Budget's Free Frequent Flyer Miles Promos Will Cost You

Michael writes, ” I was just reserving a budget rental car, and for some reason decided to actually read some of the fine print.” Buried in the text was something called an “FTP Surcharge,” which basically amounts to a participation fee for any frequent flyer promotion they offer their customers.

FTP SURCHARGE

For rentals in the United States, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Croix and Canada when the renter chooses to receive frequent flyer miles from the following U.S.
Airline programs Budget will assess a frequent flyer surcharge equivalent to USD $.50 per day up to a maximum of USD $2.00 per rental. The amount assessed is
collected by budget to offset a portion of Budget’s annual cost of participation in frequent flyer programs.

Here’s another example of it that we found on a randomly Googled Budget frequent flyer page.

What we’d really love to know is whether or not the various airlines have hiked their own “participation fees” for third-party companies like Budget—and now Budget is passing the cost on to renters.

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