Avis preferred at Tampa Airport

[Guest]

Has anyone used them since the new Car center opened. How does preferred work now at Tampa, at Orlando I am used to the board telling you where to go and the swap/upgrade bays.

[JellyEllieBean]

I’d like to know this too

[chrisxal]

We are here now, I didn't like the changes at Tampa, we queued through immigration, waited ages for our cases, went uphe escalator got on the first tram, then walked all the way across the other side up in the lift got on the next tram that goes very fast so hold on tight. We then followed the signs to Avis, preferred is up stairs/lift our names were not on the board, we have been preferred members for several years but they sorted us out at the kiosk swiping our CC and checking our licence, when drove out and stopped at the barrier, the lady asked for our driving licences and sapped the bar code on the windscreen and for some strange reason asked for our CC again, apparently the girl in the kiosk had managed to muddle that booking up and my CC details were used against someone else's name, we were kept waiting for ages, whilst the barrier lady cancelled our booking and re-entered it all again. Not a good experience and I have been constantly checking my account to make sure we have not been charged for someone else's car. Next time we are going to fly into MCO again.

[Maddy50]

I didn't realise you had to get on two trams, I was hoping that Tampa would be easier than MCO. I would really appreciate hearing other people's experiences please.

[Orlandobelle]

Wow that's certainly changed a lot since the new car centre opened!
Never been on a tram ( I know there's now one, but 2? )
Never had a preferred board- always straight to kiosk to collect the keys
No barrier or checks to exit.

[Persnicketty]

Originally Posted by Maddy50

I didn't realise you had to get on two trams, I was hoping that Tampa would be easier than MCO. I would really appreciate hearing other people's experiences please.

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Sounds like poor Chrisxal had a bit of a nightmare personal experience. We've had that happen to us at other airports, including MCO. All it takes is one under-trained person to wreak havoc.

But to be fair to TPA, there are plenty of other posts, including on the Dibb, speaking highly of their experience with the new car rental centre and the journey to it.

The first "tram" is actually the existing train connecting passengers from their landing gates to the main terminal - that's not new. Similar to many airports.

The new "Skyconnect" train to the car rental centre runs every 2 minutes and the journey lasts 5 minutes, so really isn't longer than exiting the main terminal on foot and walking across the road to the old rental desks.

The airport spent this money developing new facilities because the passenger volume has been growing so fast the airport was no longer able to cope with the traffic entering and leaving the old rental building and immediate airport vicinity.

So, in fact, the new rental centre, which is a short distance to the south, makes it easier to hit the road... and "the road" is also closer to the new centre.