Letters: Hit by car-rental fine print

Why couldn’t I have read Catharine Hamm’s On the Spot column titled “Car Rentals and the Honor System” (Dec. 15) before I ventured to North Carolina?

Perhaps then I would have been spared a lot of grief.

My brother lives in Durham, so in November I met him there, and we rented a car that we drove to Asheville for a delightful weekend at the historic Grove Park Inn.

But my experience with one car rental agency in Durham was anything but. Here are lessons learned from my costly ordeal:

—Go over the fine print before you initial the rental car agreement.

—When the rental agent asks whether you want liability insurance, politely decline it if you already have it on the car that you normally drive, as that insurance should transfer.

—Return the car with a full tank of gas. Don’t return it with only half a tank — as I did — and incur a $60 charge.

David Tulanian

Los Angeles

I rent cars frequently at the airport in Portland, Ore., and although I’ve never been asked to produce a filling station receipt to prove fuel was purchased within five miles of the rental lot, doing so would be quite a trick. There are no filling stations near the Portland International terminal; the closest one I’ve found is at Mill Plain and the 205 freeway in Vancouver, Wash., across the Columbia River about six miles from the airport.

There are a few rental lots not at the terminal that are about a mile closer, but even those would be a close shave.

Douglas Galloway

Cherry Valley

Welcome to Union Station

Though the fine article about the Union Station appeared last month [“A Set for Past and Future,” by Christopher Reynolds, Nov. 24], I still enjoy the vivid memories that it brought back. In May 1939, my parents, my brother, age 7, and I, age 12, moved from Long Island, N.Y., to Los Angeles. Arriving in Union Station, we were excited to see all sorts of decorations and banners. It took some time for my brother and me to realize my mother was teasing us when she said it was all to welcome us to L.A. Then we learned that the gala opening of the station had been the day before.

Margot Kamens

Whittier

PreCheck surprise

Had to laugh when I read the article on the Transportation Security Administration and PreCheck [“TSA’s Holiday ‘Gift’ May Be Security Jams” by Catharine Hamm, Nov 24]. It seems my husband and I were “pre-checked” at Long Beach for a trip to Charlotte, N.C., on Nov. 11. We were greeted by a Delta representative who said, “Looks like you’re pre-checked.” OK, we thought that must mean we have our boarding passes. On we went.

Next a TSA employee reiterated, “Oh, you’re pre-checked,” and pointed us toward a line with only one person in it. Because the airport wasn’t particularly crowded, we were still clueless. We were guilty of beginning the undressing process, as Anne-Marie Clarke pointed out in her letter of Dec. 8.

Neither the airline or TSA mentioned what Precheck meant or how we were free from the traditional undressing/unpacking. Only when a woman in line behind us told us we could go through did we understand that the PreCheck gods had somehow chosen us.

So in reply to both Ms. Clarke and Ms. Hamm, all anyone would have had to do was tell us, and we would have happily been on our way knowing we had not participated in the holiday “security jam.”

Pat Sawyer

San Clemente