Avis - Rent in San Fran return to San Diego

I need to rent a car in downtown San Francisco on November 11th and return it in San Diego airport or downtown on Novebmer 13th. Can anyone give me reccomendations on how to minimize the cost??

I don't believe that Avis does One-Way rentals usually. If they do, it is usually quite expensive.

National does and I beleve Hertz & Budget do one-ways.

I needed a one-way last year from San Diego to Las Vegas & was finding all extremely expensive. Would up getting a cheap rate via Priceline that was booked with Hertz. It was about 40% of the cost.

So I'd try a lowball bid on Priceline if you're finding high prices directly with the rental companies..

thanks that is a great idea!!

:eek: Time out.

Priceline and Hotwire bidding does NOT allow one-way rentals. They are for roundtrip only. If you take the car you bid on and try to change your return location, it may be denied or they will revert your rate to the expensive one it would have been had you booked directly.

Avis does one-ways to almost anywhere. So does almost everyone else. The exceptions are: 1) single store mom and pops, and 2) Enterprise. And yes, it will usually be more expensive, especially near holidays.

ex: Hertz HLE near me. Pickup hypothetically tomorrow or in the days up to Columbus Day weekend. Subcompact $63 plus tax. Pickup next week after the holiday: $36 plus tax.

:eek: Time out.

Priceline and Hotwire bidding does NOT allow one-way rentals. They are for roundtrip only. If you take the car you bid on and try to change your return location, it may be denied or they will revert your rate to the expensive one it would have been had you booked directly.

Avis does one-ways to almost anywhere. So does almost everyone else. The exceptions are: 1) single store mom and pops, and 2) Enterprise. And yes, it will usually be more expensive, especially near holidays.

ex: Hertz HLE near me. Pickup hypothetically tomorrow or in the days up to Columbus Day weekend. Subcompact $63 plus tax. Pickup next week after the holiday: $36 plus tax.



correct. I have seen priceline rates skyrocket for not returning to right airport. one customer returned to a different airport and it cost them 1000 dollars extra on a 300 dollar rental. bad idea to lie to priceline and hotwire about where you are returning your car, period.

source: (in case people dont know) I was an avis manager and had to deal with customer complaints about this very thing weekly. And I always had to inform them that they "violated the terms" of their agreement with priceline, the tour operator they booked with, and as a result the rate they booked under is no longer valid, ergo they are responsible for the re-rate. and that "re-rate" has held up in court (been there done that) so people, whatever you do DONT lie to priceline and do that!

BTW, FYI, Avis DOES do one way rentals. Ive booked at least a few thousand in my years with avis. They do cost more.

Unless Priceline has changed their bidding on car rentals, one way rentals can be bid on.

I just looked on Priceline and when you get the original screen for Non-bidding car rentals, there is a blue link that you can click on saying that you're returning to a different location. Clicking that will let you enter the returning location. If you then go to car bidding on Priceline, it will show picking up at Airport X and returning to Airport Z. And you CAN then bid on a one-way car rental.

I did this last year on Priceline for SAN-LAS and I bid something like a total of $100 with fees & taxes and it was accepted on either a compact or midsize. The prevailing rates for a one-way were $300+.

And speaking of returning it to another location rather than the one booked for, I was able to do that too...I wound up having to cut that trip short and not drive to Vegas from San Diego. I was expecting to have to throw away that prepaid one-way rental because I was going to return it early and to San Diego rather than Las Vegas. But I called Hertz directly and they said it would be no problem (but that I wasn't going to get any money refunded to me). No problem - wasn't expecting that. I just didn't want to have to pay for a second rental for 2 days when I had already paid $100 for the 4 day rental..

So the answer is yes, you can bid on One-Way rentals on Priceline

From the Priceline website. I recall this section used to say "Priceline does not currently offer bidding on one-way rentals." Now they say the bidding function for one-ways is allowed in certain markets.

Can I get a one-way rental through priceline?

Yes. You can book a rental car reservation with a different pick-up and drop-off location (also known as a "one-way" rental). For example, you can enter a pick-up location in Orlando and a drop-off location in Miami if that is where you will end your trip.

One-way reservations are currently limited to airport locations only (for example, pick-up at Orlando International Airport and drop-off at Miami International Airport.) There may also be a "drop-off" fee charged by the rental car company. One-way rentals from off airport locations will be available soon.

Note: One-way rentals are available with our Name Your Own Price ® service in select locations. More locations are available with our "Shop & Compare" service where you can choose your rental car company and rate upfront.

I don't believe that Avis does One-Way rentals usually. If they do, it is usually quite expensive.

This is not my experience; I regularly do Avis 1-ways - most commonly SAN-LAX, LAX-SAN, SFO-SJC and SJC-SFO, but elsewhere as well. Of course only corp locations (like major airports) - not franchises.

On my corp rate (we are a mid-sized compnay, not big) there is no extra charge for 1-way; otherwise it would cost a few 10s of $$ extra from what I have seen (eg when I don't log in before pricing the rental). I have also called after I started a rental and asked to return to another location, and not been charged extra.

When I'm flying out of LAX on a trip of more than a week it's cheaper (and more convenient) for me to do Avis 1-ways at each end than to park at LAX.

Exactly how neighborhood branches of most rental companies make a significant portion of their money.

This is not my experience; I regularly do Avis 1-ways - most commonly SAN-LAX, LAX-SAN, SFO-SJC and SJC-SFO, but elsewhere as well. Of course only corp locations (like major airports) - not franchises.

On my corp rate (we are a mid-sized compnay, not big) there is no extra charge for 1-way; otherwise it would cost a few 10s of $$ extra from what I have seen (eg when I don't log in before pricing the rental). I have also called after I started a rental and asked to return to another location, and not been charged extra.

When I'm flying out of LAX on a trip of more than a week it's cheaper (and more convenient) for me to do Avis 1-ways at each end than to park at LAX.

I do confirm. One-way rentals are at same price than for usual rentals. The only difference I saw is that most of Specialty cars are not available when specifying a different drop-off location.