august 2013 codes for rental cars?

[richmo]

I'm not a moderator and I don't want to come down on anyone, but this is a critical time for finding car rentals for those of us in August and I sense this thread is losing its way to hurricane talk. A quick comment is fine (it even caused me to look at the NOAA site), but extended hurricane chatter isn't exactly relevant to this thread. Sorry, just my opinion.

Anyway, back in car land...

Gina, thanks for the KLM update. Good to know. It's just odd that KLM still says they have that relationship with National, yet its nowhere to be found on their website.

I reported last night that Alamo has lowered there rates by almost half. That reduction took place either very late afternoon yesterday or early evening (of course, it could be significant that my rental start time is 4:00 in the afternoon, so maybe something automatically kicked in). Yesterday I was exactly 11 days out from the rental start. This morning there has been another minor reduction. I still haven't had a chance to start plugging codes, Insiders, etc. in, but its getting low enough that I'll do that. It'll also be interesting to see today if other agencies rates start fluctuating. It had been quiet earlier this week...plus I hit that magic(?) 10 days out later today. Alamo is still about $75 higher than my Dollar rental (before plugging codes in). If I can get that down to around $25, I might go with them for convenience. Keeping fingers crossed...

 

[richmo]

What do you think they mean...discounted rental?

I'm guessing they mean that their standard discount, whatever that may be, might not apply to another promotion...like if they have a promo for a car at $X per week, you can't apply the KLM discount to knock it down further.

 

[Mich Mouse]

So......I have finally received an email reply from the KLM Flying Blue program regarding the use of the discount code from National. Here it is:

"Thank you very much for your message dated July 22nd 2013.

You would like to make sure that the car rental company National is a partner of the Flying Blue programme.

We can confirm that we do have a partnership in place with National.

Any car rental in a participating National agency allows Miles accrual, as long as the rental agreement is issued under the name of the Flying Blue car holder.

We do not have access to the Discount Code, however we can confirm that as long as you mention your Flying Blue card number when booking and when picking up the car, the Miles will be credited automatically.

Please note that the following rates are not eligible as per the partnership in place: utility vehicle, long term rental, replacement car, car rental with a chauffeur or discounted rental.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us on (+1) 800 375 87 23.

We thank you for your continued loyalty to the Flying Blue programme.

Yours sincerely,

Your Flying Blue team"

Nice investigative work Gina!! I hope this reassures everyone and that users will not call National to inquire. I have read that calling National for verification will 'kill' codes. I have been using this one for years and hope we can all continue doing so.

My understanding of code killing comes from my lurking on another board and their mention of Disboards there- not in a nice way. We have been referred to as the code killers. I think they like to keep their secrets to themselves out of fear that the code will not be usable. I am not sure how accurate that really is though. They may just need some Disney magic.

Thanks again for the reassurance.

 

[Canwego]

Does anyone else have trouble with Alamo website. Everytime i plug in anything, if I try to change it(ie insiders discount and then trying to change to Visa) it wont let me change. I have to move to another computer. Also, if i try to switch anything...like date, it tells me I have exceeded coupn usage

 

[piglet33]

Does anyone else have trouble with Alamo website. Everytime i plug in anything, if I try to change it(ie insiders discount and then trying to change to Visa) it wont let me change. I have to move to another computer. Also, if i try to switch anything...like date, it tells me I have exceeded coupn usage

That happens to me sometimes. Just refresh the page and start again. If that doesn't work, clear your browser history and cache and close it. Then try again. That usually fixes it for me.

 

[richmo]

Does anyone else have trouble with Alamo website. Everytime i plug in anything, if I try to change it(ie insiders discount and then trying to change to Visa) it wont let me change. I have to move to another computer. Also, if i try to switch anything...like date, it tells me I have exceeded coupn usage

Yeah, I wish Alamo would take these high rates they're charging and get someone to fix their website. I actually tried modifying an old reservation that they had already accepted, made no changes to codes or coupons and got the exceeded coupon message. If they'd go back to their old website, it'd be fine with me...

 

[brettb]

What do you think they mean...discounted rental?

