Are the car rates related to the airline slump?

[MartDM]

Are the inflated car rates or lack of deals for the spring is related to the airline slump. Is it simple supply and demand?

I'm guessing as long as folks are too paranoid to fly and the rentals are busy, I won't see any better deals for early February, eh?

Is there some other factor? Does anyone have any rumor of any deals coming up?

Usually by now the rates have dropped so I'm just wondering...

 

[disnurse]

i was wondering the same thing. Starting to plan for my april vacation and the prices are about 60$ more than last april. i hope the come down a bit. Does anyone have any thoughts or inside infor

 

[pbhunt]

We booked our WDW/Cruise vacation for Apr-May'02 in July'01. I booked our National rental at the end of September, the rates were REALLY, REALLY low at that time. I just hope they won't quibble when we go to pick up the car

 

[MartDM]

I did book a reservation back in the fall when rates were low; glad I did.

I always book early with the lowest rate I can and then keep shopping and always seem to get a better deal closer to the travel dates. Looks like there won't be any bargains this winter!

 

[denisenh]

We are still going back and forth trying to decide, fly or drive, for our Florida trip in February.
While looking at rental car prices, I found a HUGE difference in quotes from on site (at the airport) rentals and off site. I knew there would probably be a difference. I just never considered off site, we just get our rental at the airport.
In our case, we will be flying into Tampa. The onsite rentals were between 3 and 4 hundred for our 8 days. I checked our enterprise.com, which I read on a post here, has a great shuttle to their "off site" place (0.32 miles away) and was quoted less than $200 for a mid size. I forgot the correct term but it was a car for 5 people with luggage.
I guess my tip to you would be don't completely rule out off site rentals.

 

[MartDM]

Although that's a great tip and many times you can get a much better rate off site, I've found that both on and off site agencies seem to be high right now (I've checked National, Dollar, Avis, Alamo, Hertz, etc. and done general searches on Expedia & Travelocity...everyone is still showing elevated rates).

 

[denisenh]

Holy Cow! I just noticed that SWA dropped their rates to FL., so I quickly went over to check car rentals (see above post by me) The quote today was $393. !!!!!!!!!!!!! For the sames dates and car!!!! If you get a good rate just book it, don't wait!!