car rental

[RonB]

I did a search, but having the word "rental" in the search brings up tons of hits, and most of them are not for car rental...

So we are flying to Austin TX soon to visit our son, and we want a car - haven't rented one in years.

I checked the travel sites, AARP, USAA, and Costco, and Costco, (through Alamo), seems to have the best price, and for $1 more we can go from economy to standard, and a second driver is included.

Is there anywhere else we should try? Could I get a cheaper rate calling one of the rental companies? Are there any "gotchas" in renting a car? After having an elk commit suicide on our rental on the way to Yellowstone around midnight on our last rental years ago, I will get insurance to avoid the hassle of dealing with my insurance company and the credit card company. Do insurance rates vary from company to company?

Thanx,
Ron

 

[Phydeaux]

I'm a lifer with National. With Emerald Aisle membership, I never even slow down at the counter, proceed to the lot - Emerald Aisle, and select my own vehcile. I wouldn't rent with anyone else.

Next...

 

[artringwald]

Discount USA Car Rental has great prices, no prepayment, and you can cancel at any time. The company is an expansion of the very popular Discount Hawaii Car Rental. Once you book it through them, you can cancel and rebook if the prices go down.

 

[Kal]

I search every possible rental car site starting about 6 months prior to the rental date. The one that I like best is https://www.autoslash.com/. They seem to be unique in that they constantly search for a better deal. Once they find a lower price, they automatically rebook your rental and let you know the new price.

In my most recent rental they probably rebooked 6-7 times. Once I see a notification I look at other sites to see what's going on. Often the Costco Travel price is lower. I usually hold 2-3 bookings and cancel one when a replacement deal is better. On the day of rental I usually have 2 bookings as insurance. An agency CANNOT guarantee you your rental even when you have a "reserved car". Reason is they have no way of guaranteeing there will be an available car. They have no control of other rentals as the renter may keep the car longer than planned.

In one case I absolutely HAD TO HAVE the rental car. I talked to a manager at Budget and he said the best way to protect myself was to reserve a car through a number of agencies. His advice was very interesting but very instructive! :whoopie:

 

[falmouth3]

People also like carrentals.com. Or hotwire.com. I usually do best with Costco.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Thanks For The Great Tip.

Discount USA Car Rental has great prices, no prepayment, and you can cancel at any time.

All the car rental rates we found for Orlando FL for our 2-week timeshare vacation coming up in January 2017 were more than we care to pay, so we were pretty much set on driving to & from Orlando -- a fully day on the Interstate to get there & ditto to get home again.

Thanks to your Discount USA Car Rental tip, we snagged a car reservation that's economically within our acceptable comfort zone. Once that was set, we also snagged airline tickets partly at bargain rates & partly via reward points.

Not only that, we entered the car reservation information at AutoSlash Dot Com so that they can cast about for an equivalent car reservation for less than what we already reserved. We'll see within the next few months whether AutoSlash can save us any $$$ for January.

Full Disclosure: Just as we never heard of Discount USA Car Rental before seeing your recommendation, we likewise never heard of AutoSlash till we read a tip about it right here on TUG-BBS last year. Thanks, Ron & Joan.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[artringwald]

People also like carrentals.com. Or hotwire.com. I usually do best with Costco.

FYI - carrentals.com is similar to Discount USA Car Rental in that no credit card is required and you can cancel reservations. hotwire.com requires payment in advance and reservations cannot be canceled.

 

[RonB]

Thanx all for the help ~ Ron

 

[Icc5]

Autoslash

I have been putting my information into Autoslash the last few years after booking first thru Costco or another company. So far they have saved me quite a lot each time. The most recent was a 15 day trip to Canada that Autoslash saved me almost $250.
Go on Facebook and put them in to learn how they work. You do not pay them anything for this service.

 

[AwayWeGo]

I Resemble That Remark.

I have been putting my information into Autoslash the last few years after booking first thru Costco or another company. So far they have saved me quite a lot each time.

So far AutoSlash has chopped our original Discount USA Car Rental rate by about $110 -- & the car pick-up date is still more than 2 months in the future. During the weeks ahead AutoSlash will automatically keep on looking for better rates & switch us to an even cheaper car reservation if they have more success searching.

The only possible weenie this time is that our vehicle category is Special Car -- not economy car, not compact car, not minivan, but Special Car (whatever that means). Special Car was the best rate shown originally, so that's what we went with.