That's the million dollar ($400?) question. All they talk about is mileage accrual in the body.

 

[LocaRoja]

Based on recent posts, I re-ran my dates (3 day rental at end of August) through Costco travel webpage and Alamo finally came down!

I have a existing reservations for a mid sized with Dollar ($60 total) and intermediate with Enterprise ($74).

Alamo has finally moved from $190 to $83 in the last day for my dates. Still not the winner, but at least they are in the range of reasonable. Avis and Budget are still $200!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Alamo has dropped like a stone for my dates this morning.

A standard (which would include full size, if I remember correctly, as there is no standard aisle at MCO) is $206.83 for 8 days with the Insiders discount and $30 off Visa coupon AD2338FDF. The Visa code 7015504 plus the coupon produces a rate of $218.21 for the same car.

This is down from $450-ish yesterday.

 

[richmo]

Alamo has dropped like a stone for my dates this morning.

A standard (which would include full size, if I remember correctly, as there is no standard aisle at MCO) is $206.83 for 8 days with the Insiders discount and $30 off Visa coupon AD2338FDF. The Visa code 7015504 plus the coupon produces a rate of $218.21 for the same car.

This is down from $450-ish yesterday.

That's pretty much what I was seeing, as well. In my case, Dollar is still well below this, but its better than the $450 that was showing at Alamo for so long.

And you remember correctly: standard and full size are considered the same at MCO, so there's no need to book full size.

I think it's good you found this (Alamo) when you did; it seems to be up around $40 from what I saw an hour or two ago. Looks like it might be bouncing around...

 

[MrsDoubtfire]

I reported last night that Alamo has lowered there rates by almost half. That reduction took place either very late afternoon yesterday or early evening (of course, it could be significant that my rental start time is 4:00 in the afternoon, so maybe something automatically kicked in). Yesterday I was exactly 11 days out from the rental start. This morning there has been another minor reduction. I still haven't had a chance to start plugging codes, Insiders, etc. in, but its getting low enough that I'll do that. It'll also be interesting to see today if other agencies rates start fluctuating. It had been quiet earlier this week...plus I hit that magic(?) 10 days out later today. Alamo is still about $75 higher than my Dollar rental (before plugging codes in). If I can get that down to around $25, I might go with them for convenience. Keeping fingers crossed...

I am now at 13 days before we leave, and while I do see the Alamo rates lower than what they were several weeks ago, they still are not lower or even close to the $240 (13 days, 8/6 to 8/19, MCO) that I scored at the 3 week mark.

When I looked at the trend from my last years rental from Alamo, I saw that the rates for my rental dropped to the lowest at the 3 week mark also. At 20 days from vacay last year, I reserved a Fullsize for $159 for 9 days. That broke down to $17.66 per day. This years rental breaks down to $18.46 per day. Not too bad, considering I will be able to check in at the Alamo kiosk, add another driver for free (Alamo insider), and chose a car rather than having one assigned.

 

[richmo]

I am now at 13 days before we leave, and while I do see the Alamo rates lower than what they were several weeks ago, they still are not lower or even close to the $240 (13 days, 8/6 to 8/19, MCO) that I scored at the 3 week mark.

When I looked at the trend from my last years rental from Alamo, I saw that the rates for my rental dropped to the lowest at the 3 week mark also. At 20 days from vacay last year, I reserved a Fullsize for $159 for 9 days. That broke down to $17.66 per day. This years rental breaks down to $18.46 per day. Not too bad, considering I will be able to check in at the Alamo kiosk, add another driver for free (Alamo insider), and chose a car rather than having one assigned.

I've tried looking at year to year trends as to when good rates (especially Alamo) kick in and haven't had much luck with it. Even trying to figure periods when rates will be less expensive than others can be a mystery. Since this is an August thread, I would guess that late August rates would be better than early, perhaps with the exception of times leading into Labor Day weekend. But that's just a guess. That being said, your $18.46/day is terrific anytime for a full size. I don't need to tell you to keep looking, but I'd also be quite happy with that.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

That's pretty much what I was seeing, as well. In my case, Dollar is still well below this, but its better than the $450 that was showing at Alamo for so long.

