Dollar - One way fee question

Hi all. I just reserved a mid-size SUV from SFO to RNO this coming January using the American Express 10% off discount. Rental came to around $300 which is really good for this type of rental. Problem is there was also a $150 one way fee which brought total to $450. Believe it or not this is still over $100 cheaper than I found on Alamo which was the second cheapest.

Question is does Dollar ever waive or lower the one way fee? Is it worth it to call the 800 number and see if customer service can do anything about this?

Thanks,

Marc

Hi all. I just reserved a mid-size SUV from SFO to RNO this coming January using the American Express 10% off discount. Rental came to around $300 which is really good for this type of rental. Problem is there was also a $150 one way fee which brought total to $450. Believe it or not this is still over $100 cheaper than I found on Alamo which was the second cheapest.

Question is does Dollar ever waive or lower the one way fee? Is it worth it to call the 800 number and see if customer service can do anything about this?

Thanks,

Marc

Occasionally you can find promotional codes that do this, but they're usually for moving cars from the northeast/midwest to the south (at the beginning of the Florida tourism season) or the opposite way (at the end of it). However, barring a promotion, no, the one-way fee is never (as far as I've seen) waived as a courtesy.

As an aside, Dollar Thrifty's MO is to have a low daily rate plus a drop fee. Most other companies (Avis, National, Hertz, etc.) typically have no drop fee but charge an inflated daily rate (say, $70/day instead of $30). Therefore, Dollar Thrifty is usually a better deal on moderate to long rentals (five or more days), while the others can be a better deal on short rentals (five or fewer days).

I'd search the Dollar (and also the Thrifty) website for deals and promotions to see if there are any one-way specials. If you don't find anything, perhaps a call might not be a bad idea. But I wouldn't get my hopes up about RNO/SFO--I don't imagine there's much of a need to move cars between those two locations.

Thanks for the info. Thrifty's price was a little higher...also with a $150 one way fee. Alamo, etc. was about $100 more all-in but no one way fee.

I'll stick with Dollar for now! Maybe I'll even call them a few weeks out.

Keep checking the Dollar site for price drops as well. Recently my SD rental dropped $6 PD, while not significant it was money in my pocket, and it was easy to get the lower rate.