Car Rental/Flying Question

[brooke1]

I know this might sound crazy, but I have to ask. Has anyone ever rented a car for one way down, then buy a one way airplane ticket back home?

Thanks
Brooke

 

[tinka-belle]

For a few weeks in the spring & fall major car rental companies need to move their fleets north or south to meet seasonal demand. During these times they offer pretty inexpensive one way rates and no drop off fees with special codes to and from major cities. Orlando is one of these, your home town or area may be one of the northern points they offer. They move cars south in the fall and to the north in the spring.

Outside of these weeks and cities a car rental drop off in a distant location will be $$$$$. There is either a high drop fee since you are dropping it off out of the state of origin, or no drop fee but a "special" (read inflated) one way rate. After 9/11 rental companies waived drop fees since people couldn't fly home, but that's an isolated event.

It's certainly possible to drive one way and fly the other, but in a rental car it will cost considerably more unless you get one of the fleet moving deals. Since you're posting from AL, I don't think these deals would apply. It applies mostly to the NYC, Boston, Philly, etc. areas. The only way to know for sure is to price it out.

 

[Doorman]

I've done one-way trips a few times for various distances, and it really depends on the rental company's exact fleet balance. I think they use computer models nowadays to predict how much money it will cost them to send the car back the other way, or if it'll get balanced out by another one-way rental. So it's hard to say without plugging it into a travel search engine and pricing it out, maybe for a few different weeks if you have some flexibility.

 

[halld6479]

I have several times flown one way down there and with some planing ahead got rates like $10.00 a day unlimited miles with Alamo on economy cars. Go to Alamo home page and look for deals or something called one way specials.