January 2022 Car Rental Thread

[Akck]

With the abysmal car rental rates we are now seeing, it’s not too early to lock in a rate and hopefully see it drop before we go. Currently, I have 2 reservations, one for our current travel plans and one for when the airline cancels/changes our flight(s), and we have to take a later/earlier one. Both are for compact SUVs through Costco, for $658 and $737, 8-day rentals. They are with Alamo. Oh, I did have a reservation for an electric car for $585, but in thinking it through, it might be too small for our luggage as it’s rated fo 1 bag.

I’m of course hoping rates drop so they are under $500. I remember a time when I was looking for a under $400 rate. The only encouraging information I can give is that we have a reservation for Houston in September, and our rate has dropped over $140. Oh, and a compact SUV is a new class of vehicle with Costco. It will be interesting to see what they have at the airport for it or if we’ll be directed to a midsize SUV.

 

[npatellye]

Stalking this since we need a car spanning the end of December 2021 into early January 2022 and prices are insane.

 

[Akck]

Weirdest thing happened, I just reserved through Costco, a Budget rental in case our flight is changed to a later flight, for an intermediate SUV at $675. This is a 9 am pick up and a 5 pm return. For a 10 am pick up and 10 am return, the rate goes up to $700. Guess I’ll book the longer period and just turn it in early. I’m still hoping for rates to go down though.

 

[easyas123]

We've got a reservation w/ Enterprise currently 28-31 January, RSW to MCO - midsize car. $300 for the rental. $200 surcharge to drop it at the Car Care Center, so we will drop it at the airport and Uber to our resort.

To compare, we also have a compact SUV rental 6-9 Sept., RSW/RSW, $310

I stick with our Enterprise corporate rental account since it doesn't cost us anything, and everyone in the car is covered as a driver, as are the folks we are visiting. But I'm still shopping around in case anything is considerably less expensive.

 

[alecam]

Currently have a mid size booked for 1/1 through 1/8 for $657.22 through Budget via
Priceline. Hoping for better.

ETA: just checked again and got a larger (Standard) car for $594 same week. Also through Budget.

 

[Akck]

I’m about a month out from our Houston trip and the rate dropped another $15 for the 10 day trip, now at $470. No change on our Orlando rentals. The hopeful sign is that the pressure on rental rates is easing and rate reductions are returning to normal again, where we’ll see rates go down 4-6 weeks ahead of travel.

 

[archdandy]

I'm booked in with Budget for a 10 day rental compact car I'm sitting at $538. I'd really prefer Alamo but the prices right now are insane.

 

[pigletto]

We plan to go to universal first so we are going to use a car service and not bother with a rental while there. It would just sit in the parking lot and we would pay to park.

We did want a car for the Disney portion though, so I used Costco to search cars in the Universal area and found an Enterprise full size rental for 8 days picking up on South Orange Blossom Trail and returning to MCO.

The Enterprise location is a 15 minute Uber ride from our Universal hotel. We have no problem going to get it because it’s costing us $311 for a full-size for 8 days vs the over $800 I was looking at anywhere else.

 

[archdandy]

We plan to go to universal first so we are going to use a car service and not bother with a rental while there. It would just sit in the parking lot and we would pay to park.

We did want a car for the Disney portion thohhI used Costco to search cars in the Universal area and found an Enterprise full size rental for 8 days picking up on South Orange Blossom Trail and returning to MCO.

The Enterprise location is a 15 minute Uber ride from our Universal hotel. We have no problem going to get it because it’s costing us $311 for a full-size for 8 days vs the over $800 I was looking at anywhere else.

Wow! Great deal!

 

[cruisin5]

I'm at $900 for Jan 5-15, TPA to MCO in a mid-size suv. Alamo, Avis was worse!

 

[Akck]

While our Houston trip is not directly applicable to Orlando, I’m hopeful that the rental car situation loosening up there is happening nationally. We’re now down to $459 on our 10-day end of September Houston trip, almost $200 down from our first booking. Here’s hoping the trend continues and we see lower rates show up by December.

Oh, and the glitch I mentioned earlier, about the rate being cheaper for a longer period has changed. Budget now shows an increase for the 8 hour longer rental. I still think you might still save a little by varying your pick up/drop off times when reserving.

 

[archdandy]

The rates haven't budged for me for weeks. I check every day and every day it's the same. I'm actually starting to get more worried we might not be able to on our January trip. Florida's numbers are so bad and the border hasn't opened to Canadians yet. I'm hoping with everything I have that the border opens soon and we can start planning our trip for good.

 

[Akck]

I just checked today and reserved a full-size car from Costco/Alamo for $559 for our trip. While it’s not our preferred car size (like SUVs for better height and visibility), it’s about $100 cheaper than our SUV reservation.

 

[Akck]

I just reserved a midsized SUV through Costco/Alamo for $602. This beats my compact SUV rate of $658, that I’ll cancel shortly. Si rates are headed down, but you may have to be flexible on the type of vehicle.

 

[archdandy]

We decided to change our dates a few weeks after our original trip. I believe I was sitting at $680. Through costco Alamo I got $683. Not a lot of a difference but I'm going as low as I can get. We're still months out from January so hopefully the rates will drop by then significantly.

 

[Akck]

I forgot to report earlier that I have an electric car reserved via Costco/Alamo for $524 for our 8 day trip. As I expected, our flights changed, but the time changes require we get to the airport one hour earlier for our return flight. Rates have gone up on some vehicle types, so it’s better for us to keep the reservation and just turn it in earlier.

Anyone rent an electric vehicle? Is there anything for someone who has never operated one that they need to know?

 

[dayking]

I have found the extra 30 minutes driving from Tampa saves quite a bit on car rental costs and flight availability.

 

[Akck]

I recently had my Costco CC # stolen while I was on a recent trip. As a result, I canceled the card and will be getting a new one. What I didn’t realize, they canceled my Costco membership # which locked my Costco Travel account. As I have some good rates (but still would like lower), I was worried I’d have to start over with all my reservations.

I ended up calling and after some confusion, I was able to set up a new travel account, which had no reservations. Fortunately, within 24 hours, my reservations were added to the new account. So rest assured that you’ll get everything back should this happen to you.

As for rates, they haven’t changed much, with rates heading in the wrong direction.

 

[CarolynFH]

We just booked Budget through Costco for our mid-January trip - $493 for a compact car. I'm pretty sure we'll cancel it and take Mears Connect for $64 RT for the two of us - we just won't eat offsite this trip!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Hopping on board to watch rental prices with you all. We just booked for January 8th to 15th. Currently at $586 for a midsized pick up with a free extra driver, Alamo through Costco.

Our September rental started at $600+ and ended up going down to $250 by the time we traveled. Fingers crossed for the same end result this time.