I asked about switching cars, but they had none available until I reached my destination.
Last month I had to take a 1000 mile trip for work. The company rented a car for me so I wasn’t using my car, and they gave me an expense credit card. I wouldn’t need to pay anything out of pocket. I was hitting a lot of construction during my trip, which if I had to stop much more, I would be late for my first meeting. Halfway there, I lost the air conditioning. I called the company and asked them to notify the car rental office and see if I could get a new car, while explaining about the lack of air conditioning. The rental company called me on the internal ‘intercom’ and asked me questions about the AC unit. They wanted me to stop at one of their lots and have it repaired immediately, but I was already running late. They gave me the location of a car lot that was close to a hotel. I could stop for the night, but I couldn’t get the air conditioning repaired until the morning. I asked about switching cars, but they had none available until I reached my destination. The next five hundred miles were taking me further south and into more intense heat than I had traveled from. It was a long, hot trip without air conditioning, but once I got out of the first meeting, I could take the car to the rental center and trade it for an even nicer car with good air conditioning. If something happens to the AC unit on the way home, I’ll have the consolation of knowing it was only going to get cooler and not hotter.