Same. Just show up and take a car.  Of course, you *do* see an actual human when you leave the lot, and that’s why they look at your id and offer you upgrades like a transponder for the tollways.

It looks absolutely nothing like the Space Shuttle. Time to go back to the eye doc.

As all rockets look essentially the same a cargo oriented spacecraft is destined to look the same.

Well, now we know who was using the copier in the crapper at Mar-A-Lago.

No, it’s a simple matter of physics and aerodynamics that dictate the shape.

C’mon Ryan, if you’re going to write about science and space you should really be familiar with the X-37B. THAT is what it’s a copy of, not the space shuttle. 

Yeah, I fully agree.

Well, to be fair this is really a form-following-function kind of thing. It’s not like space vehicles are designed to sell themselves in a dealer showroom.

After far to many experiences with Avis and Budget, this sounds like it would be the best rental car experience I could ever imagine having.

Are we gonna say that every plane copied each other at this point? or cars copy each other for the general shape?

Well that didn’t work right, but this is my second favorite rental car scene.

I would love to know the backstory. This sounds like some kind of collective employment suicide pact. How horrible must it have been to work there?

I used to travel a lot for work and my company contracted with National, so I always got the Emerald or Exec aisle. Rental pickup could not be easier. 

My first thought also! Never let a silly thing like causing a major publicity nightmare get in the way of some good ole’ customer abuse!

How many people did this?

I mean, that’s sort of how it works at National for Emerald Club members. Just roll into the right aisle and take a car. Easy peasy. 

A week after the incident, airport officials reached out to Hertz, basically saying “Hey, you know you guys have to do business here, right?” Hertz responded as if it was talking to a customer, saying that the company had “sincere apologies for the level of service that we have provided.”

By the time I got there even their breakroom was ransacked, so I didn’t even get a Hertz donut.

The most surprising part about all of this is that Hertz didn’t try to immediately arrest all of the customers.

This is the very reason I despise them. The non-stop nickel-and-dime-ing gets very old very fast. I want to pay just one price, that includes baggage and some pop/crackers during the flight and allows me a carry on (hello, SW). To purchase a flight then have to pre-plan all the various ways I must pack my shit to…