Car rental blues

I want to echo the unpleasant experience described by a reader [Postcards, March/April] when he and his partner asked Budget Rent a Car to waive the second-driver fee--supposedly a corporate policy. Last fall at JFK airport, my partner and I were publicly ridiculed and humiliated by a Budget clerk who refused our request for domestic-partner rates, finally declaring for all to hear, "We don't do things like that in New York!" We experienced an earlier incident at a Waikiki Budget office, where we finally were given the "spouse rate" but only after every customer in the room had been privy to our relationship. On the other hand, at an Avis city office in New Orleans, a clerk was courteous and professional when we asked that the second-driver fee be waived. Within three minutes of walking into the Avis office, we were happily off in the rental can

ROBERT ALLAN, San Diego

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