Enterprise Rent-A-Car Ranks 1st
People who like to travel via cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages may be interested to learn that Enterprise was given top honors in the latest J.D. Power rental car survey.
The 17th annual J.D. Power and Associates 2012 North America Rental Car Satisfaction study found that customer satisfaction with rental car industry rose for the third consecutive year.
The survey included six parts of the car rental experience: price and fees, pick up process, return process, the actual car, shuttle bus/van, and reservation process. All parts showed improvement with the exception of the reservation process which posted a slight decline.
The following are the scores earned (on a 1,000 point scale) by the major car rental companies:
€ Enterprise: 804
€ National: 788
€ Alamo: 773
€ Hertz: 771
€ Avis: 766
€ Budget: 753
€ Dollar: 738
€ ACE: 736
€ Thrifty: 733
€ Advantage: 711
€ Payless: 708
€ Fox: 669
The same parent company, Enterprise Holdings Inc. owns the three highest ranked brands. Experts speculate that the fact that this company is privately held may play a role in it making decisions that benefit customers rather than be constrained by quarterly profit goals.
Avis turned in the most improved score, increasing 24 points. Overall leisure traveler satisfaction was up 12 points while business traveler satisfaction increased by 11 points. Business travelers tend to be more critical than their leisure counterparts as well as more loyal.
Rental car companies are expected to continue to spend money on technological improvements that simplify the rental process, reduce wait times, and work with renters' smartphones and other portable electronic devices.
http://www.cheapfares.com
Free Wi-Fi Options While Traveling
If you are a cost conscious traveler who was smart enough to know how to find cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages, there will be plenty of opportunities while you are on the road to access Wi-Fi for free.
The following are ways to access the Internet for free while traveling:
€ Through the end of 2012 Wi-Fi seekers can use Boingo's app or Wi-Fi locator to log on near several major tourist attractions in San Francisco and at over 200 hotspots in New York.
€ Starbucks (over 7,000 locations) and McDonald's (over 12,000 outlets in the U.S. alone) are offering guests free Wi-Fi access.
€ Most budget and economy hotels offer complimentary Internet access vs. most expensive hotels that are charging $10 to $25 per day.
€ Select upper scale hotels have started offering free Internet access to loyalty plan members. Participants in Omni Hotels' Select Guest program and those in Kimpton Hotels' In Touch program are provided complimentary Wi-Fi. Both programs are free to join.
€ Select airports have started offering free Wi-Fi. In many cases it is smaller airports, such as Fort Lauderdale, Long Beach and John Wayne that are offering free Wi-Fi to attract more fliers.
€ In May of this year five major cable companies (Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner) came out with a CableWifi program that allows their high speed Internet subscribers to access each other's hotspots. The service is currently available only in select metro areas in California, Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina. An additional 50,000 hotspots are expected to come online in 2013.
http://www.cheapfares.com
The 17th annual J.D. Power and Associates 2012 North America Rental Car Satisfaction study found that customer satisfaction with rental car industry rose for the third consecutive year.
The survey included six parts of the car rental experience: price and fees, pick up process, return process, the actual car, shuttle bus/van, and reservation process. All parts showed improvement with the exception of the reservation process which posted a slight decline.
The following are the scores earned (on a 1,000 point scale) by the major car rental companies:
€ Enterprise: 804
€ National: 788
€ Alamo: 773
€ Hertz: 771
€ Avis: 766
€ Budget: 753
€ Dollar: 738
€ ACE: 736
€ Thrifty: 733
€ Advantage: 711
€ Payless: 708
€ Fox: 669
The same parent company, Enterprise Holdings Inc. owns the three highest ranked brands. Experts speculate that the fact that this company is privately held may play a role in it making decisions that benefit customers rather than be constrained by quarterly profit goals.
Avis turned in the most improved score, increasing 24 points. Overall leisure traveler satisfaction was up 12 points while business traveler satisfaction increased by 11 points. Business travelers tend to be more critical than their leisure counterparts as well as more loyal.
Rental car companies are expected to continue to spend money on technological improvements that simplify the rental process, reduce wait times, and work with renters' smartphones and other portable electronic devices.
http://www.cheapfares.com
Free Wi-Fi Options While Traveling
If you are a cost conscious traveler who was smart enough to know how to find cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages, there will be plenty of opportunities while you are on the road to access Wi-Fi for free.
The following are ways to access the Internet for free while traveling:
€ Through the end of 2012 Wi-Fi seekers can use Boingo's app or Wi-Fi locator to log on near several major tourist attractions in San Francisco and at over 200 hotspots in New York.
€ Starbucks (over 7,000 locations) and McDonald's (over 12,000 outlets in the U.S. alone) are offering guests free Wi-Fi access.
€ Most budget and economy hotels offer complimentary Internet access vs. most expensive hotels that are charging $10 to $25 per day.
€ Select upper scale hotels have started offering free Internet access to loyalty plan members. Participants in Omni Hotels' Select Guest program and those in Kimpton Hotels' In Touch program are provided complimentary Wi-Fi. Both programs are free to join.
€ Select airports have started offering free Wi-Fi. In many cases it is smaller airports, such as Fort Lauderdale, Long Beach and John Wayne that are offering free Wi-Fi to attract more fliers.
€ In May of this year five major cable companies (Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner) came out with a CableWifi program that allows their high speed Internet subscribers to access each other's hotspots. The service is currently available only in select metro areas in California, Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina. An additional 50,000 hotspots are expected to come online in 2013.
http://www.cheapfares.com
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