Car rental from LAX?

[disneymomto5]

I'm looking to rent a minivan at LAX this summer and just did some preliminary pricing. Some of the cheapest prices are companies I've never heard of (ex. Sixt, Fox, Advantage). Has anyone ever rented from them or is there any reason not to? Thanks!

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I'm not of real help, but a real life friend recommended Fox. I booked my car just a couple of days ago, and I was surprised to see that once I got the full price of the rental after all of the fees and taxes were added in, the cheaper places were about the same as Enterprise (as priced through Enterprise's web site). Given equivalent prices, I just went with Enterprise.

 

[sherilaine]

We booked using Costco - those were the cheapest prices we could find. They offer about 4 companies to pick from.

 

[MomForFrozenAddicts]

If you have Costco membership and using a Visa card, the coupon code AD2824NAD will save you $25 for a weekly rental at Alamo. Costco corp code is 7014627

 

[mcuoghi]

We're going through BJ's Wholesale. You don't have to be a member to get that discount. Plus you are able to stack the rental company's coupon codes with BJ's rate.

 

[KBinCO]

I paid a little more and used Budget. The cheaper companies had reviews saying the cars were older/dirtier and it just seemed worth it to me to pay a little more for a bigger name. I am pretty cheap when it comes to everything but for some reason, just felt like I should splurge on the car rental.

 

[MNtwinsplus1mom]

I got a great deal at LAX Alamo on a minivan by using carrentalsavers.com.

 

[sherilaine]

Wherever you rent from at LAX it's a good idea to join the rental companies "club" - they are all different but most are free to join. We use Fastbreak with Budget and don't have to wait in line to rent our vehicle. The shuttle drops all the Fastbreak customers off first and you check for your name and you go to your spot and find your vehicle and you hand your license/credit card to the attendant at the exit booth and drive off! It basically takes about 5 minutes from getting off the shuttle to getting onto the road. I have heard some of the rental companies at LAX can have very long lines for picking up your vehicle otherwise and that's never a good way to begin a vacation!!

 

[disneymomto5]

Unfortunately, I don't belong to any discount clubs, but do belong to several rental car "clubs" and I will be checking periodically as my trip gets closer. However, right now the difference between some main stream clubs and discount ones is $500 or more! That's just crazy! I'll keep checking, just wondered if anyone had ever rented from the non "big leagues" for experience purposes.

 

[lizzytizzy]

If you have Costco membership and using a Visa card, the coupon code AD2824NAD will save you $25 for a weekly rental at Alamo. Costco corp code is 7014627

I was able to book a car with Alamo but no credit card was required at time of booking. When do you get the discount? Do you get the discount when you use the Visa upon checkin at the airport? Thanks!

 

[sherilaine]

Unfortunately, I don't belong to any discount clubs, but do belong to several rental car "clubs" and I will be checking periodically as my trip gets closer. However, right now the difference between some main stream clubs and discount ones is $500 or more! That's just crazy! I'll keep checking, just wondered if anyone had ever rented from the non "big leagues" for experience purposes.

Online reviews are likely your best bet - as they are far more plentiful than the few people here who may have rented from these lower prices agencies.

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

You can get really good deals through Priceline.

 

[MomForFrozenAddicts]

I was able to book a car with Alamo but no credit card was required at time of booking. When do you get the discount? Do you get the discount when you use the Visa upon checkin at the airport? Thanks!

Since the code is for a Visa discount, I always use my Visa when I get to the counter. I don't know what happen if another card is used.

 

[gatorlisa]

Unfortunately, I don't belong to any discount clubs, but do belong to several rental car "clubs" and I will be checking periodically as my trip gets closer. However, right now the difference between some main stream clubs and discount ones is $500 or more! That's just crazy! I'll keep checking, just wondered if anyone had ever rented from the non "big leagues" for experience purposes.

Have you considered joining a club like Costco just to get the savings? I joined Costco several years ago because with car rentals booked through them, you get to have one additional, non-related driver with no daily extra driver fee. I have continued to keep the membership for that reason and also because their rates always end up being so much cheaper than anything that I can find through rental car club, discounts through my employer, or other group discounts. Usually anywhere from $50 to $100 or more cheaper. The $55 membership pays for itself and then some with one rental. You can view rates without a membership or login, so might be worth having a look to see if joining would save you more money than the cost of the membership.

 

[Plaid Princess]

I've used all of those companies multiple times with no issues.

 

[sheetz]

For a minivan I've found using Budget BCD x474200 along with a coupon code is almost always the cheapest.

 

[DahliaRW]

We rented with Sixt in Europe. They were great there. No US experience, though.

 

[sara74]

We've rented from Sixt in a couple of different airports and have always been pleased.

 

[AimberleeTwins]

We just rented from Advantage, a week ago, at LAX. We didn't have to wait too long for the shuttle, but other online reviews do say they had to wait quite a while. Maybe we were lucky? The line was long and super slow to pick up our car. Only 2 people working the computers. The first car they gave us didn't even start! It had a dead battery! They were pretty quick to get us another car (but we were pretty worried at this point The next car they gave us had a broken trunk (it would not open at all). We didn't care at that point, we just wanted to leave and we didn't have much stuff so it was ok. One other thing to note, the car had several dings and scratches and pretty good sized dent in the side. Just make sure you note these on the card they give you so they don't charge you.

 

[KCAshley]

I would never rent from a smaller company but I work on a corporate level for big rental car company so I'm a little biased. Typically with bigger companies you're looking at a shorter shuttle ride (that's one of the main reasons they cost more- the closer to the airport, the higher the rent/fees/taxes they may have to pay), shorter wait for shuttles, newer/nicer cars (I haven't seen anything older than a 2015 on our lots since June 2015, and generally it's 2016s), more flexibility, etc. I'm also the type of person who would never book a flight with spirit airlines or another off-price airline- my vacation time is too precious to me to deal with problems at that level.