I had a similar thought. Assuming the full coverage and ignoring the danger to life and limb, the difference between his stopping on time and going into the hole could be a couple hundred dollars.

I happened to be out of town on 9/11 with a rental car and just started driving home. I went from "I'll pay whatever they assess as a 'one way' fee" to hearing on the radio that the car company was rescinding all 'one way' fees. The company realized that their cars were likely to get jumbled, but that they could lose a lot of good will charging their customers during a national crisis (especially if competitors waived the charge and they didn't).

This is a case of an individual crisis. The rental car company is without its asset, but I suspect demand may be a trifle low for a bit. Legally they have a great legal position. What I would recommend they do from a marketing standpoint is agree that this is a special circumstance and offer a special deal with the customer. Customer pays the standard $50 "special pick up" fee for the rental company to go and get the car back. Further, after Sunday, the customer only pays the extended rental fee if the rental company rents out all the cars of that class on that day (indicating demand high enough that they could probably have rented out the car). If they don't rent all the cars in that class, then it would have sat on their lot anyway so don't charge the customer. Its more than they legal need to do and would seem to me to be a fair way to split the risk between the rental company and the customer.

I wonder if he took the full coverage when he rented it? Might be worth the trouble to get someone to go up and set fire to it.

"Oops, sorry, I have your $250 deductible right here..."