anyone rent vehicle and drive 1 way?

[pixxi]

With airfare costing so much. I was wonder if anyone rents a vehicle to drive to Orlando and then take the plane back home?

It would be about a 24 hour drive for us. I don't think I can do that round trip. We have 4 kids, just 1 leg sounds horrible.

Anyone think it would save money to do this? I have never rented a vehicle before and don't know what fees are involved.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Generally you will pay a premium to do a one-way rental. All you can do is price it out and them compare that to the cost of airfare for the whole family for a one-way flight AND for a round-trip flight.

 

[lawrenceFletcher]

In April / May every year, Hertz has a program where you can rent a car one way for 9.99 per day for a midsize/fullsize. But it is from Florida to multiple cities - Not to Florida. Can't beat<$10 per day!

 

[loveswdw]

I thought about doing this until I checked out the car rental options. To rent a car through Budget, pick it up here in Louisville, drive it through vacation and drop it off before our flight home from MCO was quoted at $1200 for a full size. No savings there at all.

 

[SmallWorld71]

You would have to run costs to see. In April 2012, we ended up flying down to FL (last minute, booked two days before travel). The flights home were about $800 each! There was no way we could afford it.

We did a one way rental from Fort Myers to Boston. It was $12.95 a day.

In the spring, they want to get the cars north and then they want them back in FL for the winter.

You do have to factor in gas and hotel stays. I was the only driver and we hit some rough weather. We ended up stopping 2 nights - on in Georgia and one in Maryland.

*Another thing to consider is packing. It is a challenge to pack for 2 different types of transportation. If I was driving to FL for such a long trip, I would want a cooler with food to save on $ and time stopping. You also want things to entertain, especially if you are with kids. (DVD's, players, toys etc...) The younger the kids, the bigger their stuff. IME, You really do need a lot of stuff to make it a pleasant trip if you have small kids. It's then next to impossible to pack it for a flight home.
We were fortunate that we were staying with relatives and borrowed their cooler etc... which they got back from us when they came to visit in the summer.

 

[chartle]

*Another thing to consider is packing. It is a challenge to pack for 2 different types of transportation. If I was driving to FL for such a long trip, I would want a cooler with food to save on $ and time stopping. You also want things to entertain, especially if you are with kids. (DVD's, players, toys etc...) The younger the kids, the bigger their stuff. IME, You really do need a lot of stuff to make it a pleasant trip if you have small kids. It's then next to impossible to pack it for a flight home.
We were fortunate that we were staying with relatives and borrowed their cooler etc... which they got back from us when they came to visit in the summer.

When we took the autotrain it was so nice we didn't have to make sure everything fit into 4 box shaped suitcases. We could shove stuff its every nook and crannie.

 

[loveswdw]

In April / May every year, Hertz has a program where you can rent a car one way for 9.99 per day for a midsize/fullsize. But it is from Florida to multiple cities - Not to Florida. Can't beat<$10 per day!

I did just see this on Hertz's website. It expires on June 30th this time. I ran the numbers and we could rent a full size to drive home. 2 day rental from MCO with all fees was just $35+. If they'd run this in October (yeah right!), I'd probably do this for the drive home. I'd rather do the drive down and fly home but $35 to drive home is a pretty good deal.

 

[Alesia]

I did just see this on Hertz's website. It expires on June 30th this time. I ran the numbers and we could rent a full size to drive home. 2 day rental from MCO with all fees was just $35+. If they'd run this in October (yeah right!), I'd probably do this for the drive home. I'd rather do the drive down and fly home but $35 to drive home is a pretty good deal.

In October they are going to want to get more cars down south, so you might be able to get a good deal if you rent for the trip down. You will not get a deal like that for the trip back.

 

[loveswdw]

In October they are going to want to get more cars down south, so you might be able to get a good deal if you rent for the trip down. You will not get a deal like that for the trip back.

I hope they do have this for going into FL as we still haven't booked our flights down but we have booked them coming home. Not going to hold my breath though.

 

[loveswdw]

I've been looking more into this option and found this on Hertz' website:
"Our one way car rental packages are made really attractive for our customers as we offer free unlimited mileage on most rentals and give benefit of no separate drop-off fees. The offer does not end here as you also get complimentary Never Lost In-Car Navigation system in our Prestige Collection vehicles. So wait no more and rent your car from us right away!!"

No drop off fee!! That makes this a much more attractive option. Right now rates are still high but when I did the rate for our October trip it was $735 all in. That's picking up a standard in Louisville on 10/17 and dropping it off at MCO on 10/28. Hopefully, rates will drop the closer it gets to our trip. We may not do this but it's nice to consider it as an option.