Enterprise FBO Program

midlifeflyer

midlifeflyer

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I thought I'd relate a very recent experience - the past few days. But it's not the first time.

Enterprise will pick you up. I've used that in the past. It means they will drive to where you are, pick you up, bring you back to their office, and then you'll have your rental. Same for the return. Bring the car to them; they will drive you where you need to go. I think it's consistent with what seems to be their primary target - temporary rentals after car accidents.

Fortunately, that model - coming to you - also works for GA. There are two advantages to Enterprise's FBO program. One is that we can bypass the multiple trips. They will drop off the car and pick it up at the FBO. That's a big convenience and one we pay for. For me on a recent rental reservation, the difference was $200 for the week. Whether that's worth it or not is personal.

The other advantage of Enterprise for GA is availability. They serve airports that have no other rental choices. If there is an other rental choice, use it, or at least check into it. Some FBOs have arrangements with rental agencies. In other cases, your discount codes may result in a better rate.

That $200 extra for the Enterprise drop off? The Enterprise drop off rate was also $150 more for the week than renting from Hertz with an FBO pickup and drop off.
 
The drop-off premium with Enterprise definitely varies by location, and can be zero in my experience (twice in the past year, in different time zones). Rental cars in general are an absolute pain these days, overpriced and sometimes hard to get. You have to do a lot of homework to avoid being ripped off.
Jon
 
My experience is that the couple of times I rented through the FBO number or through the FBO, they dropped the car off and picked it up for free. But call the FBO. A friend and I just did a trip to KBDL and he called the FBO and the arranged a rental for a good price through a local company that worked with.

For my transition training, I had just rented from the local office, not knowing about the FBO number. My instructor mentioned. So we called and transferred the rental to them with FBO drop off.

A couple of days later that Enterprise office called about a fee for picking up the car. They started at $200, but would courtesy reduce it to $100. I pointed out that 1) I had arranged the FBO drop off with the FBO line for no charge. 2) It was Sunday so the office was closed. 3) Fine, charge me, and I will never rent from Enterprise again. They waived the fee.

They did tell me, which no one had ever mentioned, that if you have to drop off on a Sunday, you can drop it off at the office and take an Uber to where you need to get to, and they will credit your rental fee with the Uber cost.
 
Pinecone said:
My experience is that the couple of times I rented through the FBO number or through the FBO, they dropped the car off and picked it up for free. But call the FBO. A friend and I just did a trip to KBDL and he called the FBO and the arranged a rental for a good price through a local company that worked with.

For my transition training, I had just rented from the local office, not knowing about the FBO number. My instructor mentioned. So we called and transferred the rental to them with FBO drop off.

A couple of days later that Enterprise office called about a fee for picking up the car. They started at $200, but would courtesy reduce it to $100. I pointed out that 1) I had arranged the FBO drop off with the FBO line for no charge. 2) It was Sunday so the office was closed. 3) Fine, charge me, and I will never rent from Enterprise again. They waived the fee.

They did tell me, which no one had ever mentioned, that if you have to drop off on a Sunday, you can drop it off at the office and take an Uber to where you need to get to, and they will credit your rental fee with the Uber cost.
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The attempt to collect for Sunday has happened once or twice but always cleared up when I explained. And I’ve never had to drop off at an office, just back where I picked it up, and they’ve not charged me for the extra day (with the noted exceptions).
I’ve heard Avis has a similar deal as well but never used them. Enterprise’s fees have gotten rather steep lately and unless I have a lot of stops Ubering has made more sense. YMMV.
 
Pinecone said:
My experience is that the couple of times I rented through the FBO number or through the FBO, they dropped the car off and picked it up for free. But call the FBO. A friend and I just did a trip to KBDL and he called the FBO and the arranged a rental for a good price through a local company that worked with.
Click to expand...
The best comparative price I've ever seen for a car rental was through Atlantic at BDL.
 
Blatham489 said:
The attempt to collect for Sunday has happened once or twice but always cleared up when I explained.
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Yep. The time it happened to me they ask my tail #, I suppose to check flightaware that I actually departed Sunday.
 
midlifeflyer said:
How do you know you never paid a fee? Did you compare with other vendors?
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I review the quote/invoice, and I've never been charged anything other than the daily rate + normal taxes. I've been charged one-way "drop" fees in the past for one-way rentals, and it's always a separate line-item in the quote/invoice. And in my experience the daily rate w/ Enterprise is typically roughly the same or less than other vendors (though I've had to use Hertz and Avis at certain airports that Enterprise doesn't service, and that's usually more expensive). All that being said, I've never called the local office to book, I always book via the GA website. YMMV, but I've rented a lot of cars via the link I sent (probably at least a dozen a year for the last 5 years) and have never been charged for the FBO service.
 
bradg33 said:
I review the quote/invoice, and I've never been charged anything other than the daily rate + normal taxes. I've been charged one-way "drop" fees in the past for one-way rentals, and it's always a separate line-item in the quote/invoice. And in my experience the daily rate w/ Enterprise is typically roughly the same or less than other vendors (though I've had to use Hertz and Avis at certain airports that Enterprise doesn't service, and that's usually more expensive). All that being said, I've never called the local office to book, I always book via the GA website. YMMV, but I've rented a lot of cars via the link I sent (probably at least a dozen a year for the last 5 years) and have never been charged for the FBO service.
Click to expand...

We are looking at two different things. You are looking for a drop fee line item. I'm not. I'm looking at my overall cost.

Sure, i use that link all the time, probably as long as it's been available. Many times there is not choice. But if there are other options, I always compare. Let's try one now. Bradley Airport. Simple one-day rental about a month from now. "Naked" I'm not even tossing in organizational discounts.

Here's Hertz (known for being expensive)
upload_2023-3-9_14-12-6.png

...and here's your preferred Enterprise

upload_2023-3-9_14-13-10.png

And let's not forget the Enterprise cost when you don't use the FBO site.

upload_2023-3-9_14-18-29.png
 
Blatham489 said:
The attempt to collect for Sunday has happened once or twice but always cleared up when I explained. And I’ve never had to drop off at an office, just back where I picked it up, and they’ve not charged me for the extra day (with the noted exceptions).
I’ve heard Avis has a similar deal as well but never used them. Enterprise’s fees have gotten rather steep lately and unless I have a lot of stops Ubering has made more sense. YMMV.
Click to expand...

They didn't try to charge for Sunday. They wanted to charge me $200 to pick up the car at the FBO, about 5 miles away. It does not really make sense if they would have driven me over (if open) or paid for Uber back to FBO.
 
I've used Enterprise FBO quite frequently and they have almost always offered the best price compared to Hertz, Avis, etc. What's even better is that they will also honor discounts like Costco Travel. I can look up a rate on the Costco site, and the FBO group has always honored that price.
The only challenge I've ever had was dropping off at X51 after a dive trip to the Keys. Somehow the local office did not pick up the car after the scheduled drop-off time and the FBO didn't catch it either. When I received a huge bill on my credit card a few weeks later, it took some spirited discussions with the local Enterprise office to get the extra days credited back to my card. Lesson learned: I always call the rental office the next day to verify that they picked up the car and closed out the rental.
 
I've used the "we'll pick you up" service. Works great if the office is between the airport and your final destination and not quite as good if you have to back-track.

But to me the biggest advantage of FBO service is that the local Enterprise or most other rental car offices that I want to use are very often not open on Sundays or past noon on Saturdays.
 
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