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Advice on renting a car to drop off in another location
Posted on 5/14/17 at 8:51 am
Posted on 5/14/17 at 8:51 am
Going out west to Seattle and want to see Glacier, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, etc. Renting a car in Seattle and dropping off in Denver or Billings is crazy expensive. Any tips to not get gouged on one way rentals?
This post was edited on 5/14/17 at 8:57 am
8
Posted on 5/14/17 at 9:48 am to Tortious
That is a tough one, do you have a Costco membership?
They generally have the cheapest rental car fares around.
They generally have the cheapest rental car fares around.
Posted on 5/14/17 at 11:15 am to Tortious
hertz,avis and the airport on site one way rentals are the worse...try an enterprise location off site
Posted on 5/14/17 at 2:39 pm to Tortious
Just try to find one that won't charge you per mile. That is a fricking bitch.
Posted on 5/15/17 at 7:39 am to CaptainJ47
I haven't seen a $/mile charge since the 90s. That's insane. Most companies have a fee for you basically taking their inventory. Join a rewards program and try to talk to them. Some have moving specials you can use. I had to rent a van once to move stuff to put a guy in a nursing home and they knocked down the one way fee for me because it was a relocation. That was with National.
Posted on 5/15/17 at 9:49 am to Clark W Griswold
There used to be one that would let you do this, but I can't remember which company it was (it might have been National). Most are REALLY weird about this sort of thing though.
Posted on 5/15/17 at 12:15 pm to gjackx
I don't think there is a cheap option.
I do know that a lot of the RV rental places have cheaper 1 way routes that are normally "return" routes, because people like to drive them northwest and fly home, so if you drive them southeast from Seattle and Alaska area you can get mucb better deals. I don't know if that helps you at all, but may be something to look into.
If you don't have a return location locked in, you may be able to call up someone like Enterprise and see if you can work out a deal. May get lucky and find a company that needs people to return/ drive cars the way you are headed.
I do know that a lot of the RV rental places have cheaper 1 way routes that are normally "return" routes, because people like to drive them northwest and fly home, so if you drive them southeast from Seattle and Alaska area you can get mucb better deals. I don't know if that helps you at all, but may be something to look into.
If you don't have a return location locked in, you may be able to call up someone like Enterprise and see if you can work out a deal. May get lucky and find a company that needs people to return/ drive cars the way you are headed.
Posted on 5/15/17 at 5:38 pm to Tortious
Find a code that waives drop fees. Or talk directly with the manager of the SEATAC site and see if they need a car returned to DEN or Billings and are willing to waive the fee.
Posted on 5/15/17 at 8:17 pm to Golfer
Posted on 5/16/17 at 12:52 pm to Tortious
Being a loyalty member helps your ability to negotiate.
Only other thing is what others mentioned - trying to get a deal if you're helping them out by moving a car to somewhere else it needs to be. Husband and I wound up in Dallas because of weather once and had to drive to Houston. We actually got a good deal on a car because literally all Avis locations in Houston were out of cars due to the storm canceling so many flights. It helped them that we wanted to bring a car there. Obviously you can't count on weather, but if you can find a place that needs to move cars in that direction for any reason, you may be able to get a better rate.
Only other thing is what others mentioned - trying to get a deal if you're helping them out by moving a car to somewhere else it needs to be. Husband and I wound up in Dallas because of weather once and had to drive to Houston. We actually got a good deal on a car because literally all Avis locations in Houston were out of cars due to the storm canceling so many flights. It helped them that we wanted to bring a car there. Obviously you can't count on weather, but if you can find a place that needs to move cars in that direction for any reason, you may be able to get a better rate.
Posted on 5/16/17 at 3:58 pm to Tortious
The one time I had to do it (pickup in Akron, OH and drop off in Columbus) Enterprise had the best rate by far. So much so that I didn't really notice a difference in the price.
Posted on 5/16/17 at 5:09 pm to Tortious
Made this same trip four summers ago (Seattle/Denver) and used a company called Drive Away Holidays (found on Trip Advisor) who actually booked us through Hertz. Can't remember total charges but went with them after thoroughly researching every cost cutting option. Definitely no mileage charge and we saved appx $500 on the one-way fee. Of course this was a while back, good luck! Fantastic trip, btw!
Posted on 5/17/17 at 9:02 am to Tortious
Look for deals through national (who I use) or any other company you are loyal to. I rented one in Seattle and dropped off in San Francisco a week later for only $240+ tolls. They had some offer that was get a free day with a 4 day rental.
Another thing to look into that might be a pain in the arse is to do a drop off and pickup a new car in one of the cities in the middle. That way the one way fee won't be $500.
Another thing to look into that might be a pain in the arse is to do a drop off and pickup a new car in one of the cities in the middle. That way the one way fee won't be $500.
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