Changing rental cars during trip...has anyone done this???

[Dewy]

We're planning a trip in October.

We'll be visiting family off site for two nights then off to the world for seven nights. There will be four of us(2 adults and DS5 & DD4). I was going to rent a mini van to have enough room for our luggage.

At DW we'll be staying on site and we love the convenience of having our own car but rates for a 10 day rental are so much higher than our last trip so I was thinking of turning in the mini van at the Car Care Center and having another resie for a smaller car for the rest of the trip. We'll be on a participating airline so we don't need the van again for the luggage going back to the airport.

Has anyone tried this before? Was there a significant savings?

Thanks to all who reply.

 

[Day-Day]

Up until yesterday, I had this type of scenario planned for our trip. I finally got a rate I was happy with through a Priceline bid so we will have one car for our entire trip starting at the airport and dropping off at the airport.

The one week rates can be very good, but additional days added on can be very expensive. I had scheduled a Friday pickup and Sunday drop off at the Disney Car Care Center to take advantage of the $10 a day weekend rental rate with Alamo ($28 total). Then I had a one week rental scheduled for a Monday pickup with National at the Disney Car Care Center at a total cost of $161 for a mid-size.

We don't need a van, but I had one reserved at one point in my planning for around $200 total ($199 per week rate with a $25 coupon on top of that and fees added).

I got a mid-size with AVIS through Priceline at $11 per day for 11 days; total of $214 with fees so now we can avoid ME and avoid the additional picking up and dropping off hassles. I had a rough figure in mind of what this additional "benefit" was worth to me; the roughly $25 extra dollars plus extra days with the car was worth it.

 

[richmo]

It all depends. You'll just have to price it out both ways and see. Minivan rates are extremely high right now, so it may make sense for you to get rid of it as soon as you can. However, sometimes there are good last minute specials for minivans, 'cause I think they get stuck with them unrented.

What I would probably do is go ahead and make reservations for all your combinations, based on todays rates, then keep checking and revising as time goes on.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

We did exactly that over our Thanksgiving WDW trip. To rent a van during our stay was over $800. Thursday (Thanksgiving), Friday, and Saturday were premium rates. The week after was at super bargain prices. The only way to get the rate for the week after Thanksgiving was to go back to the airport and exchange the van. I know that sounds silly, but it saved us close to $460. Worth the trip.

The exchange took all of 5 minutes. The customer service person told us that people do it all the time, especially to change the type of vehicle to save on rates.

 

[kgle]

I did that. I was so unhappy with taking buses and standing in the heat that I wanted to add a day onto my reservation. Well, by doing that I lost the great price I was quoted originally. So instead I rented for one day for $50, and then dropped that off and started my new rental the next day. Otherwise it would have cost me over $150 more to add an extra day on.