Car rentals: reserve & prepay ?

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by njhowie Most times, prepay offers additional discount. The drawback is that once you prepay, there is minimally some fee if you want to cancel/rebook, and potentially no ability to cancel with refund. If you prepay with Autoslash, you can cancel up to 48 hours in advance and get a full refund. I've done this numerous times as their own (prepay) rates had dropped, and I'd cancel and rebook. As far as primary/secondary insurance provided by credit cards, it doesn't matter very much. If you get into an accident, regardless of what insurance company pays for it, your personal auto insurance company is notified and they will adjust your rates according to their policies...no different than if they paid.

Sure - if there is an accident.

But if I get a few scratches or a small ding or cracked window on the rental car, then I just contact the credit card company.

I don't like to prepay, even with a discount. I have often found a big drop about 2 weeks before my trip, so I usually rebook close to the trip.

[Jerry1]

Want to thank those mentioning Costco. I don't travel much and forgot to check Costco for an upcoming trip for the car rental. I had a car booked, but checked Costco today and it is over $200 cheaper. Cha-ching. Canceled my other booking and reserved through Costco.

[SecondCor521]

I'm just kind of amazed that the car companies still take reservations but let you cancel them pretty much any time with no penalty. It seems pretty one-sided in the customer's favor. (There's a Seinfeld reference in there somewhere, I just don't know how to get it.)

[pb4uski]

I never prepay... our travel plans can change. I usually always reserve and usually at the airport since it is more convenient. Since there is no cost to cancel, I often will check prices again a few days before my reservation to see if any better pricing is available. I also generally go with a brand name rental agency (Hertz, Avis, Budget, Alamo, Enterprise and the like) and avoid the second tier players... I have read some horror stories.

I always survey the car before I take it and take pictures of any damage and note the damages on the form and inform the attendant of any damage. It is rare that there is any substantial damage, but sometimes there have been minor dings and scratches and I don't want to be blamed for those.

I have had good luck with Priceline at times... making progressively higher bids until I got one that was accepted.... however be careful... once I had a Priceline reservation and we got to our destination and they didn't have our car... I had mistakenly input the following day rather than the day of our arrival and the rental agency wanted an arm and a leg to add the first 24 hours to the reservation. Luckily, we planned to return to the airport the next day to pick up a relative so I walked the hall and found a better deal on a one-day rental than what they wanted to charge us for that first day.

[Aerides]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecondCor521 I'm just kind of amazed that the car companies still take reservations but let you cancel them pretty much any time with no penalty. It seems pretty one-sided in the customer's favor. (There's a Seinfeld reference in there somewhere, I just don't know how to get it.)

Probably because there are so many people who still just wander up to the counter and want a car without a reservation. They end up with the same number of rentals either way, and charge much more for the walk ups.

[brett]

We always check pricing on our reservations.

We currently have a Costco booking for Sept 4. We made the reservation a month ago. Checked the pricing this week and rebooked. Price had decreased by 15 percent and we got an upgrade.

We do exactly the same with autoeurope. This past winter we had a rental in Australia. Price went down by 35 percent and we moved up from an Accent to a Camry.

All you need to do is cancel and rebook. Or rather, rebook, and then cancel the original reservation.

Car rental pricing can fluctuate greatly over time.

[PoorOldCountryBoy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Momcpa We haven't traveled much where we needed to rent a car. Any advice? We wondered whether it seems more convenient to add the rental (prepay and reserve) along when we book our flights? Or is it better to cross our fingers and rent when we land at the airport? My questions are regarding both the financial aspect (is one cheaper than the other?) and also the convenience (is it better to have one waiting or does that even make a difference?) ? Any tips or suggestions are appreciated by this novice traveler.

Here's my formula,ymmv:
1. Check market prices using priceline or another service using the cities you're going to, not the airport. It will find the lowest prices in the area, which may be hundreds of dollars cheaper than the airport, or not--sometimes the cheapest is the airport. You never know until you check.

2. A couple more times usually 30 and 60 days out check again. Prices change daily.

3. Almost no good reason to go with a prepay.

4. Sign up to rental car loyalty programs if you are doing a lot of travelling.

Hope this helps

[SheitlQueen]

I also use Costco. They have the best prices, and I continually check the rates before I leave on the trip. Usually the price goes down, so I book a new reservation and cancel the old. I'll check and cancel/rebook right up until I leave. My last trip to Las Vegas I think I cancelled and rebooked four times and ended up saving over $100.

[kaneohe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by candrew +2 Costco car rentals also include a 2nd driver at no additional charge.

