Rental Cars

Hopefully you all, who I have never met, can help.
I travel about once a month or so (hence a plane would be handy) and always going to different places usually related to selling hangars or other buildings. Earlier this week I was at the Schweiss hangar Door factory in south central Minnesota.
But all this to say, when I reserved the rental car through Southwest Airlines it was only $39 a day! But of course when you pay the bill it was about $169 for a day and a half after taxes, fees, insurance (only lose of use insurance) and whatever else they wanted to add on.

My question is;
Is there a site that would display the true price you pay?
Do any of you think it is worth working with mostly/only one company?
Do any of you know of another way to cover insurance without a policy paid monthly?
Then when the RV-14 is done and being used, then what do you do about rental cars. I do know that often the FBO throws you the keys, but not all the time.

Basically Help! Please, I would love to figure out a better way.
Thanks, Larry

i use travelocity, and costco the most and they both show the true total price.

bob burns
RV-4 N82RB

$39 to $169, you can't be serious!
sounded to good to be true.

They tend to charge by the day (extra hours are expensive) so 1.5 days is the same as 2. I don’t know what you can do, but sometimes staying at an airport hotel and picking up the car in the morning can save a day on the rental.
Most or many personal car policies will cover rental cars. Decline the insurance if yours will. Yes, if there’s an accident there’s a hassle but if your policy will cover it eventually it will get worked out. Talk to your agent.
Edit: I’ve previously rented cars thru Southwest Airlines’ web page, and they always showed me the bottom line including taxes and fees - no surprises.

I learned recently that you always can rent a small U-Haul truck in just about every town. They are cheap compared to most car rentals. Not cool, but cheap especially when you return it to the pick up point.

BobTurner said:

They tend to charge by the day (extra hours are expensive) so 1.5 days is the same as 2. I don?t know what you can do, but sometimes staying at an airport hotel and picking up the car in the morning can save a day on the rental.
Most or many personal car policies will cover rental cars. Decline the insurance if yours will. Yes, if there?s an accident there?s a hassle but if your policy will cover it eventually it will get worked out. Talk to your agent.
Edit: I?ve previously rented cars thru Southwest Airlines? web page, and they always showed me the bottom line including taxes and fees - no surprises.

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I did talk with my agent and that is why I only chose the "lose of use" liability insurance. But I think I will see if I can post the bill and what the web site shows. You can not pay on the web site only at the counter. For me the rental car bill always seems to be hwy robbery in broad daylight. Hopefully someone has a good solution. Thanks, Larry

I find Enterprise is in almost every town and their web site give a price with all of the add-ons. You can get a bit of a discount as well with your EAA Membership benefits program.

If you are flying commercially you usually get stuck with an airport location rental car fee (it's listed too ) and as mentioned previously using a nearby hotel that has a free airport shuttle service and getting Enterprise to deliver to the hotel may work out cheaper, and even better if it saves a day rental.

Enterprise works well at most small airports during the week (for business). Unfortunatley, they usually aren't open weekends, so unles an FBO has an arrangement, you can get stuck with no car if you arrive on Saturday...or stuck with the car, unable to return on Sunday.

I also have always gotten the bottom line on rental cars on teh SWA site...but then I never take their insurance, so it is easy for SWA to quote total price.

+1 on Costco. Used their site twice in the last couple of months and no surprises. Also shows the best value out of all the classifications/sizes available.

Never used Costco, but I became a fan of Uber and Lyft after my trip to Vegas last spring. Super convenient. Never waited more than 5 minutes for a ride! I used them all week long to get from the airport to downtown and to my timeshare.

Don

dtw_rv6 said:

Never used Costco, but I became a fan of Uber and Lyft after my trip to Vegas last spring. Super convenient. Never waited more than 5 minutes for a ride! I used them all week long to get from the airport to downtown and to my timeshare.

Don

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Just be careful as twice I?ve landed somewhere only to find out last minute that Uber is not available in the area.

Just like checking weather, NOTAMs and fuel availability, -- I check Uber & Lyft sites during pre-flight planning. I landed in Tupelo, MS last Fall for the night when ferrying an aircraft cross country and diverting for weather. Only to find Uber was outlawed there. Had to get a conventional cab with commensurate high rate. Other than that a great city and overnight stop.

However, when attending avionics installation classes in Lee's Summit, MO the Uber rides each way from the KC airport were in the $90 range. The next time I went I rented a car for a fraction of the cost and had wheels during the stay.

Jim

Piplnr65656 said:

Just be careful as twice I?ve landed somewhere only to find out last minute that Uber is not available in the area.

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Yes, really check in some of the smaller towns out West.

As an example Silver City NM doesn't even have a taxi service, never mind Uber/Lyft, when I checked last year. If you want a car you have to go to the County airport many miles out of town in the middle of nowhere.