April 2021 Car Rental Thread

[can'tgetenufofwdw]

you also need to do it the same time you buy tickets through them. We bought tickets from UT and figured we would add a car later after we checked other sites. Nope, once the tickets are bought you can no longer get the deal. It only works if you also have tickets in your cart.

I just went to the site and plugged in my dates for October for a car. The full size car for 8 days came to $510. I currently have a midsize through Alamo for $380. When I add a 1 night hotel stay at the Clarion Lake Buena Vista (I wouldn't even check in) it drops the total package price to $311 car and hotel. That's crazy. Seems like a no brainer to book a "dummy" room. Saves me around $70 and I get a bigger car.

 

[samsonjs]

Rental cars were even more expensive in Ft lauderdale. I am flying in to visit my dad who lives there and I was trying to decide between FLL or MCO and the price for a rental was $550-600 at FLL and $415 for an mid level SUV at MCO for my trip in April. I even looked in my area to rent and drive down and it was $500-600.

 

[aokeefe]

Yes. No matter what time u book the res to start, it doesn’t start ‘ticking’ until u sign the agreement. You might come in paying hourly, under the time period when the daily rate kicks into play

I’ve had it bump up to daily at 2hours. Would do dummy res to check to make sure if that still holds

Piggybacking on this thread. What happens if I pick up my car early? Our flight changed and we are coming in 6 hours early. Booking through Costco, we can't modify our reservation (had the lowest rate I have seen); booking a new reservation shows an increase of $180. Can I keep my same daily rate if I show up early? (I did book another reservation in case, but had to downgrade our car to keep it comparable ).

 

[keishashadow]

Our flight changed and we are coming in 6 hours early. Booking through Costco, we can't modify our reservation (had the lowest rate I have seen); booking a new reservation shows an increase of $180.

Did u try calling the provider directly to ask if they would honor your price?

Would Mention the airline changed your flight time

 

[Redarrow5150]

Three weeks out and the prices are soaring. Maybe all of us should take a rental car to MCO and they can pay us in providing more vehicles.

 

[Cal-Pie]

you also need to do it the same time you buy tickets through them. We bought tickets from UT and figured we would add a car later after we checked other sites. Nope, once the tickets are bought you can no longer get the deal. It only works if you also have tickets in your cart.

If you've recently purchased tickets from them, you can call them and they'll email you a link that gives you the discount price on car rentals. They just need to look up the order number on your tickets.

 

[friendoffigment]

i usually rent from alamo. the price keeps going up. it's over $500 for an economy for 3rd week (going 10 days). this is nuts. maybe alamo figures if disney can do it so can we

 

[PatMcDuck]

In response to the person who needs to change a pickup or drop off time, and trying to modify online triggers a big increase.

I have had this happen before, and calling Alamo they could adjust it without the price changing. Or at worst just a small increase.

 

[LadybugsMum]

In response to the person who needs to change a pickup or drop off time, and trying to modify online triggers a big increase.

I have had this happen before, and calling Alamo they could adjust it without the price changing. Or at worst just a small increase.

That’s why I don’t want to make any changes. i only want to turn it in a couple hours later since I changed our flights. I think I’m just going to turn it in late.

 

[kmacht]

If you somehow haven't bought tickets yet the UT rental car deal is awesome. We bought tickets last month through them but didn't do a rental car at the time since we were still figuring out flights. I e-mailed customer service as suggested above and they gave me a link to use for the discounted rental cars through their site. I ended up paying $289 all in with taxes for an intermediate from Budget for 4/10 through 4/20. All the other prices I was getting from other sites were in the $400 to $500 range and climbing. This was a huge savings for us. The only downside is that you have to pre-pay for the car but I don't think I will see a price drop below that rate anytime soon so was comfortable locking it in.

 

[aokeefe]

Update regarding calling Alamo to request an earlier arrival of 6 hours. Current rate (5 days) is $311 (which was booked months ago). Representative said "sure i can make the modification and your new rate will be $450!!! I said I understand prices have gone up but that seems insane for a modification of a few hours with an existing reservation. Needless to say, I said forget it. I will call again to see if it would be the same with a different agent otherwise I will just cancel and use my back up reservation ($20 bucks more and a smaller car- which is fine)

 

[Gentry2004]

That’s why I don’t want to make any changes. i only want to turn it in a couple hours later since I changed our flights. I think I’m just going to turn it in late.

We have done this before and there was no issue at all. It goes up slightly if you trigger another "day" on the rental, but its still at your existing rate.

 

[Gentry2004]

On Costco, Budget is now unavailable for my week 3/27-4/3, and Alamo is $578 for an intermediate. makes my $330 for a standard sound pretty good, although I was annoyed with it at the time.

 

[samsonjs]

I looked again at prices hoping they would go down and they are getting so much worse. It's now up to $730 at costco (midsize suv) since I booked last week for $415 and still over a month away. I feel for anyone that hasn't looked at car rental prices for their trip thinking they can just book it a few weeks out like they normally do.

 

[dizneedoll]

Wow! I thought I could better on my rate but seeing how much everything is going up I guess I did pretty good. I booked through Costco and got a price of $268 with Alamo. My flights changed too, the return flight was changed from a morning to an evening flight and I was also going to see about adjusting the time but I think I will it alone too.

 

[LadybugsMum]

I’ve been checking daily and the prices have been going up everyday. I’m think my $307 for 4/10-4/17 may be the best price I get.

 

[gharter]

We're still at $315 for the week, 1 month out and a new rental now is nearly $400. Not sure we will see that usual near trip drop. I suspect, my current price may be the best we get.

 

[friendoffigment]

checked this morning for the 11th-20th, alamo. $592 for economy.

 

[LadybugsMum]

It's $434 for 10th-17th for economy for Avis which is the cheapest.

 

[puffkin]

It's $434 for 10th-17th for economy for Avis which is the cheapest.

Check carrentalsavers. Thrifty has a bunch of different cars in the $350 range for those dates. We are going the same dates so I check everyday. I know I saw a full size and compact SUV for right around $350 I think the economy was about $334. The rates haven't budged in days. I filter it for the Major Agencies and Thrifty has gone up about $20 from when I booked a few weeks again (Mid size SUV at $330). They have consistently been the cheapest for that week since I started checking. I prefer Alamo, but its way more.