A person claiming to be a former Enterprise worker is letting people know how to get a free upgrade on a car rental.
The intel comes from creator Joe Pehrson (@joepehrson), and has more than 116,000 views since its debut on the platform on Wednesday.
“Just a quick PSA for anybody traveling and renting a car at an airport this year,” he begins. “This summer, especially.”
He explains, “Worked in enterprise rent a car and if you go in to the counter and say that you’re immediately going to prepay the gasoline. Usually it’s like 20 cents cheaper because it ends up being more expensive because you can’t physically use all the gas. There’s airport fees and things as tacked on top of that.”
Here’s where it gets good. “But if you say that and you booked like an economy car those typically have like a 12 gallon gas tank, we would always give you free upgrades.”
@joepehrson Rental car thoughts. #rentalcars #enterpriserentacar #msp #commission ♬ original sound – Joe Pehrson
He goes on to explain: “If you say that and you booked like, an economy car, those typically have a 12-gallon gas tank. We would always give you free upgrades.”
“If I gave you a Ford F-150,” he notes, with its “26-gallon gas tank, and the person renting you the car is paid the commission based off of the amount of fuel that you sell. So if you don’t mind pre-paying gasoline and you think you’re gonna use it, I’ll say you’re gonna prepay it, and you probably get a free upgrade.”
He also added via comment: “Or, after you get the upgrade you can tell the exit booth agent you actually don’t want to prepay the fuel but you still get to keep your upgrade.”
Commenters reacted.
“I always refuse upgrades bc the mpg is usually lower and I don’t want to park a bigger car in the city,” one opined.
“I consider the big vehicle a downgrade,” said another.
Someone else specifically called out, “In Europe a bigger vehicle can be a downgrade.”
“I’m so annoyed when I book the smallest car they offer,” a commenter shared, “but then get forced to ‘upgrade’ because they don’t have what I booked.”
It was mystery solved for one commenter, who said, “That explains the Yukon upgrade on my one way from Sacramento to San Fran. I always wondered why.”
At least one person appreciated the tip, though, remarking, “I always return it with the gas light on so thank you for the advice!”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment.
