Can I determine possible black-out dates for using ff miles to get a rental car, and can I possibly get a car by this weekend?

February 8, 2009 5:20 PM

redeeming frequent flyer miles for a rental-car - anyone with experience in this arena? (using American Airlines specifically?)

i've just plunked down 12,500 miles on American Airlines to get a car next weekend through Alamo (in the US). called both AA and Alamo to see if the small print about "possible blackout dates" will impact my plan, and all told me they have no blanket policy of dates, but i could only determine a specific date *after* i receive the "voucher" for the car, which would appear in 3-5 business days. i need to drive the car friday, that is, in less than 5 complete business days.

questions: (1) how long does it actually take to receive a "voucher," and (2) can the dreaded "blackout dates" be predicted before i get this precious "voucher"?

posted by garfy3 to Travel & Transportation (3 answers total)

Best answer: They are telling you that there are no blackout dates. But that's a red herring. What you need to be more concerned with is this:

Use of awards is subject to availability at the time reservations are made. Alamo cannot check availability unless a certificate code is provided.

They might have cars on the lot, but they are not going to make them all available to voucher holders. And apparently they will refuse to tell you whether they will until you have already paid for the voucher. Sounds like a bad deal. You might have more luck asking a local manager, but I wouldn't count on it.

Usually I would refer questions like this to the Flyertalk AA forum, but its denizens will probably just give you grief for such an inefficient expenditure of miles. However, someone there might have tried this before.
posted by grouse at 5:50 PM on February 8, 2009

Seconding the Flyertalk forums. Those guys know these plans inside and out.
posted by chrisamiller at 6:25 PM on February 8, 2009

Best answer: Scam. Pay cash for the rental car. There are tons of cheap deals out there on the internet, and Alamo is fairly cheap.

Save your miles for international or otherwise expensive flights where the price is greater than the # of miles divided by 100. For example, if it is 25k miles for a given flight, you want to do it if the cost of the flight is greater than or equal to $251.
posted by charlesv at 9:43 PM on February 8, 2009 [1 favorite]