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How to avoid high fees at PHX car rental

mrsstats

mrsstats

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
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Location
Ronkonkoma, LI
Any suggestions on how to avoid the high fees on the car rental. We are staying at Camelback Resort. Fees are over $100 for the car. Any suggestions? TIA
 
Rent off site - not at the airport will save a little.

Overall we found the real savings were to fly into Las Vegas rather than AZ & then rent the car there, unlimited mileage, and drive. We saved on airfare & car rental & enjoyed the sights.
 
mrsstats said:
Any suggestions on how to avoid the high fees on the car rental. We are staying at Camelback Resort. Fees are over $100 for the car. Any suggestions? TIA
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I generally use Hotwire for rental car reservations and they are always cheaper at the airport. I dont know when you plan to travel but I just looked a moment ago and if you were going 5/18/-5/25 for instance, you could get a mid sized SUV for $149.54 (must be a ton of mid size SUV inventory at the moment as this is pretty cheap for the class of car.). If your trip is a ways out you can search hotwire and enter your email address to get price change updates. My rental car from MCO started out at $312 for the week I am going in June and I reserved for $143 for the week in a full size car 3 days ago when I got a price drop notice from the site. I dont use any other site for rental cars. It cant hurt to put in the ongoing price search for your dates. Normally the closer you get to your trip the cheaper the prices are. I booked MCO this far out because the price was right and if I find it cheaper I can rebook (you cannot do this is it is a HotRate) but I am assured the price of $143 with all taxes and fees included.
 
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PHX built a billion dollar stadium and almost named it pink taco, they settled on jobing.com, but people in the desert dont watch too much hockey, and the coyotes almost left the city. To pay for this poorly thought out behemoth that tthey put in glendale when they should have put it in Scottsdale for more foot traffic, they are passing the buck to transients.

If you rent off site you can avoid the fees. The suggestion of flying into vegas and driving 6 hours is absurd to me.
 
There's a Budget in Tempe. Cheap taxi ride from the airport and you can return the car to the airport when you are leaving. Do a search. I posted it on TUG- or call them.

Jim
 
siesta said:
PHX built a billion dollar stadium and almost named it pink taco, they settled on jobing.com, but people in the desert dont watch too much hockey, and the coyotes almost left the city. To pay for this poorly thought out behemoth that tthey put in glendale when they should have put it in Scottsdale for more foot traffic, they are passing the buck to transients.

If you rent off site you can avoid the fees. The suggestion of flying into vegas and driving 6 hours is absurd to me.
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Oops I misread
 
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My experience is that airport BASE rental costs are usually the cheapest however, as you point out, the extra surcharges are killers. On the other hand, off site BASE rental rates are generally higher but you do save some of the extra costs. Some of the cheap rental sites (like Hotwire) only quote for airport but, even with the surcharges, they can be cheaper. Our last experience seems to suggest that (like everything else) car rental companies are not adding cars - as a matter of fact - on the day we picked up our car the agent told us that he and the airport were out of rentals!! It was pretty hard to believe as we drove by the HUGE car rental facility the city built??!!!
 
nightnurse613 said:
My experience is that airport BASE rental costs are usually the cheapest however, as you point out, the extra surcharges are killers. On the other hand, off site BASE rental rates are generally higher but you do save some of the extra costs. Some of the cheap rental sites (like Hotwire) only quote for airport but, even with the surcharges, they can be cheaper. Our last experience seems to suggest that (like everything else) car rental companies are not adding cars - as a matter of fact - on the day we picked up our car the agent told us that he and the airport were out of rentals!! It was pretty hard to believe as we drove by the HUGE car rental facility the city built??!!!
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You can get rates for locals vs airport locations on Hotwire. I dont bother anymore because the airport is cheaper when using Hotwire. Basically Hotwire reduces the base rate which in turn lowers the taxes and fees imposed at airport locations. I also like renting from an airport location because it is less restrictive when returning.
 
siesta said:
If you rent off site you can avoid the fees. The suggestion of flying into vegas and driving 6 hours is absurd to me.
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In case you didn't catch the underlying thought 2/3 of our 3 person family finds Arizona a bit of a bore. We far prefer the activity & glitz of LV over rocks and retirement communities. The fact that we can save big bucks by traveling in & out of LV over Phoenix or any other Arizona location is the excuse we need to get back to Vegas!

Having spent two whole weeks in a couple AZ locations my daughter and I don't care if we ever see another rock formation or not. My wife on the other hand loves the natural beauty and calm. So we may go but try to tie it to what all of us enjoy at some point.
 
timeos2 said:
In case you didn't catch the underlying thought 2/3 of our 3 person family finds Arizona a bit of a bore. We far prefer the activity & glitz of LV over rocks and retirement communities.
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thats great, maybe you should start your own thread and talk about what YOU prefer. But the thread was about PHX car rental fees and how to avoid them. The OP is staying in Scottsdale about 25 minutes from PHX Sky Harbor Airport

"Overall we found the real savings were to fly into Las Vegas rather than AZ & then rent the car there, unlimited mileage, and drive. We saved on airfare & car rental & enjoyed the sights."

