national january rates went wacky

[lawgs]

within the span of 30 minutes this morning while i was checking rates for orlando jan 17 - 24...the base rate went from 160$~ to 385$~ approximately....

hope this is just an aberration in their website....

even shows up on expedia/sidestep search as being that much

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

That is a huge jump. I hope it is an aberration.

 

[travelin' tigger]

I've been tracking my reservations for about 3 weeks now for Jan 15-Jan20 and I've seen as low as $155 to as high as $325???? I got $160 on Monday which is for a weekly rate so I can use my Ent. coupon for 20% off a week rental.

Today I plugged in the EXACT SAME info and it was $206 for the EXACT SAME base. The difference was the first quote was for a week (which 5 days should be) and today was 4 DAYS at the week rate + ANOTHER DAY tacked on!!!!! Totally messed up!!!

 

[lawgs]

thanks for the words of comfort gail and tigger...

just comtemplating a mid january trip down since the air fare is good ....did not expect the car rentals to be so high...

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by lawgs
thanks for the words of comfort gail and tigger...

just comtemplating a mid january trip down since the air fare is good ....did not expect the car rentals to be so high...

My rate for late Jan. went up 5.00, but, what you encountered was outrageous.

 

[DebbieB]

Jan 19 (Monday) is MLK day, the weekend is probably booking up so the rates are going up.

 

[lawgs]

must have been an aberration...since the rate is back to 160$~ base rate for the 14 - 21

gail....are you using the "good" discount code for your booking....

looks like they finally fixed that code since it only gives a 5% discount for january ....=(((

all good things come to an end.....or maybe not....

have just been playing on national's site....

it seems that the sat to sat rates are the HIGH ones.....while wed to wed came out at about 165$~ base rate

carolA's observation makes sense......law of suppy and demand....

learning towards mid week now since flight costs are cheaper and we can get non stops flights...

oh the pleasure of planning all the pemutations and combinations

smilawgs

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Yes, I am using that "good" discount code.
Breakdown: one week - 185.99
"good" discount code - -37.20
vacation outlet coupon - -15.00
sub - 133.79
all those silly taxes bring it up to 176.95 for the week.

This is for an EA intermediate.

I have a 50.00 voucher for the mess they made of my last rental, so, the week should be reasonable.


What size car are you renting?

 

[lawgs]

thanks for your post reply gail.....here is what is happening with us now.....

we are going mid week now....jan 14 -21

just got a skyauction for Vacation Village for the friday of that week....will probably get a couple of days at VWL then just not use the last day at Vacation Village (250$ for one bedroom )...have wanted to try this resort but do not want to use a "orange lake" exchange week .....so thus here we go....

guess i could have used the skyauction we have in the "bank" but want to use that for a two bedroom some place later....next year

all in all.......the planning is done....

just got Southwest taken care of ....117$ r/t non stop (but have to go the airport to get one ticket since there is a $100 voucher that we had to use before jan 25.....( now you see why we are going.....darn voucher smilawgs =))

car ....Intermediate EA as well...used the good code....

base rate 168 with discount and outlet coupon ....comes to 160$~


heck of a lot better than the 385 i was getting earlier....

thank goodness we can travel most any time...so can work around the "good" deals


and .....we are off to orlando on saturday for a week ....staying at Hilton Grand Vacation at Seaworld ( 3 bedroom since we have extra people along .....sister and sister in law and niece )....got that one through an exchange with rci

then the week of nov 16 - 23 ....just "me" is off to Las Vegas for comdex ....and staying at Hilton Grand Vacation at the Hilton in a 2 bedroom ....flying southwest non stop there too......so having some good times this nomember

now i can sleep better tonight having january taken care of ....

thanks for your "support"......

