Rental Car - Get at LAX and Drop Off at Anaheim?

[Frozen2014]

Anyone rented a car from LAX and then dropped it off near Disney in Anaheim?

We will be flying into LAX and spending 4 days in LA. Thus my understanding is its best to have a car. Then we will be switching to Anaheim with 4 full days at Disney. We are staying at Desert Inn across the street so don't need a car.

I assume this can be done? If so, what rental company is best considering we need the same at both ends?

 

[Tink1987]

We haven't rented direct from LAX but have done from Vegas. We like Alamo as it's walking distance from the nearest hotels - I believe it's on Katella Ave but would have to double check that. As you say we don't need a car whilst in Disneyland but need one for the LA area or driving up from Vegas so always do this. They have good opening times as well and staff are always friendly

 

[frank808]

I have done this through alamo. It ususally costs more than returning to lax. How are you getting back to lax?

I would price out the rental for the 8 days from and return to lax. Then price the 4 day rental with return to anaheim plus transportation back to lax. Pick whichever way is cheaper.

 

[Frozen2014]

I have done this through alamo. It ususally costs more than returning to lax. How are you getting back to lax?

I would price out the rental for the 8 days from and return to lax. Then price the 4 day rental with return to anaheim plus transportation back to lax. Pick whichever way is cheaper.

Haven't bought our airline tickets yet but the plan is to fly into LAX (since we're starting in LA) but to fly out of SNA (since we're ending at Disney). So we're just uber or taxi i guess back to the airport.

 

[Belledisney]

I've done this once before with enterprise/ Alamo. Usually is just like a separate charge for not returning it to the pick up place. You should
Be able to do it with any of them though. I usually go on Travelocity or something similar to find the best deal.

 

[Frozen2014]

Anyone remember the additional cost? Then again, if we are flying out of two different airports I guess it doesn't really matter (unless we decide to skip the rental all together and just use uber when needed)

 

[dshimel]

Looked into it. More expensive than a shuttle ride.

Did 2 week vacation to Orlando. First week was Universal, Kennedy Space Center, Sea World, Busch Tampa, etc. and second week at WDW. I hoped to get car at the airport, drive it for the first week, and then return it somewhere near WDW. Nope too expensive.

I ended up just leaving the family at the WDW hotel, returning the car to the airport and taking a shuttle for just me back to WDW.

 

[Jedi Mouse]

Every time I've looked into one way rentals to go to Disney, it was always cheaper to just keep the car, even with 6 nights of $18 parking.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Usually cheaper to keep the car as one ways are typically a higher day rate than round trips...but in addition to pricing out returning it one way to the local neighborhood branch near DLR also price out returning it to SNA airport. Often it can be cheaper to do that and get a shuttle or Uber to DLR.

 

[Frozen2014]

Every time I've looked into one way rentals to go to Disney, it was always cheaper to just keep the car, even with 6 nights of $18 parking.

But note that we are flying into LAX and flying out of SNA....so different airports anyyays

So it sounds like are options are:

• skip the rental all together and uber/taxi when needed (for 2 of our days in LA we won't need a car) --> not as convenient
• rent from LAX, then return to LAX and take shuttle or uber to Anaheim --> not as logical since back tracking and will add time...but maybe better financial
• rent from LAX, then return at car rental at Anaheim (Enterprise, Avis, Dollar and Alamo all seem to be at both LAX and near Desert Inn) --> may be most expensive option?

You would think this would be a common thing when visiting LA/Disney.

 

[SMD]

There is no fixed cost for a one way rental drop off fee. It's all based on the rental company's inventories at your pick up and drop off locations. If you price a reservation from LAX to an Anaheim local location it will probably be different than one from LAX to SNA. Sometimes you get lucky and a particular rental company isn't charging a lot from point A to B, but you have to price them all to find if that's the case.

 

[ParkHopper1]

But note that we are flying into LAX and flying out of SNA....so different airports anyyays

You will want a car for LA portion.

So it sounds like are options are:

• skip the rental all together and uber/taxi when needed (for 2 of our days in LA we won't need a car) --> not as convenient
• rent from LAX, then return to LAX and take shuttle or uber to Anaheim --> not as logical since back tracking and will add time...but maybe better financial
• rent from LAX, then return at car rental at Anaheim (Enterprise, Avis, Dollar and Alamo all seem to be at both LAX and near Desert Inn) --> may be most expensive option?

You missed two options:

-Rent in LAX and keep car and return to SNA after DL trip
-Rent car at LAX and return to SNA after LA portion and shuttle/uber/taxi to DL and back from SNA.

You would think this would be a common thing when visiting LA/Disney.

It is...you just have to price out all the options for your exact travel dates to see what makes the most sense for you financially and convince wise. As they say...cheaper, better faster...pick two!

Price it out directly with a few rental car web sites. There is no absolute answer as rates fluctuate wildly depending on demand.

 

[Frozen2014]

Thank you. I see that if I go to the car rental site directly (vs Expedia for example), then you can price it out. Did a quick check (Alamo) and its $140 more to return the car at Anaheim drop off vs LAX (but still way less than to keep car for the 5 days in Anaheim and return car to SNA). So guess it depends on what the shuttle from LAX to out hotel costs in Anaheim....and if we want the inconvenience (and losing a lot of the 'trade over' day) If close to $140 then better to just return it after we check into Desert Inn.

 

[nervous1sttimer]

But note that we are flying into LAX and flying out of SNA....so different airports anyyays

So it sounds like are options are:

• skip the rental all together and uber/taxi when needed (for 2 of our days in LA we won't need a car) --> not as convenient
• rent from LAX, then return to LAX and take shuttle or uber to Anaheim --> not as logical since back tracking and will add time...but maybe better financial
• rent from LAX, then return at car rental at Anaheim (Enterprise, Avis, Dollar and Alamo all seem to be at both LAX and near Desert Inn) --> may be most expensive option?

