West - PHX alternative for Saturday evening

Hi everyone,

My SO and I are flying in PHX in March on a Saturday arriving shortly after 5 pm and looking to rent a car. Since the PHX taxes are so high (they are literally doubling the cost) I've been spending quite some time trying to find some alternatives as it seems will pay more for the car then our accommodation... Unfortunately seems we're arriving right after most of the rentals through out the city are closing (some at 4 some at 5 and some even at 5:30 which is kinda of a close call).

Can anybody recommend any (local?) rentals that close around 6 or later?
Thanks a lot!

What part of PHX will you be staying in? While our mass-transit is not top notch, the lightrail is a fairly convenient option getting to/from the airport provided you would be staying near one of the stops. Or maybe your hotel offers a shuttle service? If you can hold off til Sunday morning you might have better luck finding a car at a decent price from an off-airport location.

Hi

Thanks for the fast reply!
We're not staying in PHX, we're heading to Tusayan/Grand Canyon. I thought about spending the night there but it looks like we'll be wasting half of the next day that we can better spend visiting GC.
Are there any other cities on the way that have better rentals opened 24/7? I'm thinking of renting a car one way then dropping it on the way and renting another ... not sure whether I'll end up saving anything as I need to go back to the airport as well.

This thread may be of some help....

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/west/940188-off-site-phx-car-rental.html

Thanks - I've already read both
Off Site PHX Car Rental (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/west/940188-off-site-phx-car-rental.html) and
PHX Alternative (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz/1071394-phx-alternative.html)
but in both cases people arrived well before 5...
I'm kinda bump out because of the whole thing since I didn't expect arriving at 5 to be such an issue - currently the economy car (which will stay put for the most part) will cost more then the hotel itself...
Anyway, thanks for the tip.

Hmmm... your best bet might be to just do a name your own price on Priceline then you don't have to worry about paying for taxis/shuttles to off airport locations. If you don't like that idea and still want to book directly there are several coupons out there for discounted rentals (ie Hertz use CDP 211762 and PC 166725...those codes just saved me about $30 on an airport rental in SLC).

If you want to get the most out of that nasty stadium surcharge tax, catch a spring training game while you're here!! That way you can see first hand how your hard earned money gets used ;)

I'll start doing that however I've noticed the prices for both Priceline/Hotwire seem to be considerably lower then what I get on Kayak & co. Seems like they are either excluding:
a. taxes & fees
b. CDW/LDW

I would go for b) which I guess makes sense but still sucks as being from EU, I'll probably have to buy them anyway and without knowing the company I'll use, it might considerably offset the cost.

Anybody has experiences to share with renting through Priceline at PHX?
Thanks!

P.S. The game idea sounds interesting but we'll be in the area for a short while planning to spend as much time as possible in/around GC.

For what it's worth I made a reservation with National (got a corporate rate) and simply accept the "losses". There's no much I can do and while I found two local car dealers the reviews weren't pretty.
Thanks for all the help guys!

For what it's worth I made a reservation with National (got a corporate rate) and simply accept the "losses". There's no much I can do and while I found two local car dealers the reviews weren't pretty.
Thanks for all the help guys!

If at all possible, I'd highly recommend joining a car rental company's version of, "frequent renter," program. I think for National it is called, "Emerald Aisle," where you get to pick nearly any vehicle in an area of the airport. You can look through the National forum for more info:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/national-424/

Depending when you arrive at the rental car facility, you may be in for quite a wait if you do it the old fashioned way. And the agent may try to upsell you to something you don't need or want...but get tempted.

Also keep in mind that most car rental companies don't allow driving on dirt roads. Since you're headed to the high country, it may be tempting to do some of that.

Hope you have a great trip to Arizona!

Thanks for the tips. I'm already enlisted in the Emerald Aisle though for some reason, even though I've rented with them before, my CC (which is EU) is not good enough for them to automatically do the booking. I'm pursuing this with them to avoid the line in PHX.

Cheers!