Alamo at MCO

[jarretth]

I'm looking at our car hire options for October and at the moment I'm leaning towards Alamo as the package available though the UK site with the Brits Guide discount is quite attractive. I have read elsewhere that Alamo now have self service kiosks at MCO which can be used but are often overlooked.

Does anybody know if these work for UK visitors (i.e. recognise UK driving licences) or if these are only for US residents?

Thanks

[Lakesgal]

Sorry, can't help with your question. But ... We've gone with floridacarhire.net this trip (Budget) - by far the best rates I could find, along with good reviews. Fingers crossed it all works out when we arrive. Could be worth checking out for comparison.

[Midnight Storm]

We have done floridacarhire.net and Alamo for the last few years - the check in booths tend to be for direct booked customers with loyalty cards - IMHO never the cheaper option. Ideal for business customers on their rates but I have never gotten Alamo or Dollar to quote even close to the rates I can get via the rebook sites. Direct or .co.uk is always much more.

Colin

[AlecK]

Does anybody know if these work for UK visitors (i.e. recognise UK driving licences) or if these are only for US residents?

Thanks

When we used Alamo in Dec the kiosks were for US licence holders only :(

[jarretth]

Thanks for the replies. I like the budget pricing but hate their cars - they seem to have those horrible old style American cars that are about 6' wide and corner like oil tankers - apologies to anyone on here who owns one!

Last year, Dollar in Tampa tried to palm me off with a Mercury instead of the Dodge Charger I was expecting. I moaned to my two year old for a couple of minutes and the man behind the desk gave in and let me have a Chrysler 300 instead:thumbs:

Has anyone rented an Intermediate or Full Size car through Budget recently to know if their cars have got any better?

[Midnight Storm]

I like the budget pricing but hate their cars - they seem to have those horrible old style American cars that are about 6' wide and corner like oil tankers


Floridacarhire.net will price all the cars from most of the possible suppliers - you can get an Alamo car from them or Dollar or Budget - and possibly others.

So who's cards do you hate? I thought all american cars handle like my sofa and get the same gas mileage as the flight I arrived on.

COlin

[Ayriel]

We used the Alamo kiosks at MCO with no problem and we had booked the car through
USrentacar.

The only bit that stumped me for a minute was the country code on our driving licence, I put in UK instead of GB (or maybe it was the other way round)

They may have changed them so non-US licence holders now can't use them as AlecK reports.

[Mickeymad]

JarrettH, Know what you mean about palming people off at Alamo, my DH went to the counter a few trips ago and came back to me with a Mercury, i nearly divorced him lol. I had paid for the Pacifica (premium) i think, they said they had none left. I looked at the queue (must have been an hour + long) and said well thats you driving that thing for the next 2 wks. Now i go to the counter and get what i order or the next best thing. I rarely use Alamo, unless a good deal is available, i prefer Dollar however i have never used Budget etc.

[Mickeymad]

My DH just said it wasnt a Mercury it was a Grand Marquis, whatever it was it didnt suit us, it was like something my grandparents would drive, the boot space was huge though :)

[PaulaK]

We've always chose our own car with Alamo. :unsure:

[Midnight Storm]

Yeh, the reason we use Alamo in MCO is you can pick any car from the correct group, the line of waiting cars will usually have 2 or 3 makes and varients, saves getting the ugly brown one (sorry gold) and having to change it. Sometimes you get luck and get a higher spec with DVD or extra toys. We usually arrive with the UK pm flights and never wait more than a few mins to do the paperwork.

Colin

[jarretth]

My DH just said it wasnt a Mercury it was a Grand Marquis, whatever it was it didnt suit us, it was like something my grandparents would drive, the boot space was huge though :)

That's what they tried to give us and as I was travelling around for a couple of weeks it wasn't something I wanted to drive. Whilst the 300 was somewhat large it was very comfortable.

We have had a couple of nice Dodge's over recent years as they are more European in styling and handling - the Pontiac Grand Am was good as well. Looking for this year, the Pontiac G6 that several companies are offering as an intermetiate looks okay.

Paula - at Tampa you don't get to choose your car like you do at MCO. I like the MCO way of doing it but in this instance having a car allocated worked well for us (eventually).