You may want to be sure that the 2nd driver is explicitly named in the rental contract. The credit card company possibly may try to weasel out of coverage if there is damage and the 2nd driver is not named. At least one rep at Citibank told me that. It is sometimes difficult since the auto rental reps are only concerned about who can drive and not concerned about coverage if damage happens. You have to insist and get a supe involved if necessary.
Some companies have a contract w/ a space for the additional driver. Some
don't but can add another page with that wording.

Also when they tell you the car is in space J7, you may want to double check
that the license plate agrees w/ the contract. On our last trip, the tire pressure light was on when we got the car. The agent discovered it was the wrong car in the right space and I was so happy since I thought they were just going to put more air in the tire and not worry if it was leaking.

[DrRoy]

We always reserve, and usually a small car. We often get a good offer to upgrade at the airport.

[Red Badger]

Lots of good comments - here's one more....

Always rent at/adjacent to the airport. Rental facilities "in town" are usually franchises and the cars can be older higher mileage clunkers. Just, no. BTDT.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Badger Lots of good comments - here's one more.... Always rent at/adjacent to the airport. Rental facilities "in town" are usually franchises and the cars can be older higher mileage clunkers. Just, no. BTDT.

Not my experience in Portland. I generally picked up down town and returned to the airport.

[brett]

Our experience is the opposite. We often find airport rates more expensive.

We also find that we have a much better chance of being upgraded when we deal with a satellite location. We often rent in a town as we are leaving and drop at an airport location.

[njhowie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brett Our experience is the opposite. We often find airport rates more expensive.

That is usually the case as renting from an airport location generally incurs tourist/visitor fees/taxes.

We visit Orlando often and almost never rent from the airport location due to the fees jacking up the price.

[brett]

Come to think of it...we did exactly the same in Orlando. We rented a car for three weeks. It was much less expensive to rent in town rather than at the airport. The difference surprised us. Same in FLL. And it was the only office that ever asked for verification of our Costco membership.

[Splash]

Always reserve as soon as possible especially in places with a finite supply of cars such as Alaska, Hawaii, Caribbean Islands, etc. Then check back periodically for lower prices.

I always bring my confirmation email with me. Twice I was told at the counter that the price would be significantly higher than the price I was quoted at booking. Both times, they honored the quoted price when I produced my documentation.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaneohe You may want to be sure that the 2nd driver is explicitly named in the rental contract. The credit card company possibly may try to weasel out of coverage if there is damage and the 2nd driver is not named. At least one rep at Citibank told me that. It is sometimes difficult since the auto rental reps are only concerned about who can drive and not concerned about coverage if damage happens. You have to insist and get a supe involved if necessary. Some companies have a contract w/ a space for the additional driver. Some don't but can add another page with that wording. Also when they tell you the car is in space J7, you may want to double check that the license plate agrees w/ the contract. On our last trip, the tire pressure light was on when we got the car. The agent discovered it was the wrong car in the right space and I was so happy since I thought they were just going to put more air in the tire and not worry if it was leaking.

With a Costco rental we always have the second driver submit driver license and they have a place to initial on the contract - at least with Alamo.

[kaneohe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 With a Costco rental we always have the second driver submit driver license and they have a place to initial on the contract - at least with Alamo.

Yes, that is our experience w/ Costco-Alamo rentals also. It still is a struggle to get them to do it as the agents generally don't think it is necessary....it's not , for them. It's for our protection for the credit card insurance. Often, too, they only want 1 person in the party in line to make the lines appear shorter.

On our last trip, we got Costco-Budget instead and they had to add a non-standard page to get the second renter named.......via a supe since rep didn't know what to do.

[Markola]

I always use Hotwire.com to prepay, which shows quite cheap prices with all the taxes and fees built in, eliminating cost surprises; we have a rental car coverage rider on our comprehensive auto coverage policy so we decline the rental insurance; pay for it all with American Express, which adds an additional layer of protection; and try to choose Avis, which doesn’t charge for an extra driver who is a spouse, at least in Georgia, where we go a lot. I avoid Budget and Dollar Rental after prior bad experiences. There might be better ways to balance cost vs. hassle but that system works for us.

[Markola]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Splash Always reserve as soon as possible especially in places with a finite supply of cars such as Alaska, Hawaii, Caribbean Islands, etc. Then check back periodically for lower prices. I always bring my confirmation email with me. Twice I was told at the counter that the price would be significantly higher than the price I was quoted at booking. Both times, they honored the quoted price when I produced my documentation.

Ha, Yes, we once had a Jeep on Vieques, P.R. when the island ran out of gas. Our departure flight was that day so we just turned it in nearly empty. Nice place to visit though and no Customs to bother with as a U.S. citizen.