Car rental prices

[igo4yellin]

Paying $207.80 for 10 days starting November 1st. LAX Alamo.

 

[seagull]

I belong to both Costco and Ebates and will keep watching till something comes up. Costco doesn't have all their codes out out yet for next year. Alamo is ridiculously high right now. I think if I eventually get something in the $200 range, I will be happy.

All great advice. Thanks.

 

[cmpeter]

since we don't own a car we DO need to purchase extra insurance, but that is just ridiculous!

Check with your cc company, you may not need to purchase the extra insurance as some offer the coverage.

 

[NMcowboy]

costco... and prices seem to be lower at LAX rather than SNA, although you are landing at SNA, last trip we rented a full size SUV through costco at LAX and paid $235.00 with airport taxes and fees for seven days.. COSTCO is the only way to go!! good luck. awkward.. as we tried to reserve 1 month in advanced price was $490.00 and i checked again 1 week prior to our trip and ended paying the above price of $235.00 keep checking closer to trip as rental car companies seem to lower prices close to the date..

 

[Lucille1963]

Check with your cc company, you may not need to purchase the extra insurance as some offer the coverage.

I have, and they cover the basics of the car, but not everything. We rent cars about once a month, and I've tried multiple ways to get the price down, even trying to buy car insurance through a regular provider.

I'm intrigued by all the great rates through Costco. We don't have a membership, but it might be worth it if I can get a great rate and use it throughout the year.

 

[asc72]

I would definately try the priceline bidding option. We have a midsize car (Hertz) for Nov 2-Nov 10 for $174.18 (all taxes in). We bid $13 per day and priceline had a $3/day bonus coupon.

 

[PoohsFan1]

I am so glad that I came across this thread. When we go on our trip in June I was assuming that we would take a shuttle to get from the airport to our Disney hotel. However, we are now toying with the idea of renting a car for 2 days so we can go off grounds and do some site seeing (we have never been to California before and I would love to go to the San Diego area and possibly to a beach one or two days). After reading this thread it seems like it would be much cheaper to rent a car for our whole stay then to rent one for just 2 days and then paying $$ for a shuttle. I will definitely be checking the rates when we get closer to our dates (love how I am now rhyming? ). Thanks everyone for the great input .

 

[mouseymommy]

Another vote for Costco travel. I almost always use Costco and book with Alamo. You can book without any payment or deposit. If the rate goes down, you can easily rebook. They often have "hot deals" the week of your trip, so check back often up until your travel dates. I've gotten as low as $15 a day.

We did a weekly rental through Costco and saved $300 over Priceline, Expedia and Travelocity.

 

[bcla]

We just kept on checking. Since you don't need to leave a credit card # unless prepaid, you can always cancel or just fail to show up. Priceline has iPhone specials using their app. I just kept on checking and found better and better prices at SNA, starting with Avis via PL for $153/week, then Enterprise via PL for $125/week. Our final choice was Enterprise directly on their website for $86/week on Thanksgiving Day. I'm actually glad I used Enterprise because they only had one customer in front of us while Avis had about eight.

We got a brand new car, as in single digit mileage when we drove it out the garage. I was larger than we wanted (some parking spots were tight) but I think my wife liked the room. Total cost out of pocket was less than $107, although we didn't use the whole week. I'm not sure how they're making money off of it, but I suppose Thanksgiving isn't a peak time for rentals and they'd rather be making something rather than having a car sit in their lot.

 

[XGrumpy1]

We went with Hertz and a AAA discount, prepaid. Worst experience ever at John Wayne Airport. No car for us. We could upgrade for $40 more. I said no. So they made us wait another 40 minutes and then gave us the same car they had offered before for the extra $40!

Then we had to walk to our car, about 5 blocks, lugging the luggage. We must have walked past 100 cars that they would not let us have.

Never again, Hertz!

 

[bcla]

We went with Hertz and a AAA discount, prepaid. Worst experience ever at John Wayne Airport. No car for us. We could upgrade for $40 more. I said no. So they made us wait another 40 minutes and then gave us the same car they had offered before for the extra $40!

Then we had to walk to our car, about 5 blocks, lugging the luggage. We must have walked past 100 cars that they would not let us have.

Never again, Hertz!

I've never had that experience. It was always, "We can upgrade you at no extra charge", although I haven't rented from Hertz in years.

On the way back to SNA, I could have sworn that I saw the Hertz remote lot, car wash, and maintenance facility. There's only so much room at the airport. They must spend a ton of time shuttling cars back and forth. Still - I think it's better than most current airports where there might be a huge lot on some off-airport or practically off-airport location. SNA doesn't even have rental shuttles. Perhaps they're saving money on those.

 

[Geemo]

I keep checking and things are still pretty expensive. I have one reservations with hopes for a better rate before we go. If constant checking is the key then I know will get one for a lower rate.

Geemo