Late arrival at LAX and car rental

I usually stick with Avis / Hertz, stay away for the "Pay-less"

Last time I rented Alamo despite the negative reviews, I really had no issue I even dinged the orange mustang and they didn’t care.

Why I choose Alamo you literally go in self kiosk, go outside and pick a car get in and cheers

Did you book in advance or upon arrival?

If in advance, which website would give lowest rate or are they all the same?

Sorry to tag along your topic.

Other than rent a car, are the buses convenient? That's say I'm staying downtown LA. ( I do know, there are shuttle bus take people to Disneyland )

Thanks, and sorry to tag along your thread ...

no worries! :-)

Buses are NOT convenient in LA. Why are you staying downtown?

EastGTARedFlagger wrote: ↑ LAX car rentals are all off-airport, you take a shuttle from the terminal. And as far as I know all big name rental agencies at LAX run 24/7 (for obvious reasons - I don't think LAX has a curfew given all the transpacific traffic it gets). I've landed there about the same time as you (9pm) and there we no issues getting the car.

I'd say make sure you have a good map app or standalone GPS unit or a reliable navigator to hold the paper map. Getting from the car rental garage to the freeway you want, especially in the dark, isn't easy if you aren't familiar with the area. Just realize that suction cup windshield mounts (for GPS, phones, dashcams, etc) are illegal in California.

I posted this in another thread -- in California, the rental agency will put a hold on your credit card of $350 US or the total cost of the rental, whichever is higher. You'll see that somewhere in the fine print whether you book with Costco Travel or directly from the rental company... but in case you missed it/didn't read it, I'll warn you now. Also watch out for toll roads and toll lanes as, like the rental places do here with 407, you can get dinged with a surprise bill.

Did you use a map app or standalone GPS? I don't think we have anyone reliable enough to hold the paper map...lol!!!

Thanks for the warning about suction cup

I booked direct from Alamo and was a member as u get better discount I made 6 different reservations as date closer got closer and I just canceled

My sister moved to LA a few years ago so I've been there quite a few times over the past couple of years.

I really like Silvercars- their entire fleet is Audi. I know when I was there in November they were telling me they were adding Q5 and Q7 to their fleet. Having scored some great deals with their promo codes it's worth checking out considering rental comes with free onboard wifi and nav.

BrunetteGirl wrote: ↑ My sister moved to LA a few years ago so I've been there quite a few times over the past couple of years.

I really like Silvercars- their entire fleet is Audi. I know when I was there in November they were telling me they were adding Q5 and Q7 to their fleet. Having scored some great deals with their promo codes it's worth checking out considering rental comes with free onboard wifi and nav.

We don't need anything fancy but I'll definitely keep this in mind if the price is decent. Thanks for the suggestion.

King of Car Rentals

Yes, I know - cheesy name and cheesy website, but the guy will give you the absolutely best deal. I've mentioned him in other threads, and we just had another great experience with National through him on a trip to Arizona, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him.

He deals exclusively with National, which is neat, because you get to choose the car you want from the Emerald Aisle. We used him for the first time this summer on a trip to California and it was way cheaper than anything else. We've been travelling and renting cars for many years, using a variety of rental firms and third party booking sites, but he will be our go-to guy in the future.

You can contact him for a free quote, and if you want him to go ahead with the booking, he charges a small fee. I had a bit of an issue because I was trying to get instantly upgraded to Executive status through my credit card. He was constantly in touch with me throughout and dealt directly with National on my behalf to sort it out. This kind of personalized service you just don't find anymore.

He can also get good quotes from other companies (he's quoted us Enterprise for example), in case National doesn't have the minivan you're looking for or they happen to be expensive for the minivan rental.

oratihsus wrote: ↑ My family will be travelling next month and arriving at LAX around 9:30pm. Giving time to pick up luggage and all, it'll be another 1-2 hrs since there will be 8 of us. We will be staying with relatives there but given there are many of us, it's best that we rent a minivan for transportation.

Just wondering if anyone has experience/recommendation for car rental companies at LAX.

Thanks in advance.

Look at the reviews and horror stories of all the rental companies at LAX. Hertz, Avis, etc are all really badly rated. The wait is not worth the money saved in my opinion.
I used Enterprise and it took me 2 minutes to get the car. No line at all.

Stay away from Avis. Was just there during the holidays with a party of 7. Also arrived at LAX around 9:30pm. They only had 2 people on staff. Didn't get our car until 12am.

I had a bad experience with Budget at LAX. We arrived on an evening flight and it was pretty quick to get our luggage. LAX is really busy though and the traffic was brutal so it took about 30 or so minutes on the bus to get to Budget. For some reason they didn't have my reservation under Fastbreak so I had to wait in line which was around 90 minutes. It was an awful experience. If my reservation had been properly assigned as Fastbreak we could have been in and out without any issues.