LAX car hire

In March next year we land at LAX from VS 023. We plan to stay overnight at the Marriott airport hotel before heading off by car in the morning to Palm Springs.

Apart from Alamo via the Virgin website, has anyone got any advice on other car rental agencies please?

We have rented with Dollar for 20+years in Florida, brilliant and without any complaint, but I've read on other forums that Dollar are not that good in California.

I have alos been a bit concerned about reports referring to the need to scrutinise all the car rentals' T&C's, as often simple things like a tyre punction or an unfortunate cracked windcreen is not covered. Normally go for an 'all inclusive' offer with either Dollar or Alamo and never worry because I assumed everything was included

Would be gratgeful for any thoughts or advice

We've used dollar twice at lax. The depot was a short walk from the majority of lax hotels

We were surprised how tatty and beat up the cars were as in Florida all the dollar cars we've rented are usually quite new

I have used Hertz, Dollar, Avis and Alamo over the las ten years in CA and have been happy with all of them, from what I remember at LAX all the rental car companies are off airport.

My Dollar rental suffered a cracked windscreen a few years ago, I took it to a local Dollar office and they swapped the vehicle instantly, and on a separate trip one of the side windows shattered whilst driving back to SFO I had no bother returning it I don't remember filing out any paperwork on either occasion and was not charged anything.
Since joining Amex Platinum I have been using Hertz a lot and have found them very good and you can earn extra miles through VS online shopping 4 per pound spent and the standard 1000 for the rental period.

Hope this is of some use.

I generally rent from Hertz or Dollar at LAX. Never had a problem with either apart from once with Dollar several years ago where I had a large SUV ( an Aspen) with faulty central locking . I swapped it the next day for a brand new Durango without issue. If you stay at the Renaissance or Sheraton 4 Points you can walk to Hertz/ Dollar depots which is much easier than getting back to LAX and then taking the renter's shuttle to the depot.
DL

On our recent trip to LAX we did rent through the Virgin site as they came up the cheapest and of course you get the miles. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza its near to all the other airport hotels and instead of waiting for the shuttle back as it also picks up at other hotels enroute we got a cab only about $10 and a few minutes drive.

Alama are in with Nationwide and as we did the pre-registration went straight through to the pick up all the keys are in the cars and we could pick from many available, we went for the medium SUV and chose a new Santa Fe very comfortable and good on fuel, luckily we have never had any problems but i know a lot of companies try to sell the extra insurance packs for up to £5 a day extra which do cover tyres and windscreen.We had the Gold cover which included a full tank of fuel which worked out cheaper than paying to return full at the pumps, i think the prices have come down a little but it was nearly $1.50 A GALLON more in CA than Nevada. Hope you enjoy Palm Springs we fell in love with it when we were there, very clean and we found lots to do. ^)

Hi again. Thank you so much for your comments and feedback on experiences - very helpful.

Hertz seems to be a good option at present as they have a 'sale' on. We have also found out that they have a rental counter in the lobby of the Marriott LAX which means we can can a quick get away to Palm Springs in the morning.

Mallin, thanks for the positives re Palm Springs, we are so looking forward to relaxing in the warm sunshine and spending one day at the Indian Wells tennis tournament

I used Dollar (booked via usrentacar) after arriving on the VS23 back in June. I registered as a Dollar Express member and went straight to the parking lot and a Chevvy Impala was already assigned to me. I didn't like it and the agent asked me to pick another from this other row. I was going to pick a Ford Fusion but someone stepped in ahead of me and that was the last Ford available at the time. Instead I went for a Nissan Altima.

The cars in the lot looked pretty new to me. The Nissan I had was certainly pretty new. I have also read a lot of negative reviews about Dollar at LAX prior to my arrival. But overall I didn't experience anything poor on my whole rental experience.

As with sky, I've been using usrentacar.com for the last few trips, partly because of recommendations on here, and partly cos, again, you can use Dollar Express (which you don't seem to be able to use when booking via a lot of other agencies). I've been very happy with them.