Quoted from Baiter:I've been to a lot of airports and DFW is without a doubt the worst airport I've ever been to. It's tedious to get around, baggage claim is confusing, and I spent an awful night there about a year ago.
Small DFW airport-related rant
The worst aspect of the great weekend for me was the rental counter. It's bizarre that it's so far away from the airport itself. There aren't many clues where to go from the mass transit system to get to the counters... there are vague directions to "ground transportation" but then when you get to the place that says "rental cars" it isn't clear that you wait for a shuttle just to take you to a location about 4 miles away. I tried to call Hertz, but the number kept going to an answering machine with a full voice message box. Finally getting to the rental desk after all that aggravation, I see a "helpful" dude pulling people out of line and asking them if they have Hertz Gold... and taking others to talk to automated kiosks. Never said a peep to me.
I finally get to the counter and the dude did all of the most aggressive upsales he could to me. Extra insurance? No thanks, have it covered. Extra GPS? No thanks, have a smartphone. How can I avoid tolls? Oh, no sir. Don't avoid tolls. See the map? You'd have to make this zig-zag into downtown Dallas to get to Frisco (obviously a lie). After all that bulls___ he had to sense that I was exhausted from the flight and from the BS, but he didn't try to make things easier by offering any free upgrade. Just go get your Toyota Camry.
Five minutes after getting out on the road, of course, things were better. The phone figured out how to get to Frisco with no tolls (and no extra nickle-and-dime for Hertz along the way).
Getting back to the rental counter from Frisco is a different story. It's like the makers of the MAP app collude with Hertz to get you lost or something. The MAP app took me to the bus shuttle entrance... had to ask a person how to get the hell out of there to the return area.
I have to call Hertz corporate tomorrow to make sure my $200 "deposit" is refunded, since as of a few minutes ago it's still showing as an authorization on my card. I'm going to make it very clear to them that I'm not pleased.
All in all, a small fly in the ointment. The rest of the weekend was fantastic. But no more business for Hertz. It's sad that you'd have to join "Hertz Gold" in order to receive real customer service. I've used Alamo and Enterprise and Budget before and they were better than Hertz in every way.
Sandy, UT
