What's the best way to upgrade your car rental...... (coupons, credit card)

[Thinking-man]

hi,
we're coming to Maui next month and was wondering if you could provide me some advice on how to upgrade my car rental from a reserved/paid for full size to a jeep wrangler or something convertible.....for free or close to it.

is it possible?
what's the best way to do that?

I know the easiest way would be to pay the difference but i wanted to know if you guys and your infinite wisdom can think of a way to upgrade with no or minimal up charge.

thanks!

[whynot?]

In our experience (and we rent from a friend at Hertz and rent fairly often for guests), you're much more likely to get upgraded to a larger car than a convertible, Jeep, SUV or van. The convertible is probably more likely than the Jeeps/SUVs/minivans which can rent for a huge premium over the car rate. Availability depends upon when you're coming. Since it's an island, there are only so many cars and nowhere to bring more in from. In winter, for holidays, big golf tournament weeks, etc, your upgrade chances are much lower. In between times, maybe better. If it's important to you to have a specific model, I'd call and try to negotiate a rate for it.

[PacificFlights]

If Maui is having a 1%er Conference and Ball, the rental companies will barge over luxuary, sport and SUV's for the event. After the event, if there's a Tree Hugger international conference and rice cake eat-off, odds are they will be renting small energey efficent cars. That means the rental company will have a overload of the others and a shortage of the small ones. They probaby will do a no cost upgrade to an unwanted vehicle. But once those cars are barged back to the other islands, its just luck if they have one available with no reservations or potential to rent it at regular cost. Liek whynot said, its an island so they can;t just shuttle cars around and it takes something big for them to just barge vehicles around for no reason.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by Thinking-man

hi,
we're coming to Maui next month and was wondering if you could provide me some advice on how to upgrade my car rental from a reserved/paid for full size to a jeep wrangler or something convertible.....for free or close to it.

is it possible?
what's the best way to do that?

I know the easiest way would be to pay the difference but i wanted to know if you guys and your infinite wisdom can think of a way to upgrade with no or minimal up charge.

thanks!

When you get to the car rental place there are usually a couple of options, kill them with kindness and ask for the car you want - or, you can always try the sandwich trick (a $20 between your license and credit card). I routinely get offered a jeep for no extra cost - a convertible, not so much.

[mdand3boys]

Originally Posted by whynot?

... Availability depends upon when you're coming. Since it's an island, there are only so many cars and nowhere to bring more in from. In winter, for holidays, big golf tournament weeks, etc, your upgrade chances are much lower. In between times, maybe better. If it's important to you to have a specific model, I'd call and try to negotiate a rate for it.

Actually, the car rental fleets get moved from island to island on a very routine basis based upon local events. They get a fantastic inter-island shipping rate and move via barge. Big Island recently had a huge influx of cars due to the Ironman event. They are gone now...

[Joliefille]

Best bet is to achieve or buy "status" with your car rental company. So if you're "gold" with Hertz, you're suppose to get a free upgrade when available. Also visit flyertalk.com to learn more about maximizing travel benefits. The site mostly pertains to frequent flyers, but sometimes there are lists of coupons and upgrade available to the public.

[whynot?]

Originally Posted by mdand3boys

Actually, the car rental fleets get moved from island to island on a very routine basis based upon local events. They get a fantastic inter-island shipping rate and move via barge. Big Island recently had a huge influx of cars due to the Ironman event. They are gone now...

Yes. Thanks. I knew that, but I thought it might be TMI for the OP since he didn't mention when he'd be here. It's one of the things we take for granted when we live here, but a first-time visitor doesn't always fully calculate that we're not physically attached to other states (or neighbor islands) and don't have quite the flexibility they do.