Flying too $$$, Need car rental advice

[disneymom3]

Okay, trying to arrange a trip for Feb 4-11. We travel out of Mpls. Can't get airfare down under $1600 for 5 of us. And we stay offsite, so would still need a car when we got there. DH is not willing to fly anything other than nonstop as we have had too many winter flying disasters. Yes, you can be slowed down by weather when you are driving but you have more control of where and when you stop etc.

Anyway, I need to figure out an inexpensive--or at least the most economical way of renting a minivan. Ours is old and a smaller version (the older style Odyssey) so it is not an option. We would probably leave a little earlier, like Thursday the second and come back by the night of the 12th. We have done the drive three other times and are not concerned with that, just don't want to pay $1000 for car rental 'cause at that point, we may as well fly.

I need advice and tips so send 'em along if you please!

 

[RichNKatHolly]

Can you drive your car to another city which may have a cheaper airfare? USA3000 out of Philly has super rates (they may fly out of a city nearer you as well). Also, Continental just lowered their rates from Newark, NJ and NYC. I have not seen any cheap rentals for mini vans at all. We just lowered from a full to mid size to save a bit of $$.

Hope this may help just a bit. Happy planning!

I just checked and USA3000 also flys from Chicago for about $69 each way. Does SW fly from somewhere near you? Sorry, I'm very bad with geography!

 

[Colinsmom]

It is awfully early to expect cheap fares for February, IME. They will come down a lot starting probably in November or December. I like the alternative of driving to another city and flying from there (Chicago has cheap options) but that's also the worst of your winter driving, and a big delay could mean missing your flights.

 

[disneymom3]

Okay, I will continue to be patient and not panic. I figured we should buy them by Sept or Oct at the latest. Sounds like I was being too prepared.

As for driving to Chicago, that might work--it's about 7 or 8 hours away though and that is a big part of the drive. Plus, I am not sure that all of our stuff would fit into our van to get it there. Something to think about, but I have a feeling if I say we should drive to Chicago DH would just figure we should drive the rest of the way!

Let's see 8 hours to Chicago, possible snowstorm. Allow two hours before flight, maybe more for parking and checking in. Fly from Chicago to MCO, three more hours, get luggage and rental car at least one hour. Hmmm, we are up to 16 hours of travel time and driving the longest it has taken is 28, the shortest 24. Yeah, he will go for the driving.

So, I still need ideas for bargains on rental cars. Anyone?

 

[kaytieeldr]

If you choose to drive in a rented any-type-vehicle, it's very important that you make sure your rental agreement allows you to take it out of state.

 

[SB in KY]

Personally I would do almost anything to avoid driving anyplace from Minnesota in Feb....but hey, I am a real snow weanie and abviously you all are not....so on to your real question about renting a van (sometimes SUV's are cheaper and they often offer the 8 passenger type that would have plenty of room....I would suggest...
1. go to www.mousesavers.com and write down all the codes, etc that might apply for your dates.Then....

2. go to a couple of sites like Orbitz and Travelocity or Expedia and plug in your dates and check costs on all types of vehicles that would meet your needs. Be sure you are looking at the total costs including taxes and fees as these may vary widely. Then based on the best rates you can come up with from those searches...

3. go to the rental web sites directly for the cheapest rates you found (Dollar, Alamo, etc) and plug in dates and vehicle types and the codes you got from Mousesavers and see if you can get the cost down any. Then after you see what the absolute best you can do on line is you can always....

4. go to www.priceline.com and put in a bid of about 15 to 20% less than the best price you came up with through traditional booking channels. Beware however that with Priceline if they accept your bid it is prepaid and cannot be refunded or changed in any way....so if a cheap airfare popped up you are sunk. (personally I don't think they have great deals on rentals longer than a few dys anyways, but it never hurts to try if your plans are set in stone)

You can always cancel car rental reservations made through traditional channels without penalty, so you could always keep checking for lower rates and/or cheap arifare.

Of course you always have to figure in the cost of gas for the drive and meals/lodging on the road in addition to the cost of the rental car....I would widen my search area to anyplace that is within a 3 to 4 hour drive and see if you can't get the airfare to a more reasonable level. Also I might consider connecting flights depending on where the connection was.... Atlanta, Houston, Memphis and Dallas are hubs pretty far south that certainly could have weather issues in Feb....but it would be less likely.

 

[disneymom3]

SB--thanks! That is exactly the kind of info I was looking for! Gas, meals, lodging we can figure pretty acurately as we have done this before. Going to have to up the gas estimate a bit though.

Strange as it sounds, we all like driving better than flying anyway. Last time we flew all the kids kept asking to make sure we were planning to drive the next trip down. And that was without even knowing that we are going to borrow a DVD player from SIL for the next trip!

 

[pumpkinboy]

snip...Going to have to up the gas estimate a bit though...snip

There is a great little tool on the AAA site which will tell you the milage and approximate gas cost of your drive, after taking into account what type of car you are driving. My colleague decided that it was a lot cheaper to fly than to drive his Chevy Tahoe from Boston to Orlando after checking this calculator.

Good luck!