Other Car Rental Programs/Partners (ie. Alamo, Enterprise, Sixt) - Enterprise mileage charge for going out of Prov/State?

My brother is coming here to Calgary next week for an extended ski trip. he wants an SUV and the price Enterprise has is 1/2 of any of the others at YYC. ($1200 for 3 wks vs $2400 Alamo/National etc)
Enterprise has a restriction listed whereby they say- if driven out of province, charged at 200 km/day and additional km at 15c per. Because he is going into British Columbia to hit some of the ski hills there, he is concerned about this additional charge as he will be driving some distance.

My question (and his!) is how the heck will they know if he
drove it out of Alberta? (Unless he gets in an accident or gets a speeding ticket!)

Anyone have experience with this?

Bob In Cowtown

My brother is coming here to Calgary next week for an extended ski trip. he wants an SUV and the price Enterprise has is 1/2 of any of the others at YYC. ($1200 for 3 wks vs $2400 Alamo/National etc)
Enterprise has a restriction listed whereby they say- if driven out of province, charged at 200 km/day and additional km at 15c per. Because he is going into British Columbia to hit some of the ski hills there, he is concerned about this additional charge as he will be driving some distance.

My question (and his!) is how the heck will they know if he
drove it out of Alberta? (Unless he gets in an accident or gets a speeding ticket!)

Anyone have experience with this?

Bob In Cowtown

Thats one of the reasons the rate is much lower than any other company. To answer your question, unless your friend breaks down, has an accident or gets a ticket, they wont know (although some higher end vehicles do have "tracking" devices to prevent theft etc). If that's a risk he's willing to take, then go for it. Keep in mind, if the car breaks down (even mechanical) and the car is out of province he will be on the hook for the costs involved in getting back to the home city (even if it wasnt his fault). IF there is an accident and he took CDW/LDW, it would be void, and if he has an accident and didn't take it, he needs to check with his c/card company or ins co, as he may not be covered as the terms of the rental agreement were violated.

I agree with rentalguy, it's a risk to take that's not worth it imo. However, if your brother is renting for a full 3 weeks, at 200 km/day he'd have 4,200 km to play with before paying an overage. That should be plenty, even to go to B.C. and back. I'd just tell them your intentions, have them put the restriction on, and then bring the car back with a couple thousand k's on it. You're not paying anything extra, and you haven't violated Enterprise's terms.

This is why I say people must do their homework before renting with Enterprise or the mom-and-pops they intended to compete with to make sure the car meets their needs.

This is why I say people must do their homework before renting with Enterprise or the mom-and-pops they intended to compete with to make sure the car meets their needs.

It pays to do your homework with any rental company. I don't just look at the rate, I look at what I'm getting for that rate. For instance I'll sometimes pay a bit more to go with National so I can choose my own car.

As far as mileage restrictions in Canada, I know that, generally speaking, Hertz, Avis, National and Alamo, when they offer unlitmied mileage, do so without geographical restrictions. Budget either restricts to a region (say Western Canada), or restricts to the province and offers true unlimited mileage for another $10/day. Thrifty, Dollar, and Enterprise are within the province only, and mileage caps apply for going beyond the border.

Another option is Discount. They offer unlimited mileage with a high cap, usually 3,000 km. I can get from Edmonton back to Vancouver for a long weekend and back on that easily.

Sometimes I approach the Enterprise counter and point out the mileage restrictions. Many times, they gladly take it off if you tell them, "But the others don't do that."

A few smart ones will snap back, "But we're cheaper than the others."

Do it on your own risk.

ask them if they have an additional out of prov/state unlimited charge daily rated at $10 or something.

some locations allow it. some don't. YMMV.

If they allow it, they might say 150 free miles/km for the entire rental, $0.20/mi thereafter.

My brother completed his ski trip to B.C.
When he took the car out, he asked the counter
person about the out-of province charge. The
guy said "don't even worry about it" we never charge
to take a car into BC for skiing.

A non issue here.