Budget outing.

One of your articles [Travel Queeries] in the january/February 2005 issue states that Budget Rent a Car doesn't charge for- domestic partners as long as they qualify with a driver's license. Although this may be corporate policy, we've found that it is not always known at the counter level. Twice in Tucson and once in Miami in the last six months we have had to argue with the desk agent, involve the manager, ask that they call Budget headquarters, or show an e-mail from Budget headquarters to avoid paying for--an additional driver. We are domestic partners of 35 years with I.D. and auto insurance cards demonstrating this. In each case we eventually received this "benefit," but it was embarrassing because we were holding up others in line who were listening as we were forced to publicly out ourselves Just thought you might want to update your readers on this.

GREGG HUPP, Port Ludlow, Wash.