Rental car prices.

[trailrunner]

$1000 pays for a lot of Uber. Saves you the hotel parking fee too. Just saying.

That's an interesting thought. Between getting to our hotel (an hour from the airport), shuttling to several days of wedding festivities, and then back to the airport, Uber would not be cheap, but it would be cheaper than Hertz. However, the deal breaker is that we're going to extend our trip by a couple of days after the wedding and go to another town before we RTB.

But I'm still going to run the numbers. Thanks.

[RoyGBiv]

That's an interesting thought. Between getting to our hotel (an hour from the airport), shuttling to several days of wedding festivities, and then back to the airport, Uber would not be cheap, but it would be cheaper than Hertz. However, the deal breaker is that we're going to extend our trip by a couple of days after the wedding and go to another town before we RTB.

But I'm still going to run the numbers. Thanks.

Another option to explore is off-airport rental locations. Typically much lower fees, often can be lower price per day as well.
Don't forget club discounts, etc. NRA gets you a discount in a lot of places, so does a Costco or Sam's membership. Or, if you or a family member works for an employer that has negotiated rates, those rates often extend to personal trips. My wife confirmed with her employer that they are happy to have us use their codes for personal travel, since it increases the number of rental days they have to leverage better pricing. Insurance is not covered by the company for personal trips, but, our personal insurance will cover it, so, no worries.

[shootist26]

That's an interesting thought. Between getting to our hotel (an hour from the airport), shuttling to several days of wedding festivities, and then back to the airport, Uber would not be cheap, but it would be cheaper than Hertz. However, the deal breaker is that we're going to extend our trip by a couple of days after the wedding and go to another town before we RTB.

But I'm still going to run the numbers. Thanks.

One thing to note is that Uber/Lyft availability is also spotty right now in certain metropolitan areas. I'm in Boston and they banned "surge pricing" due to the COVID emergency, but that has basically de-incentivized drivers from operating during peak demand hours. That combined with the fact that a lot of drivers pivoted to food delivery as there was little rider demand in all of 2020 means fewer ubers on the road. Right now, bars and restaurants are back open but wait times for ubers/lyfts are like 30+ minutes (if they come at all) when ordinarily you could get one within 5 minutes.

[trailrunner]

Another option to explore is off-airport rental locations. Typically much lower fees, often can be lower price per day as well.
Don't forget club discounts, etc. NRA gets you a discount in a lot of places, so does a Costco or Sam's membership. Or, if you or a family member works for an employer that has negotiated rates, those rates often extend to personal trips. My wife confirmed with her employer that they are happy to have us use their codes for personal travel, since it increases the number of rental days they have to leverage better pricing. Insurance is not covered by the company for personal trips, but, our personal insurance will cover it, so, no worries.

I work for the government, and as far as I know, getting government rates on personal travel is not allowed. When I've extended a TDY with some personal travel, I've had to turn in the car that I rented under government rates and get a new car rented as John Q. Citizen.

Thanks for the advice. I'm still studying my options. Will look into the other discounts you mentioned.

[Norville]

That's an interesting thought. Between getting to our hotel (an hour from the airport), shuttling to several days of wedding festivities, and then back to the airport, Uber would not be cheap, but it would be cheaper than Hertz. However, the deal breaker is that we're going to extend our trip by a couple of days after the wedding and go to another town before we RTB.

But I'm still going to run the numbers. Thanks.

I’m assuming you checked the other agencies? I travel to Manchester often and my National price just went up another $20 a day to $86. Sounds like you are flying into BOS, so it’s going to be more.

I drove by the Hertz Local in Manchester last week, it was empty.

Uber in Manchester used to be fair, guessing it’s swung to poor now but no experience lately.

[BehindBlueI's]

If you're a Budget member, they have a deal now for Amazon customers. I don't know if you have to have Prime or not, but I don't think so. In the drop down promo codes thing if you see "Amazon member" it'll take 10% off the rental and then you get 10% of the new price back as an Amazon balance credit 48 hours after you turn the car back in. Took my actual cost down to the low $70/day for a Mazda CX-5 "or similar" SUV at LAX.

[OlongJohnson]

I need a rental car for this weekend. No availability at the airport, so I'm stuck getting picked up and renting from a local office in the town I'll be staying in. With the limited mileage just being mobile visiting around town, a pickup truck from U-Haul ends up being the cheapest option and it's not even close.

[RoyGBiv]

Some of these also work for non-FL locations...
Click through each agency and scroll down their page until you get to "Discounts, Codes and Coupons" section...

I used my wifes company code with Avis a few weeks ago. Company travel manager said it was ok. Got an email from Avis a day or so before saying something along the lines of having to prove my association with the company at the airport. I took wifes business card, copy of the letter from corporate, copy of wifes DL with same address as my DL. Showed up at the airport and my car space was listed as "See agent"... Ready for an argument, I approached the desk and the agent asked to swipe my actual CC, since it was the first time that card was being used for a rental. That was it. Swipe card, get car. The savings was ~50% off the rate I was quoted without the company discount.

https://www.mousesavers.com/transpor...car-discounts/

Rental Car Codes, Coupons and Discounts

• Undercover Tourist Discounts on Alamo, Budget, Avis, National and Enterprise
• Alamo
• Avis
• Budget
• Enterprise
• National