Thrifty Car Rental to Offer Wireless Bookings on Handheld Computers
10 October 2000
TULSA, Okla. - Thrifty Car Rental announced today it will give customers the option of booking reservations on-line with wireless devices like the Palm VII, Handspring, Sony CLEI and other similar portable devices. Using a program that can be downloaded for free at Thrifty's website, consumers can book a car rental reservation from any one of Thrifty's top 80 North American locations in about three minutes. With Palm functionality, visitors have the option to book, review or cancel their Thrifty Car Rental reservation 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Customers can shop rates for all car types, and also have the option of entering a corporate account code, Blue Chip(SM) Express Rental account number or special promotional codes. "Wireless devices are freeing consumers to conduct business at any time of day, from any place in the world," said Brian Carpenter, Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Advertising for Thrifty Car Rental. "Thrifty recognizes that it is critical that we make ourselves available to customers when it is most convenient for them to do business with us. Wireless functionality gives us one more opportunity to be 'open all night.'" Reservations for Thrifty Car Rental can be booked using any of the following portable devices provided they have a wireless modem: Palm V, Vx, VII and VIIx; and on Handspring and Sony CLEI handheld devices. This new wireless functionality was designed exclusively for Thrifty Car Rental by Perot Systems Corporation . To make a reservation with Thrifty, customers also have the option of contacting their professional travel consultant, or calling 1-800-THRIFTY(SM) in the U.S. or Canada. Thrifty Car Rental, with its affiliate Thrifty Car Sales, is a subsidiary of Thrifty, Inc. Thrifty Car Rental is one of the world's largest international car rental franchise networks, consisting of over 1,200 locations in 61 countries around the world. Thrifty Car Sales is a franchised retail used car sales network with plans to have 60 U.S. locations by January 2001. Thrifty, Inc. is a subsidiary of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. .