Anyone ever returned a car early?

[goobylal]

I booked a car a few weeks ago thinking we'd stay a week in Disney, but due to flight times and prices, we're leaving a day earlier. I can't find a cheaper rate than what I have currently, so I was thinking of returning the car a day early if I still can't find a better rate by the time the trip happens. Will that be a problem?

 

[sam_gordon]

It might change your rate. Or it might not.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

You will probably be charged more, as weekly rates are usually less than 6 day rental rates. Your rate quote is for a weekly rental. Do a mock booking for 6 days and see what it says.

 

[goobylal]

Actually, now that I think about it, we pick up the car around 9 AM at the Port of Tampa and return it 6 days later for a flight leaving at 12:40. If I drop it off after 9 AM it should count as a week.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

No, it won't. It's six days and an hour or so more.

 

[mackeymouse4eva]

Most car rental agency's consider over 5 days to be a weekly rate, but give them a call to check on this. And yes, if it is 6 full 24 hour days and you go more than 2hrs into the next day(some companies it's an hour over) then that counts as the 7th day. If in your example you were picking up on a Sunday at 9am and dropping on Sat at 1240-you will have crossed into the 7th day after 10 or 11 that morning.

 

[bumbershoot]

If I drop it off after 9 AM it should count as a week.

Playing around with rental stuff. Chose Budget as National and Alamo are acting up.

5/26 to 9/2, 9am to 9am, got a price.
same to 9/1, 9am to 10am, got the SAME price.
same to 9/1, 9am to 9am? SAME price. unexpected.

Continued, OK, apparently something funky is happening.

same to 5/31, 9 - 9, same price.

Odd.

same to 5/30, 9-9, BIG huge jump, nearly double.
same to 5/30, 9- 12:45, back to the previous "week" price.


Have you played around with your rental agency site? Have you called them?

With a 12:40 flight you'd want to be there about 10:40 (or I would) so if you pushed it a bit and were dropping off around that time, I'd think that they would count it as 6 days nearly 3 hours = 1 week.

 

[goobylal]

Thanks for the replies. I did what bumbershoot did with my dates, and even just 1 hour over the 6th full day gave me the same rate as a weekly rental, while 6 days charged me $25 more. If I can't find a cheaper price, which I doubt and I have 6 months to do so, I'll call them to confirm, but I doubt it will be a problem.

 

[PSUGuy]

A few years back on a March WDW trip we got an email from home as we arrived at MK on our last day there saying that there was a danger of flood in our neighborhood. We called AirTran from MK, got switched to a flight that afternoon and headed back to Board Walk. We drove to MCO in our Dollar rental and told the attendant that we were a day early because of the flood scare. He said something about an early return penalty but he was joking, the tab was less than the full rate we signed up for. I don't know if our tale of woe made a difference but that's our experience. Oh, and no flood happened.

Bill From PA

 

[DebbieB]

I got home from a 13 day business trip to Richmond on Friday. I rented with National. My original quote was $495 incl Tax with a 2 week rate. We got to the airport early and ended up 6 minutes short of another full day and ended up being charged for 1 week plus 5 days, ended about $25 less, $470.

Where you could get messed up is if the rate had specific rules about length of rental.