You would think this would be a common thing when visiting LA/Disney.

But you don't have your return tickets yet, so consider flying home from LA too? Are you flying to YYZ? We fly from Detroit and our flights to LAX are way cheaper than our flights to SNA. Like $40-60/pp each way USD.

 

[Frozen2014]

But you don't have your return tickets yet, so consider flying home from LA too? Are you flying to YYZ? We fly from Detroit and our flights to LAX are way cheaper than our flights to SNA. Like $40-60/pp each way USD.

Correct we haven't purchased airline tickets yet. And yes, we are flying from YYZ, Toronto Pearson.

I keep hearing for others that LAX is cheaper. For us, it's much cheaper to fly YYZ to/from SNA (or BUR) than it is to fly YYZ to/from LAX.
In fact, it's actually $1000 less to fly YYZ/SNA than YYZ/LAX, but only LAX has direct flights (and with decent times). So we are looking at compromising and flying YYZ to LAX (direct) since starting in LA, but flying back SNA to YYZ (1 stop) since coming from Anaheim.

I keep researching and another option is to not rent a car right away in LA. We are staying at Hollywood Blvd area so on arrival day, we can explore. Our 1st full day is Universal (where we can take metro) and 2nd full day is a tour I am looking at which takes us from morning to mid afternoon. So...maybe we wait until our 3rd full day to rent a car, then keep it for 4th full day and that is when we are switching over to Anaheim (with Disney next 4 days)....ho hum....one other option that saves money. It also looks like our hotel has a free shuttle from the airport...but I need to check the fine print as that may be from BUR as opposed to LAX.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Another option and probably cheaper is to ditch the car and just Uber everywhere including from LA to DLR.

 

[bumbershoot]

I would price out the rental for the 8 days from and return to lax. Then price the 4 day rental with return to anaheim plus transportation back to lax. Pick whichever way is cheaper.

Absolutely. Write out ALL options and price them out more than once.

So we're just uber or taxi i guess back to the airport.

Or Karmel Shuttle or (no!) Super Shuttle.

Looked into it. More expensive than a shuttle ride.

There is NO set one-way fee. The ONLY absolute in car rental is that there are no absolutes.

There is no fixed cost for a one way rental drop off fee. It's all based on the rental company's inventories at your pick up and drop off locations.

Exactly.

I once got a screamin' deal on a car from Phoenix airport to SNA. No drop off fee, and an AMAZING daily rate. Then my son got belly sick, so sick it would have been abuse (against him and everyone on the plane) to take our flight, so we kept it for 2 more days, and they let us keep the same rate.

Price it out directly with a few rental car web sites. There is no absolute answer as rates fluctuate wildly depending on demand.

Yep.

So guess it depends on what the shuttle from LAX to out hotel costs in Anaheim....and if we want the inconvenience (and losing a lot of the 'trade over' day)

Find out! Karmel Shuttle, Super Shuttle (no!), etc.

What inconvenience and time loss? Are you talking about returning the car in Anaheim? That's no problem, especially if you go Alamo/National/Enterprise. There's an Alamo right there at Downtown Disney, and there's also a shared location on Katella that has a shuttle. Super easy.

So...maybe we wait until our 3rd full day to rent a car, then keep it for 4th full day

Also an idea to price out and figure out where you'll rent from!

Another option and probably cheaper is to ditch the car and just Uber everywhere

Terrific option. We just drove in LA. It feels so high stakes. Like every decision you make will change the fate of the earth. It's so fast then so slow. The lanes feel narrow and there are big cars. And you go from highway to highway to highway. Even on surface streets it's just so zippy and confusing. I would GLADLY let the driving be up to a "native".

And if you do Uber you just might get my buddy Bill F. Say hi from Molly. And tip your uber driver!

 

[SMD]

How old will your daughter be at the time of the trip? If under 8 you'll need some kind of safety seat for each Uber ride. Even if you purchase an inflatable seat, it will still need to be inflated for each stop on a day of touring. Even if a rental car costs more, which I might not, you may want to factor in the convenience of being able to install a booster seat once and just leave it in the car for the entire trip.

 

[Frozen2014]

What inconvenience and time loss? Are you talking about returning the car in Anaheim? That's no problem, especially if you go Alamo/National/Enterprise. There's an Alamo right there at Downtown Disney, and there's also a shared location on Katella that has a shuttle. Super easy.

Sorry for the confusion. What I meant is that it's much easier to (1) Drive from our hotel in LA to our hotel in Anaheim and then drop off the rental (e.g. on Katella, or similar depending on the rental company). This is the original plan and then we'd do something like La Brae Tar Pits of Science Centre on the way. (2) vs driving form our hotel in LA back to LAX to drop off the car. Then shuttle or uber to our hotel in Anaheim. We'd be driving out of the way, and then couldn't do a stop along the way.

How old will your daughter be at the time of the trip? If under 8 you'll need some kind of safety seat for each Uber ride. Even if you purchase an inflatable seat, it will still need to be inflated for each stop on a day of touring. Even if a rental car costs more, which I might not, you may want to factor in the convenience of being able to install a booster seat once and just leave it in the car for the entire trip.

Thanks for the note. Our daughter actually turns 8 in June and we're coming in August so guess we're ok. She's tall too so should meet any laws.

 

[Kiwigirls]

Maybe we were just lucky but last May we rented a car for one day - picked up at LAX, used it to drive to Universal that day and do a Target stop, returned it to the Downtown Disney Alamo place late that night, and the cost was around $35.

Had a similar price booked for one day rental going the other way a week later - but ended up using a different option. So it's possible to get decent prices for a one way option.