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by lawgs
thanks for your post reply gail.....here is what is happening with us now.....

we are going mid week now....jan 14 -21

just got a skyauction for Vacation Village for the friday of that week....will probably get a couple of days at VWL then just not use the last day at Vacation Village (250$ for one bedroom )...have wanted to try this resort but do not want to use a "orange lake" exchange week .....so thus here we go....

guess i could have used the skyauction we have in the "bank" but want to use that for a two bedroom some place later....next year

all in all.......the planning is done....

just got Southwest taken care of ....117$ r/t non stop (but have to go the airport to get one ticket since there is a $100 voucher that we had to use before jan 25.....( now you see why we are going.....darn voucher smilawgs =))

car ....Intermediate EA as well...used the good code....

base rate 168 with discount and outlet coupon ....comes to 160$~


heck of a lot better than the 385 i was getting earlier....

thank goodness we can travel most any time...so can work around the "good" deals


and .....we are off to orlando on saturday for a week ....staying at Hilton Grand Vacation at Seaworld ( 3 bedroom since we have extra people along .....sister and sister in law and niece )....got that one through an exchange with rci

then the week of nov 16 - 23 ....just "me" is off to Las Vegas for comdex ....and staying at Hilton Grand Vacation at the Hilton in a 2 bedroom ....flying southwest non stop there too......so having some good times this nomember

now i can sleep better tonight having january taken care of ....

thanks for your "support"......

DRAT, missing you by one week. I would love to get my base rate down to what you have. I will keep on checking.
Dee used to go to comdex all the time, but, has not been in years. You also got great airfare, good for you. Mine is quite a bit higher. When did you reserve?

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Hey lawgs,

The rates are whacky again.

 

[EdDome]

Where can I find the "good: code?

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by EdDome
Where can I find the "good: code?

It is the old Disney Club code. It is listed on Mousesavers.com

 

[margaretCT]

Anyone able to get to National's site today?

I thought I would check my 1/11 rates and see if anything "wacky" was going on (in a good way). Right now I have a full size emerald reserve Sun-Fri at $191.

Speaking of wacky rates, my son's $178 SWA RT (Fri-Fri) rate is now $304!!

Margaret in CT

 

[travelin' tigger]

and keep getting the message that it's inaccessable - maybe they're finally fixing all the glitches!!!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by margaretCT
Anyone able to get to National's site today?

I thought I would check my 1/11 rates and see if anything "wacky" was going on (in a good way). Right now I have a full size emerald reserve Sun-Fri at $191.

Speaking of wacky rates, my son's $178 SWA RT (Fri-Fri) rate is now $304!!

Margaret in CT

Hopefully your son already purchased his tickets.

 

[lawgs]

hiya gail

just got back from the airport....you have to show up in person to use a "voucher"

she typed everything in and the fare had gone up 70$~

since we had put it on hold last night, due to having to go to the airport ...she saw it was suppost to be 117$...she did a magic call to some place to get an over ride code and was able to get the 117$

she then noticed that we were using the voucher since it would expire jan 25, 04 ( i had asked her about cancellation with the voucher since it said all air travel regarding this voucher had to be done by that date ) at which time .....she said are you using the voucher since it is expiring...we said ....YES......she then said we can extend it 6 months for you if you wish....me...how much will that cost....she...NOTHING....so she extended the voucher ( which is my mother in law's ) until the end of July and allowed us to purchase the fare we had on HOLD using our credit card....only down side is we do not get double credits but it all works out since she got us the "good" fare and extended voucher

also, on this trip we mailed 50$ money order to Rapid Rewards to extend an award ticket expiring tomorrow which we had tried to use in september but sis in law got ill so could not go

with respect to using rapid reward ticket for her....we had her all booked and everything ....but were able to cancel 24 hours before by just calling SWA without losing the Award Ticket

the new award ticket being issued will be one of those NEW ticketless ones replacing the Paper one

with respect to national.....

