed the Jeep’s color as MOJITO!
Final Thoughts
I’ve had some pretty good upgrades. Most of them were because the car rental companies were out of cars, like when we got a Dodge Charger to drive on our Southwest trip and a Jeep Cherokee when we went to the Jeep-boree in Tennessee. For our first rental from Sixt as platinum members, we were upgraded to a Chevy Tahoe.
However, this was a situation when they had plenty of cars available, but the agent decided to give me the upgrade. I’m not complaining. I’m just wondering what Sharon would have said if I had decided to take the Camaro instead of the Jeep (Note from Sharon: It would have been stuff that’s unprintable on YMMV because this is a family-friendly blog, LOL!).
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.