One Way Car Rental Deals?

[Geddy Leia]

Hi there! We are looking to rent a car at MCO, enjoy our time at Disney, and then drive to Sarasota for a couple days at my parents' condo. We are flying out of Tampa. Any tips for getting a deal on a one way car rental? It seems like all the codes are for when the car is returned to the same airport. The lowest I could find from Nov 10-19 was about $260.

Thanks!

 

[robinb]

One way rentals are always more expensive. $260 for 9 days is a good price. I would make sure to book that one while looking for better pricing.

 

[pershing]

Try looking at the transportation forum. They have deals listed for the month you plan to go sometimes.

I think Budget is the lowest for one way rentals. You can always use a comparative car rental website like rentalcars to see if you are getting the best deal.

Also, think about where you shop, bank, and pay with for discounts. BJ's, Walmart, Visa, Mastercard. Nine days should garner a nice discount code. Think small instead of big. My local grocery store, Shaw's-before they were bought out, twice over-used to have a rental car code that was hardly ever used. Codes can be maxed out on uses so Visa and Mastercard usually aren't so grand. USAA, if you have it, is also a great rental car code.

If this rental is for 2018, a lot of codes don't come out until the new year. robinb is right. It doesn't hurt to book this deal as long as you are not putting down a credit card or booking it under your membership, or advance booking. Check the cancellation policy of your booking. Most of the time it's nothing to cancel, but sometimes you are looking at having to cancel it at least 3 days before hand in order not to incur a penalty.

 

[wendow]

OP, I think $260 is a great deal because those types of rentals are always higher. What is the total cost if you were to return it back to MCO?

We rented a minivan for 10 days in TX this past July. It was $600 for the 10 days but when I tried to price picking up in Houston and dropping in Austin, I could never find the van for less than $1500.

 

[SharonZ]

I would book the $260 rental, that's less than $30 a day.

 

[Princess_Lisa]

One way rentals are always more expensive. $260 for 9 days is a good price. I would make sure to book that one while looking for better pricing.

Not always. It won't help the OP, but Enterprise, Budget, and some others are running snowbird deals (one-way between Florida and the Northeast) right now. I'm going up that way for an event and found even factoring in gas, hotel night coming back, and a couple extra days of airport parking it was cheaper to rent a car one-way and drive back to Orlando than to rent a car for 4 days and return it to the airport (to fly back). That is also not counting the cost of a plane ticket and baggage fees which makes it even more expensive to fly back.

That said, $260 for 9 days is a very good price. Enterprise wanted $347 for my 4 day trip (inclusive of taxes and fees, but not including any extras) if I returned it where I got it (adding up to 3 extra days only adds $22 due to weekly rates).