Transportation/rental car question

[Lucky'sMom]

Our trip will include Disneyland, LA/Hollywood and San Diego. I was originally thinking that we would fly (from Pittsburgh) into John Wayne, take a transport service to our Harbour Blvd. hotel, then rent a minivan in that area after our 3 Disney days to do LA and San Diego with, then fly out of San Diego (so a one-way minivan rental). Then I got to wondering if it would be less expensive to fly into and out of the same airport so the rental van will be round-trip. I think the San Diego flights are a little less than the John Wayne/Orange Co. flights. Any experience with this and what would be cheaper?

 

[SMD]

You're going to have to price it. The one way rental fee often depends on inventory and demand. The rental price will probably be different depending on which where you pickup/drop off. To minimize driving you might want to consider flying into LAX or BUR, do LA, then Anaheim, then SD. Or reverse it, fly into SD and fly out of LA with Anaheim in between. You can also price flights into and out of all their airport options to see if one is significantly cheaper to make up for the rental surcharge.

 

[sheetz]

Most of the time it's cheaper to avoid the one-way rental but on occasion it'll cost the same or not much more. In my experience that usually means dropping the car off at the bigger airport, which in this case that would be LAX.

 

[ParkHopper1]

I fly and rent weekly and am in SO Cal and DL almost monthly....so here is my take:

Rentals from airports are typically cheaper than local locations. Round trip is often cheaper then one way (but not always...sometimes one way can be the same price).

SD drive to Anaheim is only a bit over an hour and a half with no traffic. Closer to two and a half during afternoon rush hour.

To do the exploring outside of DL, personally I would want a car for all of that. Now, it is all about pricing it out. You have for factor in the following:

Airfare difference going into SAN vs SNA...then deduct gas cost of the drive
Doing a airport vs local branch rental
Doing a round trip vs one way rental
Hotel parking charges if any
Transportation charges from airport to hotel if you don't rent an airport car
Proximity of rental car site to your hotel and hassle.

Honestly will take a spreadsheet to calculate if it is worth it.

For me, it would be fly into SNA or LAX, rent a car the whole time and do a one way rental to SAN. Saving would have to be be in the hundreds for me to deal with separate transportation and local car rentals. How much time will you spend during the vacation coordinating transportation/cars and what is that time worth to you?

I will use a site like www.kayak.com to research car prices with different pickup options then just book directly with car rental web site once I find the best deal.

 

[tinkpower]

We got a really good rental rate picking up at SNA and dropping off at LAX. I don't think that is usually the case but it's worth checking out all the options.

 

[bumbershoot]

Then I got to wondering if it would be less expensive to fly into and out of the same airport so the rental van will be round-trip. I think the San Diego flights are a little less than the John Wayne/Orange Co. flights. Any experience with this and what would be cheaper?

You have to price it all out for your trip. There's no absolute.

I once got an amazing rental going from Phoenix to SNA. They obviously needed cars there and PHX had the cars.

And airfare is dynamic and doesn't always make sense.

Every trip can be different so you need to price it out.

I use a notebook, not a spreadsheet, FWIW.