Travel: Just keep checking! (Flight seats, Car Rental Prices)

[akck]

I thought about doing this, but the discount was never enough to entice me to lock in the dates. What if you're delayed a day due to weather? Granted July would be unlikely. I'd go ahead and follow your strategy and pay in advance as you get closer to the date.

 

[ivinsfan]

Checked Hertz car rental (with AAA discount) for July at a convenient downtown Seattle location and drop off at airport. There is a $25 discount if one pays in advance.

I guess I could set the reservation and if the price holds or comes down, pay it in advance closer to the July date. Does anyone have a strategy for this?

What are the cancellation terms..I believe the pay in advance is like a hotel reservation and you can still cancel and get your money back with the cancellation deadline...of course it requires a little more monitoring then a simple price and hold.

 

[Lsbcal]

What are the cancellation terms..I believe the pay in advance is like a hotel reservation and you can still cancel and get your money back with the cancellation deadline...of course it requires a little more monitoring then a simple price and hold.

I haven't looked at those details. What would concern me is if Hertz had booked too many people and the car type I want is not available. Might work out OK but if they upgrade me to a much larger car I wouldn't want to be so dependent. Also if they are a shuttle away from the airline terminal, we arrive with our luggage and it's a lot harder to backout and go with someone else.

 

[ivinsfan]

If you need an exact type car, off airport locations often don't have much to choose from.Even at airport locations, I bet we average less then 50% at getting the reserved type car. I usually book the smallest we are comfortable with and end up with something roomier when all is said and done.

Car reservations are so goofy. I bet if you pay in advance they still won't have a car with your name on it sitting there.

 

[akck]

Don't always write off airport rentals. One time, I was going to do an off-airport rental for the reduced fees. It turned out that the airport rental option was cheaper, so we went that route. I think the quantity of vehicles available at the airport allowed them to make deeper discounts compared to the limited number of vehicles at the off-airport location as we got closer to our travel dates..

 

[Chuckanut]

I just got an email from Hyatt about their 3 day flash sale. Knocked $10 off the price of a room this summer. And another $5 or so for joining their loyalty program.

So, more pizza and beer on the trip and fewer stops at Micky D's.

 

[bizlady]

....
Autoslash.com is a way to track car rentals, but I didn't want to give them my specific car reservation to track (or really any personal information - it's bad enough they read my cookies to figure out my destination and travel dates). I have a general one entered and hope they'll send me an email if there is a better offer than the original eight quotes they sent me - as a flag to check Costco Travel again. Otherwise, I'll just keep checking manually.

We did send our reservation to Autoslash. They rebooked us twice, saving just over $600. We now have a late summer 2 week mid size SUV car rental on the east coast- picking up in VA at the airport and dropping off in Boston at the airport , (same type of vehicle we chose with same company) for $527 including taxes. No prepayment and we can cancel right up to pickup. Might be worth letting them have your email and address. (no credit card needed)

 

[Lsbcal]

Don't always write off airport rentals. One time, I was going to do an off-airport rental for the reduced fees. It turned out that the airport rental option was cheaper, so we went that route. I think the quantity of vehicles available at the airport allowed them to make deeper discounts compared to the limited number of vehicles at the off-airport location as we got closer to our travel dates..

Yep, airport rentals might be fine. We are going down to San Diego and their airport taxes are not so bad as Seattle's. Plus we have to return the car early on Monday and the off-airport Hertz is closed then. So would be very inconvenient.

 

[audreyh1]

I usually get airport rentals if I'm flying. I don't mind paying more for less hassle and time.

 

[Lsbcal]

I usually get airport rentals if I'm flying. I don't mind paying more for less hassle and time.

We usually do airport rentals too. In Seattle, since we are spending time in the city and won't want a car, it made sense to use the quick transport to the city center and rent the car a few blocks away some time later.

I didn't mean to overemphasize saving a few dollar. But if it works out, fine.

 

[rodi]

In a lot of cities the airport rental makes the most sense - assuming you are flying into the city. Our exception is Philadelphia. I used to live off the Septa R1 line - so I became very familiar with the excellent train into the city and northern burbs. Now we always arrange our first stop in town to be friends who live near Rittenhouse Square. (When we visit Philly we always have friends and family to crash with.) We're doing that again this summer... Then we pick up a car in center city when we've worn out our welcome with these friends.

San Diego (where I live now) has crappy connections from the airport via public transit... so I'd definitely rent a car at the airport.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Both of my rentals later this month are at the airport. I'm navigating my first trip with a teenage niece and want it to go VERY smoothly! I used the SW portal for one and Chase for the other. Costco was surprisingly more expensive. Though I've checked back a couple of times to make sure mine were still the best deals.

 

[Lsbcal]

Both of my rentals later this month are at the airport. I'm navigating my first trip with a teenage niece and want it to go VERY smoothly! I used the SW portal for one and Chase for the other. Costco was surprisingly more expensive. Though I've checked back a couple of times to make sure mine were still the best deals.

I just checked Chase through our Chase Sapphire card. Is this what you meant?

Anyway, I see pricing differences of 2x for the same car type. Example, Toyota Corolla or similar at San Diego airport:
Trifty 24.62
Dollar 38.04
Hertz 56.03 (42.09 through the Hertz site with AAA discount)

So the question is, does one go with the lowest price or are there substantial differences in the actual car received? Are there "good quality" dealers or are they hit or miss depending on the local situation?

