Can someone help me with a good National rate?

[MarthaJr.]

I have read all the threads about the great rates at National, however, I plug in my dates of 3/25-4/3 for an intermediate car and I get a rate of around $500! Yikes!! I put in the priceless code and the ent. coupon code. Is it just my dates? Help!

 

[kareneast]

Your dates are during the Easter Holiday. I believe that is why you are getting such a high rate. Since you already tried the priceless code with the entertainment coupon, I'm not sure what else might give you a better price. Hopefully someone else will know.

 

[MarthaJr.]

bump* Anybody know of any discounts at any rental co. that might work for my dates?

 

[DebbieB]

Holidays are tough, you have to book way in advance. I already booked my car for Nov 26 to Dec 2. It's $187 but I wanted to have something because it's Thanksgiving weekend and it could go way higher.

 

[dudspizza]

I agree with the other posters that this is around Easter and rates are going to be sky high. Two years ago, we booked a last minute spring break trip and rates were super high. We actually found that we got a good rate through the travel company we used. Their rates stay constant.

We used www.worryfreevacations.com to book our air and car at a really good price out of Minnesota... especially a month before spring break....

Best of luck to you.

Duds

 

[Blueberry]

I had posted here that I have a good rate for Mar 16-Mar 21st of $120 for an intermediate at National...booked it quite awhile ago. Rates were pretty good for this period until early this week. I typed in my info and rate had more than DOUBLED OVER NIGHT to $263.

Try Alamo, some fairly decent rates are still coming up for my dates....

 

[JeffPort]

Try going to Alamo & National and putting your same dates in, but this time rent the car at the "Disneyworld Car Care Center" (in Orlando) or the "Disneyworld Swan Hotel." Put MCO airport in as your return destination.

I tried this and quickly found a base rate of $160 per week. You'll probably do even better if you use some discount codes available over at Mousavers.com.

Now, obviously, you'll face a bit of a hassle to do this, but the savings are substantial. You'll either have to rent a car at the airport for a single day and drive it to Disneyworld where you will immediately exchange it for the lower priced rental. Or, for better savings, wait a day to turn in your airport rental and exchange for the lower priced car on the next day. This will eliminate the double rental for one day. (You'll pay the high airport rental for 1 day and the lower car care rental for the remaining 8 days.) Your other option would be to take a shuttle from the airport and then take Disney's transportation over to the car care center or the Swan hotel, making your only rental the one at DisneyWorld.

Some little known facts about Alamo/National are that they don't typically charge extra for renting in one location in Orlando and then returning in another location. In addition, when you rent off-airport, you are eliminating all airport concession fees (more $$ savings). Lastly, on congested travel weeks, the costs at the Disneyworld rental locations seems to always be substantially lower than the airport rentals.

Good luck with your search.

 

[MarthaJr.]

Thanks everyone for the great tips! I'll keep trying.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Give the AMEX code from Mary's site a try...........

5125601