Why is National Car Rental cheaper WITHOUT a coupon

[happily single]

Thanks to a fellow Dis'er I found a great rate through National Car Rental-it saved me almost $100 off my Hertz quote!!! Until...

I joined Emerald Aisle and quoted the same car for the same time frame and it gave me a price of almost $20 less than using National's coupon. Any idea why it would be cheaper to NOT use a coupon?

Also, can anyone tell me about National Car? I've always only rented from Hertz and once from Enterprise. Hertz/Enterprise are always the same price, but National is soo much cheaper. Are there hidden fees I should be aware of?

 

[mickey2000]

My Dollar rental for mid August is also like this. Using codes I get high rates!
With NO CODE up pops a City special for a mid size car at $118.15 per week

 

[mmmgood]

Thanks to a fellow Dis'er I found a great rate through National Car Rental-it saved me almost $100 off my Hertz quote!!! Until...

I joined Emerald Aisle and quoted the same car for the same time frame and it gave me a price of almost $20 less than using National's coupon. Any idea why it would be cheaper to NOT use a coupon?

Also, can anyone tell me about National Car? I've always only rented from Hertz and once from Enterprise. Hertz/Enterprise are always the same price, but National is soo much cheaper. Are there hidden fees I should be aware of?

Emerald club members get an additional discount via contract ID. This may have given you the better rate than you previously had. Adding a coupon should make it even better. In addition, rates change constantly so it may have just gone down.

There are no additional/hidden fees. Most people really like the Emerald Club, with the ability to select your own car and bypass the counter.

In regards to pricing; Enterprise are usually the cheaper of the three with Hertz and National usually having comparable rates. Hertz/National are considered business travel brands while Enterprise is more leisure orientated.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

An experience I had with Budget also has me wondering too. I priced a car using the fast break program and then I priced the car without the FB program. Well the non FB price was cheaper by $80.00! So I booked the lower price then got to MCO and the line for budget was at least 40 people deep I kid you not! So I left DH in line while I found a payphone called budget ask them to add my FB member number to my reservation and confirmed the price had not changed. Went over got DH and skipped the long line and headed to the garage to get our car.

 

[n2mm]

I guess the lesson here is to always check the rate with no codes or discounts first!

 

[happily single]

Emerald club members get an additional discount via contract ID. This may have given you the better rate than you previously had. Adding a coupon should make it even better. In addition, rates change constantly so it may have just gone down.

There are no additional/hidden fees. Most people really like the Emerald Club, with the ability to select your own car and bypass the counter.

In regards to pricing; Enterprise are usually the cheaper of the three with Hertz and National usually having comparable rates. Hertz/National are considered business travel brands while Enterprise is more leisure orientated.

Does that mean I can add the code (which made my rate HIGHER) after I price out the cheaper rate?

 

[robinb]

I guess the lesson here is to always check the rate with no codes or discounts first!

But she did use a code. She used the Emerald Club code that is automatically filled into the code field.

happily single, if you're getting a good rate withe the EC code, try the codes over at Mouse Saver as they are usually better.