I’m pretty sure you can add drivers for an additional fee (at least at Enterprise). Or just have your girlfriend create the account and schedule the rental using your payment info.

I think usually they want the one paying to be the driver for insurance reasons, so you you may have to pay a little more for their insurance, but you should still be able to rent the car and list her as the driver. You'd have to call and talk to someone at the rental agency. And yes, the price will be based on the age of the youngest person on the list of people who will be driving the car. Even if you could drive, if she was also listed as a driver, you'd pay the "under 25" charge.

Your best bet is just to call the rental agency, explain the situation, and be prepared to pay a bit more for a younger driver and/or their insurance, since you don't have an auto insurance policy of your own that would cover the vehicle.

I had a friend who did this years ago when she was moving - rented a moving van in her name, but listed my husband as the only driver, since we were helping her move, he was over 25 (she wasn't), and she didn't feel comfortable driving something that big, anyway. It took a bit of explaining for them to understand what we wanted to do, but in the end, it was fine.

I've also had a family member call and rent a vehicle for us when we broke down on vacation once and ended up spending all of our emergency travel money on things related to that. So while it may not be their preferred method of renting to people, it's certainly doable.

Honestly they’re not going to care who is paying for the car, only who is driving it. They will want a copy of her driver’s license.

I’ve come across this issue before and never managed to resolve it. Would it help if you described your girlfriend as your chauffeur?? I don’t know if that would work or if that’s degrading or humiliating to your girlfriend but it might be a situation that the hire company could relate to - or have paperwork/systems that can handle this kind of arrangement? Just a thought.

Is this a for a surprise trip or something? I'm confused why you cannot have her rent the car and give her cash or something. Is it a work related reimbursement issue?

The fact that you're over 25 is completely irrelevant to the rental company. They have their reasons but the price will be based on the driver's age regardless.

But anyway to your question, no, as far as I know there is no alternative.

I also cannot drive, I just have my wife rent the car if needed. Same thing when we were dating, I just paid her back.

When I need to rent a car for a work trip, and my wife happens to be coming along for vacation, I just justify her name being on the rental because I cannot drive. Work has never raised an issue. If she cannot come with me on the trip, I just don't rent a car and find alternate transportation.

Now if it's a surprise trip, I tell my wife we will be flying to some place and will need to rent a car. Other trip details like dinner plans, specific locations, tours etc can be left secret if you're looking to surprise her.

If you give more details I could try to make some suggestions.

There's a car rental app called turro that my brother uses to rent his car maybe look into using that since it'll be cheaper. You just open the app request a car and bam

Edit: heres a Google play link
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.relayrides.android.relayrides

The renter of a vehicle has to have a valid license. Sorry. Your plan won't work.