First time renting a car ?????

[bcarson]

A friend and i are flying to a wedding this summer in Kansas City from Chicago. We got really good flights thanks to you all posting about the sale yesterday! Thanks! Anyway we will also need to rent a car. I have never done this before I think possibly my friend has but not at the airport. She will actually have to book it because I have no credit card. Anyway she thought we could just wait until we get to the airport. It's in June, I don't know if we run the risk of them not having one. Plus, won't we pay more?? We could probably get discounts? Any help appreciated. I told her I was going to the experts. I can use this info my family trip to the mouse in October also! Thanks!

 

[gw_lit]

I would definitely book ahead of time. You just never know what events are happening in a city that could cause there to be a run on rental cars. If you don't have a reservation when you get to the airport, there's no way to comparison shop for prices. You'd have to wait in a line to get a price, and then if you didn't like it go to another agency and check their prices. But then if the first one was a better price, you'd have to go back and wait in line there. I would just see it as an incredible waste of time trying to comparison shop at the airport.

And as you said, you can get better prices and discounts by doing your research and booking ahead of time.

 

[bcarson]

Another question how do you get discount??? Is there a site that's best to check them all or do you have to do each site individually? Thanks

 

[gw_lit]

Check mousesavers.com. Look for the "Transportation" link.

Another thought I had about renting in KC... all of the rental car agencies are located outside of the terminals, in fact, there aren't desks in the terminals at all, just a phone to call for a shuttle pickup.

 

[mousetime]

I used to work a rental counter @ an APO and we made a commission on all walkups the more you could up the price the more $ we made on our sale. As far as discounts, check the regular places: mousesavers
Entertainment book, AAA, Sams, BJ, costco, and the rental company websites "hot deals".
Words of Wisdom: Make sure you have a credit card not a debit card as most rental companys will not take a debit card for the rental, but you can pay with a debit card at the end of the rental. Most rental companies put a hold of $500 on your CC, so if you don't have that much available credit your card won't go through.
Be clear on the "other" driver policy of the rental company, for most companies if you are not the renter you can't drive unless you have been added to the rental agreement, most times for a fee.
Check you own car insurance to see if you are covered while driving a rented vehicle to save the cost of the insurance they will try to sell you at the counter.
These are the problems i ran into the most while working the "we try harder counter"

MT

 

[Kimberlyfamilyfv]

budget only has a 200 dollar reserve against your credit card and they do take debit cards, i use budget with my debit card all the time.

if the rental is over 200 dollars then they will add 25 percent of the total rental as your reserve against your debit or credit card.

don't forget to sign up for fastbreak. In addition, to the perks that you receive you will also be allowed to collect frequent flyer miles for your rental.

Kimberly