when i used the vacation outlet codes ....the base rate came back at 160$ final 172$~ ( the coupons for Vacation Outlet are good until the end of May )

using the "good" code base rate came back at 168$~ with final rate of 160$~

just got my entertainment book today at AAA in buffalo ( another reason for going along with getting those good bags of Brach's candy corn which we cannot get in Canada ) so will check out the coupons available there also

also, do not forget to sign up for the rent TWO get one FREE day ( any day ) coupon from National...by re confirming your email they credit you with one rental ... so we should be getting the Free day after this trip on saturday....they say you can get unlimited FREE days for every two rentals you do ( at least that is what i think i read on the website, although the mailing we got yesterday offered something similar but had a limit of ONE certificate per member...)

anyhow cannot get on National Website right now to "refresh" my memory .....just make sure you check out the offer .... it is a banner at the top the page

so all in all a good two days of planning ( a trip due to a voucher which is now extended to july ) ....smilawgs

 

[margaretCT]

Yes, son and girlfriend have their tickets. I'd have shot them if they hadn't booked when price dropped a few weeks ago to $178.

SW has been driving me crazy this upcoming trip and my last trip with prices bouncing all over. Glad I have DVC so I don't have to watch for room specials. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a DVC version for airlines, i.e, buy a "timeshare" now and have a set price until the year 2042!

Margaret in CT

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by lawgs
hiya gail

just got back from the airport....you have to show up in person to use a "voucher"

she typed everything in and the fare had gone up 70$~

since we had put it on hold last night, due to having to go to the airport ...she saw it was suppost to be 117$...she did a magic call to some place to get an over ride code and was able to get the 117$

she then noticed that we were using the voucher since it would expire jan 25, 04 ( i had asked her about cancellation with the voucher since it said all air travel regarding this voucher had to be done by that date ) at which time .....she said are you using the voucher since it is expiring...we said ....YES......she then said we can extend it 6 months for you if you wish....me...how much will that cost....she...NOTHING....so she extended the voucher ( which is my mother in law's ) until the end of July and allowed us to purchase the fare we had on HOLD using our credit card....only down side is we do not get double credits but it all works out since she got us the "good" fare and extended voucher

also, on this trip we mailed 50$ money order to Rapid Rewards to extend an award ticket expiring tomorrow which we had tried to use in september but sis in law got ill so could not go

with respect to using rapid reward ticket for her....we had her all booked and everything ....but were able to cancel 24 hours before by just calling SWA without losing the Award Ticket

the new award ticket being issued will be one of those NEW ticketless ones replacing the Paper one

with respect to national.....

when i used the vacation outlet codes ....the base rate came back at 160$ final 172$~ ( the coupons for Vacation Outlet are good until the end of May )

using the "good" code base rate came back at 168$~ with final rate of 160$~

just got my entertainment book today at AAA in buffalo ( another reason for going along with getting those good bags of Brach's candy corn which we cannot get in Canada ) so will check out the coupons available there also

also, do not forget to sign up for the rent TWO get one FREE day ( any day ) coupon from National...by re confirming your email they credit you with one rental ... so we should be getting the Free day after this trip on saturday....they say you can get unlimited FREE days for every two rentals you do ( at least that is what i think i read on the website, although the mailing we got yesterday offered something similar but had a limit of ONE certificate per member...)

anyhow cannot get on National Website right now to "refresh" my memory .....just make sure you check out the offer .... it is a banner at the top the page

so all in all a good two days of planning ( a trip due to a voucher which is now extended to july ) ....smilawgs

I did that free rental thing, but, I am not sure my Sept. rental counted as the first day of the rental was 8/31/03. Try as I might, I cannot duplicate your rate on the car. I did manage to shave another 5.00 with a new BJ' coupon for 20.00 off.

 

[disney4me4ever]

Between National's site for my car rental and Delta for my flights, I am about ready to scream. Couldn't book airfare 3 nights ago because we had to confirm dogsitter. Went to ticket this a.m. and the fare went up by $200!!!! So now I have to play the waiting game and check every day. Ugh!

Nancy