 

[Sarah in SC]

Yes, the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
I would go with the lowest price, definitely. There is very little difference between the cars, and you generally get the listed car in a given size. I always choose economy, because I don't care at all what I'm driving. Heck, anything newer than 2001 is a major upgrade to my daily driver!
I'd be fine with that Thrifty one, for my two, I've got the Denver one through Alamo and the Phoenix one through one I'd never heard of, Payless (that's the SW portal booked one).

 

[Lsbcal]

Thanks Sarah. Sounds like good advice. I tend to go with something like the Corolla for the trunk space and maybe a little more crash protection.

 

[ivinsfan]

I see Dollar is quite a bit higher on that quote by Lsbcal..my final stop before booking is to go directly to the Dollar site and enter my rental info. I find they often have a button on the quote page that says. check for city special in this rental. Often I have several cars pop up at a huge discount ....and Dollar ends up being cheapest.

I've had a couple bad experiences with Payless and Thrifty and all things considered prefer to go with Dollar/Alamo....

At Payless the problem was inventory.. no cars of any kind and people with reservations lined up out the door.

At Thrifty then went over the car with a fine tooth comb marking down every scratch before we left the lot..however you know they can't put down every single mark on the car and I was paranoid the whole time about damage they might have missed that they would want us to pay for. They marked down such small scratches that taking pics of the car wouldn't do any good. The return went okay, but it was not a pleasant experience having 2 people circling the cars looking for "new" to them anyway damage.

 

[Lsbcal]

Interesting comments on Thrifty, Ivinsfan. I suppose one might mitigate the worry by trying to use a credit card that covers damage on rental cars. I'll have to look at my Visa card docs to see. Still a pain to wade through all this isn't it?

 

[ivinsfan]

Now some of these locations are independent franchises so get really pushy about selling the extra insurance and scratches and such on cars. We did a lot of renting in Vegas to go on Western road trips and I just won't use Thrifty again.

At the Payless Vegas location in the days before the central rental hub, they actually had canvas awnings erected outside of the rental area building so the "overflow" renters wouldn't overheat.I always join the preferred renters club when possible and that line only had about a dozen people in it. However we could hear the comments of the great unwashed complaining that our line was moving and their line was not.Not a pleasant experience....eventually we just migrated to Dollar, much more pleasant.

 

[audreyh1]

I notice that Costco only uses Alamo, Avis, Budget and Enterprise.

• - Avis owns Budget and Zipcar
• - Hertz owns Dollar and Thrifty
• - Enterprise owns Alamo and National
• - Advantage owns E-Z Rent-A-Car

So Costco skips over the Hertz companies. And they are really just using Avis and Enterprise (since Budget and Alamo are owned by each).

And doesn't include National even through the other two Enterprise companies are used.

Just interesting.

 

[Lsbcal]

Yes, the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
I would go with the lowest price, definitely. There is very little difference between the cars, and you generally get the listed car in a given size. I always choose economy, because I don't care at all what I'm driving. Heck, anything newer than 2001 is a major upgrade to my daily driver!
I'd be fine with that Thrifty one, for my two, I've got the Denver one through Alamo and the Phoenix one through one I'd never heard of, Payless (that's the SW portal booked one).

I booked a Dollar rental for an upcoming Maui trip through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Got a good price I think and much better then Hertz through AAA. The only catch is that you have to pay for it up front. We'll see how that works out. I hope they have a decent, not too high mileage car for us as it appears we are locked in.

 

[audreyh1]

Looks like 3 weeks about was about the sweet spot. Car rental prices have gone up since then, and stayed up.

 

[akck]

This was interesting. I just checked my rental price again and it dropped $0.37 today. I of course made a new reservation. After cancelling my old one, I noticed a spot on the form for a loyalty # so I started a new check to see if there was a spot where I missed a chance to enter one. Well, the price went back up $0.37, so it pays to complete you new reservation.

I'm 2 weeks out, so there still are opportunities to save. I was going to say that rates seemed to fall after midnight east coast time (I'm way west), but this last savings doesn't fit the pattern.

 

[Sunset]

Interesting comments on Thrifty, Ivinsfan. I suppose one might mitigate the worry by trying to use a credit card that covers damage on rental cars. I'll have to look at my Visa card docs to see. Still a pain to wade through all this isn't it?

I always take photos of the car before we load our luggage into it. Since I use a digital camera I take a lot of photos probably about 8 or more.
Once you blow them up on the computer its pretty good evidence.
Never had to use them.
Photos after you have moved the car are useless. I always do 1 wide view shot showing the car in their parking lot.

I also mark all the little spots on their paper (or ask for one), and then like most folks worry about parking lots the entire holiday

 

[walkinwood]

"just keep checking" has saved me just over 50% on my car rental in Newark!

Audreyh1 - we'll spring for beer with the savings the next time you & your DH are passing through Denver.

 

[mpeirce]

I always take photos of the car before we load our luggage into it. Since I use a digital camera I take a lot of photos probably about 8 or more.
Once you blow them up on the computer its pretty good evidence.
Never had to use them.
Photos after you have moved the car are useless. I always do 1 wide view shot showing the car in their parking lot.

+1

Digital/Camera phones are so handy for documenting stuff and remembering things on a trip.

I use them to

- rental car proof of dents (as mentioned)
- snap a photo of where I parked at the airport (B7 Green lot)
- photo of my luggage in case it's lost (I keep it in my TRAVEL photo album on phone)
- photo of my (and DWs) passport & drivers license (also in TRAVEL album)