Renting a Car and dropping off in another location...

[Rainforest_Elf]

So at first, we were considering renting a car and driving from Vegas to Anaheim, as the first leg of our trip will be in Las Vegas.

Usually renting a car for a day looks very economical, but I keep getting insane fees added on because I want to drop the car off in another city than the one I picked it up at... we're going to fly out of SNA, so we will not be returning to Vegas.

Are there any rental car companies that don't charge up the wazoo for dropping off in another city? Even with discount codes I've found, it's still going to be cheaper to fly from Vegas to Anaheim.

 

[Rhonna]

There is no way around it. You will pay a LOT extra to drop at another location. We did this on our last trip and there are no tricks I could find that would lower the charges. Sorry.

 

[sheetz]

Sometimes you can get better one way rates if you drop the car off at LAX, but it's unlikely at a smaller airport like SNA. Otherwise there's not much you can do.

 

[cari12]

We picked up at LAX and dropped at San Diego in 2009 and Hertz was the only company with a reasonable rate. For a week's rental it was about $300 and every other company was over $600 for the same thing,

 

[Rainforest_Elf]

Guess we'll be flying then. Thanks guys

 

[brenda1966]

Guess we'll be flying then. Thanks guys

A lot depends on where you are pickup up from and where you are dropping. If you are moving cars in the 'right' direction, you pay less. Some of it is just shopping around, checking daily for a good rate.

I've noticed that coupons and specials almost never work with a one way rental. I have been able to pick up a car in Santa Barbara and drop at Disneyland for several years in a row and not pay any drop fees. One year when I dropped the car off the guy told me if I'd been going the other direction, I'd pay 3 or 4 times what I paid.

Since you're crossing state lines that probably adds to the complication.

Yes, it may just be cheaper to fly.

 

[Rhonna]

I have been able to pick up a car in Santa Barbara and drop at Disneyland for several years in a row and not pay any drop fees.

We didn't pay a drop fee, we were just charged a LOT for not dropping back at the location we picked it up.

We picked up in San Jose and dropped at Disney and we paid through the teeth for our rental. They kept telling us to drop back at the same airport (San Jose) to get a lower rate. Right. I checked and even dropping at SNA would not have lowered the cost.

 

[lovesdumbo]

We are flying to San Diego, renting a car from Alamo at the airport, staying there 6 nights before driving to Anaheim and dropping off the car at Downtown Disney.

The rates were higher than I wanted to pay but I need a car big enough for my family of 5 and our luggage. I tried changing to returning the car to San Diego air port and finding some other way to get to Anaheim and the car rental rates were exactly the same.

I first did a Ford Escape for $477 using the Visa discount I found on mousesavers and using the Alamo Insiders ID. At the time a mini van was going to be over $800. A little over a week ago I could get the Escape down to about $400 but chose to upgrade to a minivan for $485. I've checked again and it is higher now.

 

[KCmike]

I've tried several different ways but I can't find a way around that enormous fee.

 

[owensamo]

Check Costco and Alamo - we managed to get a Ford Fusion for 3 weeks for a reasonable rate in July, picking up in San Diego and dropping off in San Francisco. Costco had the best rates of all the sites I looked at, and Alamo seemed to be the only rental company that didn't charge a huge amount for dropping off at a different location. We managed to fit 4 adults and a child plus all our luggage for 3 weeks of vacationing in the car, so it worked out great!

 

[twopeasonepod]

Check Costco and Alamo - we managed to get a Ford Fusion for 3 weeks for a reasonable rate in July, picking up in San Diego and dropping off in San Francisco. Costco had the best rates of all the sites I looked at, and Alamo seemed to be the only rental company that didn't charge a huge amount for dropping off at a different location. We managed to fit 4 adults and a child plus all our luggage for 3 weeks of vacationing in the car, so it worked out great!

ITA. I use Alamo via the Costco site for all our DLR trips. In Oct., we are picking up at DD and returning at LAX (because we will also be in San Diego for five days and then drive straight to the airport). It was only about $25 more for our Minivan than if we returned to DD.

*Important: Costco prices CHANGE. Keep going back and rebooking if the price gets cheaper. No deposit needed so you aren't risking anything. In May/June for our FL trip, I got our Minivan down to $430 from $800!

 

[MickeyManiac]

You can also try Priceline.

I just did a couple of one way rentals in Florida a couple of weeks ago and while I had to bid a little higher than I would have liked,($21/day FS car) it was still a lot less than I found from the rental agencies. (even using Costco codes)