The reservation E-Mail messages from AutoSlash say the Special Car will be compact or larger, to be chosen by the rental car company from whatever's available when we show up to sign the contract.

If it's compact or intermediate or full size or SUV, etc., no problem. If it's a HummVee or dump truck or 18-wheeler or some such, we may find we have outfoxed ourselves.

We'll see come January.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[WinniWoman]

I love using car rentals.com for the reasons stated above/

 

[DJensen]

Autoslash is about $30 cheaper than direct from Avis (primarily due to $20 promotional fee) for a rental this weekend in Denver.

I am hesitant for fear of being locked into a car not to my liking (size more than anything). Avis has an aisle where you can switch vehicles for free and wondering if this would still be available through Autoslash? I know one time I was traveling solo and they had me booked in a Explorer, I switched out to a more manageable full size or smaller - better gas mileage for sure.

Any help is appreciated.

p.s. Funny thing is that I called Avis on first quote from Autoslash and they brought the rental down $15. Now on Avis site itself the same rental is still another $10 cheaper than original booking.

 

[Luanne]

I usually (like 99.999999% of the time) do the best with Costco. Even after I book it I keep checking back. I have also tried autoslash, and one time only did it give me a better price than Costco. But autoslash keeps monitoring rates for you, so if they drop you can also go back to Costco and see if they've dropped there as well.

 

[DJensen]

I usually (like 99.999999% of the time) do the best with Costco. Even after I book it I keep checking back. I have also tried autoslash, and one time only did it give me a better price than Costco. But autoslash keeps monitoring rates for you, so if they drop you can also go back to Costco and see if they've dropped there as well.

Through Costco are you able to earn miles or points through the car rental agency? Like to eventually get a free day or similar.

 

[Luanne]

Through Costco are you able to earn miles or points through the car rental agency? Like to eventually get a free day or similar.

I think you can. Lately we've been getting our cars through Alamo, and we don't earn points or miles with that program. I do earn mileage points from the credit card I use. If you do belong to a loyalty program, you can usually enter your member number when reserving through Costco (I know for Budget we can) and you'll get all member privileges.

 

[Sea Six]

I always start my search at AAA

 

[Jan M.]

I search through someplace like Priceline, Travelocity, Expedia, etc. and then go the the actual website of the rental company with the best rate to reserve a car. Always sign up on that rental car company's website to get their emails with special offers and check them out to compare it to your current rate. Never prepay as the discount isn't enough to matter and you get penalized if you cancel. Keep checking back with that company and also for the lowest rates with other companies again on someplace like Priceline. I always end up with a better price than I started out with but at least I know I have something in the meantime.

Last April we and some renters who have become friends had our trips booked to Vegas. Even after watching for a couple of weeks the rental cars were still much higher than I normally paid in our many previous trips to Vegas so I started looking for options. The cab ride from the airport to the off airport Thrifty on Paradise Rd. was $11 plus the tip. Both couples saved a little over $130 each on the rentals and we both ended up with the next size up car from what we started out with at the airport rentals. And we were even able to return our cars to the airport.

I will be adding autoslash.com and Costco to my list in the future thanks to the information shared in this thread.

 

[WinniWoman]

I use CarRentals.com or even better-Auto Slash.com.

Don't have to pay upfront and free cancellation and also they will notify you by email if any prices drop before you leave for your trip.

 

[wackymother]

I use Costco. But I also have that extra insurance from Amex--you sign up with Amex, and then every time you rent a car, they charge $25 per rental and the Amex insurance becomes your primary insurance. It makes me feel a little more confident that everything will go smoothly if we do have an accident. It would take me a long, long time to get over that poor elk! Poor you!

 

[Luanne]

I just booked a car rental for September at Islip airport. At this point autoslash came in with a better price than Costco. Autoslash is just over $100 with Hertz (3 day rental) and Costco was almost $200 through Budget. Both are for a full size car.

 

[Icc5]

Almost always do a rental starting with Costco then turn to Autoslash and start getting emails as they find better rates. Sometimes have saved close to $250 over 2 weeks.
We never buy the auto company insurance but have AAA and use my Master Card. It worked great when a wild turkey hit us in Montana doing almost $1600 of damage. Every cent was covered between the two companies. I did have to pay the deductible but then got it reimbursed in full. You just have to keep records,communicate, make copies and follow their instructions.
I will always recommend Autoslash because they have done such a great job for me.
Bart