And you remember correctly: standard and full size are considered the same at MCO, so there's no need to book full size.

I think it's good you found this (Alamo) when you did; it seems to be up around $40 from what I saw an hour or two ago. Looks like it might be bouncing around...

I didn't book with Alamo, just saw the rates had declined and ran the quotes. I still have a full size with Dollar for $167. And my SUV reservation with National using the KLM Flying Blue code for $245 (Alamo was still $100+ higher for that vehicle class). The SUV is still the front runner. If Alamo matches the Dollar quote at some point for a standard/full size, then I'd reconsider.

 

[richmo]

Was just looking at Enterprise for my early August dates. They've gone up quite a bit for the standard car classes since last week, but I saw Large SUV (Yukon, Tahoe, Expedition...) for $324/wk base, $414/total. I have no use for anything that big, but I know some of you are looking for unusual things...so maybe take a look...

 

[anorman]

this is a critical time for finding car rentals for those of us in August and I sense this thread is losing its way to hurricane talk. A quick comment is fine (it even caused me to look at the NOAA site), but extended hurricane chatter isn't exactly relevant to this thread. Sorry, just my opinion.

Anyway, back in car land...

I reported last night that Alamo has lowered there rates by almost half. That reduction took place either very late afternoon yesterday or early evening (of course, it could be significant that my rental start time is 4:00 in the afternoon, so maybe something automatically kicked in). Yesterday I was exactly 11 days out from the rental start. .....plus I hit that magic(?) 10 days out later today. Alamo is still about $75 higher than my Dollar rental (before plugging codes in). If I can get that down to around $25, I might go with them for convenience. Keeping fingers crossed...

So far, for me it seems as though the critical time may have passed. At 4 weeks, my rate for a midsize through Alamo was at its lowest that I have seen with $332 and Dollar at the same time was $287 for a full size. Has anyone got better rates closer to dates? Is 10 days prior another day to watch for?

 

[Martyap]

So far, for me it seems as though the critical time may have passed. At 4 weeks, my rate for a midsize through Alamo was at its lowest that I have seen with $332 and Dollar at the same time was $287 for a full size. Has anyone got better rates closer to dates? Is 10 days prior another day to watch for?

I got better rates 8-10 days before our upcoming July 28th rental......Dollar is $152/Enterprise $162......full size cars. Have not checked on Dollar but Enterprise and everyone else now showing around $275......keep looking every day.

 

[anorman]

I got better rates 8-10 days before our upcoming July 28th rental......Dollar is $152/Enterprise $162......full size cars. Have not checked on Dollar but Enterprise and everyone else now showing around $275......keep looking every day.

My rental is for 14 days. How long is yours?

 

[Martyap]

My rental is for 14 days. How long is yours?

I have the car for 7 days, July 28 to Aug 4 and the complete price for a full size was $152 with Dollar (AAA); $162 with Enterprise (Costco)

That was what I got last week. Before last week I was getting prices around $230 and up..........When I looked a few minutes ago Dollar is now $218 and Enterprise is now $268.

Just keep looking.....prices are constantly changing up and down

 

[puffkin]

I too check everyday now that I am less than a month out.

Finally was able to lower my Aug 16-Aug 24 rental to $196.83 (standard size- Alamo) signing in as an Insider and using the VISA $30 coupon. I'm going to drop my $196 Dollar reservation as I would much rather use Alamo. Still hoping it comes down more (I have never paid more than $160 for a similar rental except for Easter week) but at least we are now getting into the ballpark.

 

[rdevine10]

Alamo insiders with 30 visa code just FINALLY beat my national klm by a whole $4. Booked it and cancelled with national.

(Tampa from Aug 15 to 24). THe last 2 to 3 days the rates have dropped quite a bit, but are all hovering between 304 (my rate) and 375 for onsite. Yesterday marked 3 weeks out. Hoping it drops more. There has been minimal movement at all with these dates and using Tampa for a few months. As I am neurotic and check 3 to 4 times a day. Wont miss that once this trip is over!)