Returning rental car late?

[Tinkim]

Just curious what happens if I am late returning my rental car? I have a reservation with Alamo and the drop-off time is 1:00; however, my flight time has changed and now we need to drop the car off at 4:00. I tried to modify my reservation (which I had done once before with no trouble) but I am getting a price that is about $300 more than the original and the Chevy Equinox is not showing as available. Will they charge me the hourly rate if I am late or will they tack on another day at full price (which would probably negate the great price I got)? Thanks.

 

[salmoneous]

In general for rental cars, the hourly rate is about 1/3 the daily rate so you usually get chraged for a full day whenever you are more then 2 days late. Though I'm not sure what the exact policy at Alamo is.

As for what that daily rate will be, the rules seem to be all over the map and change from reservation to reservation. Usually, if you are on daily rate for your reservation, the extra day will be at the same rate. But I've seen some crazy rates charged.

 

[safetymom]

You have usually a 59 minute grace period before they start charging but once you go over that the clock starts back at the original time. For three hours they could charge you for another day.

 

[Tinkim]

Thanks for the reply. That is what I am worried about . . . that they may charge for an extra day at the regular non-discounted price since we are renting two cars. I may make a back-up reservation at Thrifty. I can get an intermediate for $394 (2 cars) total which is $84 more than my current reservations. That way I wouldn't have to worry about the price being crazy and I would know up front what we will pay. Will have to think about this one. I'm not sure why it wouldn't let me modify my existing reservation as I have done it before because Delta keeps changing our flight times.

 

[safetymom]

The rates may have changed since you made the reservation. At this point I would keep watching and not do anything until closer to your trip because the price may change again.

 

[Tinkim]

The rates may have changed since you made the reservation. At this point I would keep watching and not do anything until closer to your trip because the price may change again.

That's what I'm worried about. The rate for the same exact vehicle and dates has more than tripled since I made the original reservation. I think it will probably keep going up since it is for the week after President's week. I'm guessing it won't be coming down any.

 

[Tinkim]

Rental car dilemma solved. I checked Delta this morning and noticed they changed our return flight. We were flying out of MCO at 6:23 pm to Atlanta arriving at 7:59 pm. They left that the same but changed our flight from Atlanta to 6:16 pm. Hmmm. . . Arriving at 7:59 pm and need to catch a flight at 6:16 pm. Don't think that's gonna work at all. The flight from Orlando was leaving AFTER the flight from Atlanta. So after 45 minutes on the phone with Delta with a worried sounding agent (she said most of the flights were overbooked) I asked her to put us back on the 3:25 pm flight so now I have the correct time for the rental car again. If you are flying Delta you may want to check your flight times again. I am hoping they won't change again but I won't hold my breath since this makes at least 7 or 8 flight changes.