December 2023 Rental Car Thread

[holyrita]

We are two weeks from our trip now and Alamo prices have increased to nearly $100 more than what I was able to re-book it for two weeks ago. Meanwhile Budget prices are decreasing so I have a reservation with them as well for $50 less than Alamo reservation. Obviously will keep monitoring all prices.

Hopefully we'll get some recent MCO Budget rental experiences soon to see if they're still smooth sailing or have returned to their terrible, lengthy lines!

 

[SWofDisorder]

I checked our costco again today and saved another $20 our 8 day rental.

 

[Lynne G]

Like above, my week for a SUV from Alamo is much higher than I got the other day. Budget is cheaper, and gets a Costco gift card, but I am very leery, and rather pay more and go to Alamo, as never had issue with them in Orlando. I have seen large lines at Budget as I walk past, to get my car right from the Alamo garage. But I’ll keep checking.

 

[etzmn123]

Like above, my week for a SUV from Alamo is much higher than I got the other day. Budget is cheaper, and gets a Costco gift card, but I am very leery, and rather pay more and go to Alamo, as never had issue with them in Orlando. I have seen large lines at Budget as I walk past, to get my car right from the Alamo garage. But I’ll keep checking.

My dates dropped as well with Costco for Budget but I’m also too hesitant to use them after reading so many horror stories about them at MCO. I think I’ll stick with my Alamo reservation too!

 

[dwonderz]

Our Alamo rental for December just dropped by $3 to $214 for 4 days - also have a rental booked with Budget right now via Costco for $188 with a $25 gift card back.

Can't decide if Budget is worth the extra $$ saved or not - I know it can be a nightmare (we've rented from them once before and stood in line for 1.5 hours at 12:30 in the morning after our flight was delayed)... We're signed up for Fast Break but I am afraid of it not working...

 

[Maliki2]

My dates have gone up over $200!!! I'll stick with my original reservation!

 

[otterlychaotic]

Hertz AAA rates for my dates (mid-Dec) have gone down $50, so if you're a member you might want to check the AAA travel website or use the appropriate AAA CDP for your location to see if the prices are good for your dates, especially since MCO offers Ultimate Choice areas for Hertz members.

Side note: The Hertz website is very laggy today so be prepared to have things take an extra 10-15 seconds while on the site if the issue still persists.

Also, Thrifty and Dollar are supremely cheap on the AAA travel website right now for me, so might be an option if people want the cheapest option and don't mind the potential headaches that can accompany using either company & the long check-in lines that regularly occur.

 

[Akck]

I now have a rate from Budget for a full-size car for $249. Today, I was able to get a standard car from Alamo for $292, both via Costco. Both are comparable since Alamo sends you to the full-size row at MCO. While I’ve rented from both, my preference has been Alamo. If we’re lucky, there will be a selection of free upgrades in that row, including SUV and minivan options. I’ve told myself that I’m willing to pay $50 more for Alamo over most other rental agencies and that’s where we stand now.

 

[Lynne G]

Yeah, finally got my SUV aisle from Alamo via Costco for $385. First time I finally saw it under 400. Still salty though, as had the same vehicle for 2 weeks at the end of September for the same price as the second week, only one week in December.

I too saw the lower prices for Budget, but I’m sticking with Alamo, as prefer them every time. I too am willing to pay more to have no issue going right to aisle, load the plate number into my sunpass account, and checkout at the gate.

I have a few days more to check, but at least I feel like I got the lowest rate so far.

 

[Akck]

Standard car from Alamo via Costco dropped $2, down to $290 for our 6 day rental. I still have a reservation from Budget for $249, but I’m leaning towards Alamo since I know it should be a quicker process. I’m waiting on experiences from another thread to see what happened with their pick up.

 

[Southernswthrt]

My week-long rental for a full size car is down to $353 from $372 with Alamo. Budget is about $40 cheaper, but I try to avoid Budget at all costs based on prior experience. Was hoping I could get below $300, but this may be as low as it goes, as our rental is in a couple weeks.

 

[kittylady1972]

So I swore off Budget years ago due to a horrible experience in the MCO terminal.

Never say never...yet.

We have a confirmed Alamo reservation for the upcoming weekend....$160 for 3 days.

Budget has me at $125.

The email from Budget says to go to the Garage FastBreak and pick up my vehicle. I have my flight information entered and my DL and CC on it as well. I'm going to ATTEMPT the Budget reservation first. However any indication of long lines or long waits of any kind...and I'll revert to my Alamo reservation.

I'll try to remember to report back on my results.

 

[Maliki2]

Prices are slowly coming down. So if I prepay at Alamo do they still place a deposit or hold on my Credit card? This would be at MCO

 

[otterlychaotic]

Prices are slowly coming down. So if I prepay at Alamo do they still place a deposit or hold on my Credit card? This would be at MCO

Yes, there will still be a security hold placed on your card whether you prepay or pay at the counter.

 

[Leigh L]

I noticed Costco's prices dipped a bit today too if anyone is renting from them. (as did our non-Disney hotels for the time we're at other locations).

We're sticking with our elite SUV for now, they briefly had been way cheaper than a compact car a couple of weeks back. Today, the compact is $14 less and I'd have to switch to Enterprise, but I figure the SUV is worth it since I already linked to Alamo (where we have an account), printed the ticket, etc.

If the car drops a lot, I think that'll be the only reason why we'd change again, even to a smaller car.

 

[Akck]

I recently saw a price drop for a mid-sized car through Alamo via Costco for $278, which I grabbed. I went ahead and checked in online and found the reservation upgraded to a standard car, plus I get to skip the counter. This means we’ll get a full-size car when we go to select (no standard car row at MCO).

 

[kittylady1972]

Ok due to an arrival snafu, we were pressed for time to pick up our car. I didn't have my EZPass with me (I usually bring it) and since I did the options that didn't require a counter visit, I was looking for how to pay my tolls without returning to the rental counter. So we tried the option in the airport for the Visitor Toll Pass. Since we were at the rental counters already, I started to walk down to Budget for my FastBreak reservation...and though it was just around 8:30am I could see the line there before I got there...and said NOPE. So I didn't try to find the counter in the garage to see if that worked...somebody else may have to report on that. We just went with our Alamo reservation, and the you click we pick skip the counter option gave us a nice Toyota RAV4 rental. We were out of there quickly.

Hopefully somebody else can report back if Budget still requires that inside the terminal counter stop for sure. We were pressed for time so I didn't do it.

Now my concern is that I already have a Unipass through Florida, and it seems using the same email for that and the Visitor Toll Pass has me unable to login to my Unipass account now. UGH. I'll have to figure that out eventually.

 

[holyrita]

We picked up our Rental car with Budget this past weekend. We booked with Costco and entered our Fastbreak number and Flight info when making the reservation. When we landed the app showed our assigned car under 'Current Reservation'. We landed in Terminal A, so we went directly to the rental car garage and our paperwork with our name on it was outside the Budget Fastbreak booth telling us which spot our car was in. Couldn't have been easier and the car we were assigned is great and was an upgrade from what we booked.

 

[Akck]

As reported earlier, we ended up with a full-size car from Alamo on our mid-size car via Costco. We could’ve gotten a minivan, but went with a Chevy Malibu for the enclosed trunk.

 

[Maliki2]

As reported earlier, we ended up with a full-size car from Alamo on our mid-size car via Costco. We could’ve gotten a minivan, but went with a Chevy Malibu for the enclosed trunk.

I just scored Dec 30th-Jan 9th for $445 ( Down from $810) with the new email code. I originally had 1-8 for $325