Budget "Standard" - what will i get

[RML51]

Sorry - It should read Budget not Thrifty.

Priceline offers "Economy"; "Compact"; "Mid-size"; "Standard"; "Full-size"; "More" for rental cars.

My bid was accepted for a "Standard" sized car from Budget. When I go to the Budget.com web site I only see that they offer: "Economy"; "Compact"; "Intermediate"; "Full-size" and "Luxury".

Will Budget give me an "Intermediate" or a "Full-size" rental car for my Priceline "Standard" car? What kind of car can I expect to receive?

Thanks in advance.

[thereuare]

How about the details (location, price, dates) of your accepted bid?

[RML51]

Tucson Feb 12-26 $21/day "Standard" size car.

[thereuare]

Thanks for the additional details of your bid.

Budget uses:

Economy

Compact

Mid-size

Full-size

Premiim

Priceline uses:

Economy

Compact

Mid-Size

Standard

Full-Size

Premium

I think that Priceline would upgrade you to a full-size. If you were given a mid-size vehicle you could dispute it since according to priceline's ranking it is less than the quality level you bid for.

However, priceline's system is usually pretty good about knowing the classifications at each rental company, take another look at your confirmation screen and see if it says, ".... we're upgraded your quality level to a Full-Size vehicle...."

[Senoreit]

If I can go off on another one of my rants here, I do have a bit of a problem with the Priceline rental car class "Standard," as I don't think it represents even a semi-uniform class among the participating car rental companies. In fact, I've done a quick bit of research to make sure I'm right about this, and as best as I can tell only two of the five companies offer a class of car that could conceivably be considered equivalent to Priceline's "Standard" class. Avis differentiates between two-door Full-size and four-door Full-size, and the example they give for a two-door Full-size is a Monte Carlo, which is one of the two example cars Priceline cites as "Standard." Hertz has a class they call "Special Sporty," for which they list a Ford Mustang Coupe (two door) as an example. This, incidentally, is the other car that Priceline lists as an example of a "Standard." As I said, the other three companies literally have no listed car class that could be considered equivalent to Priceline's "Standard." I don't understand why Priceline would maintain this class when it only really applies to two car companies, and I also think it's somewhat misleading, or at least illogical, to put this "Standard" car class between Mid-size and Full-size. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see a natural progression from a Grand Am to a Mustang Coupe to a Buick Regal.

I can only assume that thereuare's suggestion, that Priceline may just automatically upgrade winning "Standard" bids to Full-size cars for the companies that don't have an appropriate/equivalent class, is correct. After all, how could Priceline promise a "Standard" reservation for the rental companies for which such a class is nonexistent?

I had never thought about rental car bids being upgraded before, but it brings up a question in my head. How would it be determined what an upgrade really is? It can't simply be the next-highest car class on the list... That could theoretically result in a convertible bid being upgraded to a minivan, which would obviously be insane. Has it been positively established that Priceline does upgrade car bids? If so, does anyone know if there are guidelines for the upgrades?

To get back to the poster's original question, I have two suggestions. First, I've only had one Priceline rental car bid accepted, but I know that in my case, on the confirmation page it listed an example of a car that was considered to be in the class I had successfully bid for. I would assume your confirmation page is similar, so that should give you some idea of what type of car to expect. If not, perhaps you could look up your reservation on Budget's website by plugging in your last name and confirmation number and see what your reservation is listed as.

My winning bid for a "Standard" car was accepted by Hertz, so on my confirmation page it listed a Mustang Coupe as an example of a car I could expect to receive. When I arrived at MDW to pick up the car, I heard the agent call or radio for someone in the garage to get a "mid-size" car ready. I was prepared to gripe, but after finding out that the car we were getting was a four-door Hyundai Sonata, I figured it would actually be better for our ten-day trip with lots of luggage than a two-door Mustang Coupe, so we just took it (it ended up being great, by the way :) ). A mid-size car was my first choice anyway, and I had only bumped up to Standard after my bid for a mid-size was rejected.

[RML51]

Thanks to all for the good information.

I first emailed Priceline and asked them what size/kind of car to expect. They emailed back and told me to contact Budget. I emailed Budget and this was their reply:

"Thank you for contacting Budget Car Rental.

Your reservation is confirmed for a 2-door full-size car.

Thank you for choosing Budget. "

I'm not sure exactly what to expect for a 2-door full-size car but we'll see!

Thanks again

[thereuare]

Thank you for choosing Budget

:)

[Senoreit]

Glad to hear you received a definitive answer to your question. I guess this somewhat debunks my theory about Budget being one of the companies that doesn't have a car class that could be considered equivalent to Priceline's "Standard." I do find it odd that you can reserve a two-door full-size from Budget through Priceline, but not through Budget itself. As you previously mentioned, Budget's website does list a "full-size" category, but doesn't allow for specification of two-door or four-door. Oh well, I guess it's just one of life's mysteries.

[faron]

So, I'm curious. What did you end up getting (I see you are likely in Tuscon right now)?