Airline rescheduling and rental car fears

[EastWest Gal]

We booked a trip to the Pacific Northwest for September, as my niece is getting married not far from Seattle. The wedding date was set back in 2019. We have friends and family to see in Oregon and California as well, and property in California to check up on. DH and I need to come back at different times, and DS will only be flying out for the wedding, as he is working, and may not be able to come at all if he lands a teaching job, which appears more and more likely.

DH and I are doing a 3 legged trip with car rental in between. Fly to Portland, rent a car and do some visiting and go to the wedding. Fly from Seattle to Santa Rosa, renting another car and doing various visiting, then DH flies home from San Jose to PA, and a few days later I fly home from SFO.

Our westbound flights have been changed twice, completely rerouted, so we had to change the car rental time, which means cancelling and rebooking. Now our outbound flight has been changed to two hours later, changing a leisurely layover to a tight one in a busy airport. Our leg to Santa Rosa has been changed once, messing up that car rental pickup time. DH's flight home was changed from SJC to SFO. I'm not found of SFO for many reasons.

The conundrum here is what to do about car rental. I've heard that you aren't guaranteed a car unless you prepay, but if we prepay and they change the flights again, then we're stuck cancelling and rebooking, again.

Any suggestions?

 

[ivinsfan]

Sadly this is travel life in 2021. I have no advice but you do have my sympathy.



Reading this confirms the plan we made around 5 years to stick to driving on domestic trips but sometimes that just isn't practical.



Maybe book the car without prepay now and then recheck and rebook with prepay when you get around 14 days out from your flight? If I remember there is a prepay option you can do after you make a regular no pay reservation. There's a button on the reservation that says "pre-pay now".


Make sure you signup for the loyalty program for the company you are renting from.

 

[Markola]

Maybe it would help to book the car through the airline site, so they are connected? I know I often see the option to book a car, hotel, etc. when I buy a flight. Good luck!

 

[Al in Ohio]

I kinda feel your pain. We went through similar issues on a very similar trip. We just returned and it worked out great fortunately, but we decided not to rent a car and planned everything by plane, train, trolley, bus, and Uber. We flew into Portland and took a metro bus directly from the airport to within a block from our downtown hotel. We booked private family owned touring companies for four different road trips (Oregon wineries, city tour, Oregon coast, Columbia River gorge waterfalls and Mt. Hood). We took an Uber to the the Amtrak train station, on to Seattle which transferred to a bus to my cousin in Mt. Vernon Washington. She then drove us around to Northern Cascades NP and down back to Seattle. She and her husband then toon us to Seattle airport to fly home. Yes our flights changed multiple times. Sometimes they change back again to the original booking. Be patient. If you rent a car, book two. Cancel one. You might lose one. Try Costco for car rental.

 

[mystang52]

Depending on the rental car company and when you change the reservation, the fee to change/cancel a prepaid car reservation may be a relatively small amount. I don't remember for certain, but I believe Budget's fee was $50 to cancel a prepaid reservation as long as it was done something like a week or more before the pickup date. Check out the different car rental sites. The potential $50 fee may be worth it to you, in exchange for a sure thing presuming plans continue as originally scheduled.

 

[Aerides]

Agree reserve without a prepay, I never prepay for cars or hotels unless I'm 100% sure of my plans and the discount for doing so is substantial.

When I book with Avis I enter my flight info so they know when things change (which they do obviously all the time), and their system adjusts. I've arrived several hours late in the past due to flight delays, and there's never been an issue. But if you're moving pickup locations then I would just cancel and rebook.

 

[EastWest Gal]

All useful ideas. I'm going with Avis this time, not Enterprise, so I can reach out and make late prepay and attaching to a flight happen. But my flights have completely changed-flights have been cancelled, and we've been completely rerouted on the front end. I'll reserve something and call the company when we get a bit closer.

 

[ItsAllGood]

Sad to say, pre-paying for a rental car, does not guarantee a car will be available when you arrive to pick it up. I was bitten by this twice, both at O'Hare, with different rental companies (non Covid times). Your best bet is to stick with one rental car agency, join their club, and gain status. We use only Hertz now, never pre-pay, and never have a problem. It costs a little more, but no add on fees, and no waiting in line. Totally worth a few extra $$ in my opinion.

 

[rodi]

Just curious - Alaska Airlines? I'm flying to Seattle this weekend for a memorial service and they changed my flight - and the change totally didn't work AND they ate my upgrade to premium economy and slammed me into a middle seat., so I talked to them and they switched my flight back to one closer to the original time (an hour later) and gave me back my upgrade with window seat.

Then I communicated this to a friend I'm meeting at the airport. His flight was due in a little after mine, and I'm driving him up to Bellingham for the same memorial. His flight had ALSO been changed to later. And he had also lost his seat assignments and was stuck in a middle seat. Also Alaska Air.

 

[Bamaman]

We rented a SUV in Las Vegas on my Hertz Gold Club card--back when that card meant something. My ex-company receives big discounts due to volume, and we're still piggybacking on that benefit though I've been retired 12 years.

All the cars at Caesar's Palace Hertz are rented every day. Many of the other hotel car rental desks are only open Thursday, Friday & Saturday. And Hertz is having a terrible time getting anyone to work in the business.

Somehow I finagled a SUV for just over $400 for the week, as all the other SUV's were $708 due to huge taxes, tariffs and carrying charges.

Around Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, the aging rental cars had license plates from far away places like Florida.

It's obvious that the rental car business has been reallocating autos to places where they'd be rented. And the fleet is getting old at Hertz--which has spent a couple of years in bankruptcy. And the lack of auto production because of component shortages has really affected their ability to get replacement vehicles.

So if you can get a rental car for a fair price, jump on it. The business is in turmoil after pandemic travel cutbacks destroyed their businesses--if just temporary.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I’ll join the club where I’m getting the rentals, Avis this time. I’m an Enterprise member already, but their prices were quite a bit higher. The flights that been changed are: all of them. It’s a bit maddening. Delta, Alaska, American. It’s a 3 legged flight so different airlines worked better for different legs.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I’ll join the club where I’m getting the rentals, Avis this time. I’m an Enterprise member already, but their prices were quite a bit higher. The flights that been changed are: all of them. It’s a bit maddening. Delta, Alaska, American. It’s a 3 legged flight so different airlines worked better for different legs.

As my Dad used to say (he flew as a commercial pilot for a few years w/ Eastern Airlines): If you have time to spare, go by air!

The last couple of trips I have taken (post COVID peak) have been an absolute s*it show. I won't rehash it here, but needless to say...I have about had it with this customer-no-service that the airlines have been serving up. And yes, I am familiar with the pain the airlines are experiencing trying to get crews back on the line...I get that, but they really should be able to fix SOME of the issues.

 

[googily]

I cancelled two flights/rental cars to the northern high plains this summer even though it translates into four 1,900-mile driving legs. When my connecting flight to the smaller airport suddenly turned into a 12-hour layover (without my being notified), and my fear intensifying around whether even rental cars with reservations would actually be available at the smaller airport, I said the heck with it. Road trips are a wildly enjoyable past time for me, anyway.

And given the stories I'm reading not just about delays but behavior on the flights, I have no regrets.

 

[Ramen]

How much driving do you plan to do? Could you get by with Uber/Lyft/taxis? The cost might add up, but maybe it would be less stressful?