I repeat, this is an absurd suggesstion for someone visiting AZ/PHX/Scottsdale/Sedona/Payson etc.
 
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siesta said:
I repeat, this is an absurd suggesstion for someone visiting AZ/PHX/Scottsdale/Sedona/Peyson etc.
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The fact remains that for the investment in a little extra time we do save big by not flying directly into any AZ location. That meets the specs of the thread.

And there are much smaller savings in simply getting your rental vehicle off airport but that won't cut your airfare costs in any way. Options, thinking out of the standard approach is what it's all about. If that also fits personal preferences that's even better!
 
I kind of liked the idea of flying to Vegas and driving. I know that when I used to fly from Texas to Hilton Head or Myrtle beach I always checked multiple airports looking at the sum of airfare and car rental costs. It was surprising how much I could save at times.

George
 
Try carrentalsavers.com they sometimes have great deals
 
OK, I just checked a Budget full size car for 1 week. 5/25-6/1. P/U at airport- total $264, including $113 fees. Budget on Scottsdale rd, Tempe, w/return to PHX airport, $234, including $37 in fees. + about a $7 taxi ride. Ymmv.

Jim
 
timeos2 said:
The fact remains that for the investment in a little extra time we do save big by not flying directly into any AZ location. That meets the specs of the thread.

And there are much smaller savings in simply getting your rental vehicle off airport but that won't cut your airfare costs in any way. Options, thinking out of the standard approach is what it's all about. If that also fits personal preferences that's even better!
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For us, the savings amounts to $50 or $60. That's because it's as expensive to fly into Vegas as Pheonix from our home airport. Yes the car rentals are cheaper in Vegas but, the cost of gas to drive there and back chews up a lot of that savings. Then there's the 10 to 12 hours of drive time.

For those who can fly into Vegas on the cheap it might be worth it but, I hardly think there will be big savings for a majority of the country.
 
Passepartout said:
OK, I just checked a Budget full size car for 1 week. 5/25-6/1. P/U at airport- total $264, including $113 fees. Budget on Scottsdale rd, Tempe, w/return to PHX airport, $234, including $37 in fees. + about a $7 taxi ride. Ymmv.

Jim
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I'm not sure I'd go through the hassle of getting a taxi and paying the fare plus tipping the cab driver (they tend to hate short hauls) just to save $23.
 
Passepartout said:
OK, I just checked a Budget full size car for 1 week. 5/25-6/1. P/U at airport- total $264, including $113 fees. Budget on Scottsdale rd, Tempe, w/return to PHX airport, $234, including $37 in fees. + about a $7 taxi ride. Ymmv.

Jim
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You could use Hotwire to get a Full Size for the same time period for $247.07 with the pick up and return at PHX. I would venture to say that if this is your timeframe then you can get it cheaper by waiting another 10 days or so to book. They are always cheapest 14 days or less out.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. Not going until Sept. I guess I will wait as it gets closer. I am just a planner and like to have everything in order.
 
We booked our car through Costco Travel in February 2012 in Phoenix and paid about half of even the Hotwire price. The car was through Avis.
 
mrsstats said:
Thanks for all the suggestions. Not going until Sept. I guess I will wait as it gets closer. I am just a planner and like to have everything in order.
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One of the nice things about car rental reservations are they are usually free to cancel within a day or two of the scheduled use. So make one even if it's a bit too high to be sure you have one in hand. Then watch for a better deal closer to the trip. If you find it make it & then cancel the first. Prices often do go down but not always so you have to check but you want that bird in hand so you know you'll be covered.
 
Phoenix car rental

Found a great deal with Hertz! We are flying into PHX picking up a car off site driving it out of Arizona to California and returning to a Hertz rental car agency where we live . Total price for 9 days $59.01! Works for us! Visiting family for a day, driving to Palm Desert for a week and then driving home. You can rent the car at the Phx airport but the added airport fees brought the price up in our case to $134. Hertz has a $5 a day rental in Arizona but the car has to. E driven out of Arizona. Best fares has an additional discount which drops the rate to $4.50 a day. This rate is for an economy or compact cars but you can get a mid sized car for slightly more.
 
We fly to Phoenix about once a year to visit family. The best rental car deal for us is usually from a Hertz Local Edition (HLE) location. By picking up a car at the Motor Mile location on North Scottsdale Rd we have been able to save at least $100 at the cost of a cab fare of less than $20. We have always been able to return the car to the airport at no additional cost.
 
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