April 2021 Car Rental Thread

[tebookie]

Planning quick trip and surprised by the Car Rental rates. My normal go to is Alamo and Mini Van for 4/23-4/27 Is $565. Ouch!!!! That's a couple hundred more than we have been paying.
Anyone have any rate codes to try?

 

[gharter]

Sadly the codes are doing very little.
The passholder doesn't do much and even the free upgrade was minimal.
The best weekly we got was about $320 for a midsize a month ago, now its over $420.

 

[LadybugsMum]

Check carrentalsavers. Thrifty has a bunch of different cars in the $350 range for those dates. We are going the same dates so I check everyday. I know I saw a full size and compact SUV for right around $350 I think the economy was about $334. The rates haven't budged in days. I filter it for the Major Agencies and Thrifty has gone up about $20 from when I booked a few weeks again (Mid size SUV at $330). They have consistently been the cheapest for that week since I started checking. I prefer Alamo, but its way more.

I actually have a $307 for Alamo intermediate already reserved. I also won't do a company that requires a shuttle to the lot since I'll have my young kids and all of our luggage to haul.

 

[leebee]

A couple of weeks ago auto slash found a midsize SUV at Hertz for $299. Weekly price for 5 days, so I wasn't thrilled, but I booked it. SO glad I did! Travel dates 4/11-4/16.

 

[Akck]

It’s getting worrisome that the rate I got last month is the lowest. We just traveled to Houston and the rates went up as we got closer. Vehicles were definitely sparser as there were only about a dozen available and they let us take a minivan instead of the midsized SUV we reserved.

I just wanted to report that when we returned our rental in Houston, the return section was even sparser than the pickup area and this was at 2 pm. Normally, we see several rows of cars waiting to be cleaned for the next group of renters. I think, in general, rental companies are keeping much smaller inventories on hand. I keep checking for our April trip and my reservation I thought was too high may be our “bargain" price.

 

[friendoffigment]

prices just keep going up at Alamo. now over 600 for an economy for 10 days. even if the price goes down can't see them going down 100's of dollars to make a rental worth it. hopefully i am wrong

 

[gharter]

Wow, our week rental through Alamo would be nearly $500 now.
If I needed to rent today, that would be an easy pass.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I'm still watching rates occasionally, but I am beginning to think any big decline (to something below my existing rate) is probably unlikely. As more people are deciding to travel (because they are vaccinated, because they have reached the point where they are unwilling to wait any longer, or for whatever their reason) and more visitors want the convenience and safety of their own private vehicle, I would think inventory is going FAST if they still have B side car rental closed completely. Unless they reopen the second side and add in a whole lot of extra cars, I can't see rates declining much.

 

[friendoffigment]

I'm still watching rates occasionally, but I am beginning to think any big decline (to something below my existing rate) is probably unlikely. As more people are deciding to travel (because they are vaccinated, because they have reached the point where they are unwilling to wait any longer, or for whatever their reason) and more visitors want the convenience and safety of their own private vehicle, I would think inventory is going FAST if they still have B side car rental closed completely. Unless they reopen the second side and add in a whole lot of extra cars, I can't see rates declining much.

Yes, unfortunately I agree. Low rates mean they are trying to fill those cars that have not been reserved. Low inventory + more guests = no need to lower rates since cars are being filled. But we can hope

 

[LadybugsMum]

Price for my week (10-17) is over $500 now. I went ahead and linked the reservation from Costco to my Alamo app and have everything set to skip the counter and go directly to the lot to get my car. I've also canceled the reservation I have for National at the Disney Car Care center. My Alamo reservation is only $30 more for pick up/drop off at the airport so we can get some time at the parks before we head out instead of having to wait for ME.

 

[Akck]

Price for my week (10-17) is over $500 now. I went ahead and linked the reservation from Costco to my Alamo app and have everything set to skip the counter and go directly to the lot to get my car. I've also canceled the reservation I have for National at the Disney Car Care center. My Alamo reservation is only $30 more for pick up/drop off at the airport so we can get some time at the parks before we head out instead of having to wait for ME.

FYI, if for some reason prices do come down, you can still cancel a reservation where you did online check-in and skip the counter. Just make your new reservation from Costco and then cancel the old one with Costco. I did online and skip back in November a few days before our trip and a couple of days later, the price dropped. Couldn’t cancel it with Alamo, but I was able to do so at Costco.

 

[RebelSoul]

My 4/30 - 5/10 SFB --> CLT midsize dropped from $377 down to $270 today. Big surprise needless to say.

 

[keishashadow]

My 4/30 - 5/10 SFB --> CLT midsize dropped from $377 down to $270 today. Big surprise needless to say.

Those are my dates, more or less but to MCO lol. Still...

Can you post details as to agency/public code & coupon etc?

 

[mellvswdw1]

I was just able to secure a Camry or like vehicle with Budget for 252 everything included by using a link from a ticketing site mentioned earlier.. I had bought a ticket in February so they honored the link. So happy I was able to do that, thanks to this thread. When I did a search with Costco, and even fast break it was hundreds of dollars higher. I had to pay it at checkout, but seeing how high everything is, I just bit the bullet. Now if I could figure out budgets site so I can link this reservation with my fastbreak....oh well!

 

[RebelSoul]

Sure. Alamo using coupon code AU2993SDR and discount code (upgrade) 7015504.

We go every end of April and into early May, except 2020 obviously, when some car rental companies have their 'drive out of FL' deals. It's not nearly as good as years past deals, but we'll take it. We fly in and then drive home. In 2019 we paid for a10-day rental from SFB --> CLT full size for under $150. Not sure we'll see deals that good again though. We've been doing these deals for years.

 

[thewesterberg]

I was just able to secure a Camry or like vehicle with Budget for 252 everything included by using a link from a ticketing site mentioned earlier.. I had bought a ticket in February so they honored the link. So happy I was able to do that, thanks to this thread. When I did a search with Costco, and even fast break it was hundreds of dollars higher. I had to pay it at checkout, but seeing how high everything is, I just bit the bullet. Now if I could figure out budgets site so I can link this reservation with my fastbreak....oh well!

I also have a Budget rental and couldn’t figure out a way to link the reservations. I asked the ticketing agency and they said there isn’t a way to do it, which is a big bummer! I was really hoping to skip the line!

 

[mellvswdw1]

Well that is disappointing, but thank you for the information!

 

[Akck]

I also have a Budget rental and couldn’t figure out a way to link the reservations. I asked the ticketing agency and they said there isn’t a way to do it, which is a big bummer! I was really hoping to skip the line!

I’ve read about mixed results linking your reservation on other threads. All required calling Budget and getting them to add your Fastbreak account # to your reservation.

 

[mellvswdw1]

’ve read about mixed results linking your reservation on other threads. All required calling Budget and getting them to add your Fastbreak account # to your reservation.

I will try to call and link my reservation and I report back If you can with a third party reservation. Have a good night!

 

[kydisneyfans]

I just returned from a Budget rental. Arrived Wednesday night, literally no line. After a failed attempt at a hard upsell, I was given a small SUV after prepaying to rent an economy car($152 for 5 days through U T). The vehicle was next to new. There seemed to be plenty on site both when I picked up last Wed and when I dropped off this morning.