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Thrifty Car Rental Awards Grand Prize To Winning SATO Agent

26 September 2000

Thrifty Car Rental Awards Grand Prize of PT Cruiser, $10,000 Cash & ASTA Trip To Winning SATO Agent

    LAS VEGAS, Sept. 25 Thrifty Car Rental celebrated in high
style at ASTA World Congress today when it awarded lucky SATO travel agent
Karen Sarafin of Indian Head, Maryland, with the Grand Prize of a 2001 PT
Cruiser, $10,000 cash and a free trip to ASTA as part of a national booking
contest.
    The sweepstakes was open to U.S. travel agents, with agents earning a
contest entry with every completed Thrifty Car Rental reservation made in the
U.S. between May 1 and Aug. 1, 2000 that resulted in a completed rental by
August 15, 2000.*
    "The drawing was completely at random, but Karen dramatically increased
her chances of winning with over 100 bookings," said Scarlete Pelfrey,
Director of Travel Industry Sales for Thrifty.  "SATO travel agents are heavy
users of Thrifty anyway, but the PT Cruiser Sweepstakes drove reservations
higher among all travel agents, with tens of thousands of qualifying entries
pouring in.  There's nothing quite like the PT Cruiser on the road, and agents
made it clear they wanted that car!"
    Winner Karen Sarafin has been a travel agent for seven years, and has been
employed with SATO since 1995.  "Entering Thrifty's PT Cruiser contest was
like buying a lottery ticket," she said.  "You know you're probably not going
to win, that it's just one chance in a million.  Even when Thrifty called to
confirm that I was the winner, it took a while for reality to sink in.  But I
really wanted to win the Cruiser."  Karen has a husband, Walt, of 21 years,
and two teenage children: Brian, age 19, and Jenna, 16.