National Car Rental Praise and Complaints

Over the weekend I travelled to meet with family in Georgia. I have an Emerald Aisle membership with National Car Rental and had an interesting experience. When on business, I never pay attention to anything, I just expense the cost and am too busy to sweat the details. When it's my money, though, I get very annoyed about cost and truth in what these companies quote.

Praise:

• I love their company and the Emerald Aisle experience, where I get to pick from their crop of rental cars whatever I need for that trip without any difference in price. Since it was three hours to my destination I picked the Pontiac Vibe, hoping it would be good on gas (it was).

Gripes:

• When I made this reservation, I was quoted $84. Taxes, fees and indecipherable nonsense on Travelocity left me surprised at the end of the trip when my bill was $100. How long before someone files a class-action lawsuit? When booking the trip, National's website quoted me a higher price than Travelocity. Was the difference because National was telling the truth and Travelocity was obscuring the actual cost, or is there really a price difference here? Frustrating and confusing for a consumer.
• The car was 3/4 full on gas. No credit was applied for me bring it back slightly below Full. The guy who checked me out gave me a really skeptical look as I explained that I hand't noticed it was low when I left the lot.

How I get treated when I travel for personal reasons greatly affects who I book with when on business. National Car Rental and other agencies need to clean up their pricing policies.