Dreading

Sorry if this has already been discussed, I didn't see it. But Avis is going to start charging for miles in excess of 150 (not just on one-way rentals). It's starting in my market (Idaho/Montana), but my local franchise owner says they plan on expanding nationally it soon.

One more reason to start looking for a different company...

Auto Enthusiast

It's not just Avis, it's Avis-Budget Group. It depends on the market, location, and coupon rate. They have the option of changing and/or removing it at any time. Long distance one-way rentals will usually still officially have unlimited free miles because they are technically charging for miles- it's included in the high daily rate.

This was extensively tried in the NY metro area. Now only certain locations still have this. I think it finally dawned on them that: 1) You can always rent from someone else or somewhere else. 2) If hypothetically they all did this, renting a car would become uncompetitive with other forms of transportation. For the price of the mileage, you might as well fly.

Dreading

Interesting. They just started it in my market a couple of weeks ago and told my franchise guy they plan on expanding it nationally. They'll really lose business here, because one can easily drive 60 miles without seeing a single town out here. Many people (like me) rent because they plan on driving a long distance and don't want to put the stress on their own car. Although, I guess one thing is that there aren't any reasonable alternative forms of transportation - no trains and even if there's an airport, it's really expensive to fly in and out of.

sobore

150 miles per day? Can someone elaborate on this?

seoulmanjr

Good point. Who on earth would take a weekly (or longer) rental if the 150 mile cap were applied to the entire rental period regardless of duration?

If I see this pop up on my next long rental, I'll consider breaking it into a couple shorter rentals and have them pick up the cars and and deliver the newly rented cars to me at my hotel just to make a point (I'm petty when it comes to BS fees, but that might be stretching it). Or more probably just rent elsewhere. Most other companies don't have this policy. Avis's "fees" are already out of control and frequently add up to about 50% of a weekend rental for me by themselves.

peace,
~Ben~

IAHtraveler

I've done this in the past for a few reasons: take advantage of multiple coupons, cheaper rates for shorter rentals and to be a pr!ck if Avis were tools about the reservation.

Are these "Avis's Fees" or the fees tacked on by airports for parking garages & towns to build sports stadiums?

Auto Enthusiast

I'm pretty sure it's miles per day, but I just checked one of the nearby locations that has a mileage cap and it varies. Sometimes if you rent for 2 days, it's 200 miles total. If you rent for 2 days at other times, they give you unlimited miles. Either way, I'd stay away and rent elsewhere.

IAHtraveler

Was it from the same "rate code"? Even if I use my work AWD, I'll sometimes get different rate codes (listed on the right-hand side of the page during the reservation process).

Also, can you post the location/dates and I'll try with my corporate AWD to see what happens?

seoulmanjr

Here is a typical intermediate class weekend rental (Fri night to Sun afternoon) at IAH:


You'll note that the tax is computed against the base rate + fees. Taxes and fees make up 40% of the approximate total. Now imagine that there is a mileage fee on all of these as well (which would also be pre-tax). Ugh.

I'm with Avis because I am CC. If I wasn't, I can't imagine putting up with this, but admittedly, it has been years since I looked around to see if the grass was greener somewhere else.

peace,
~Ben~

JennyElf

So they try to charge you if you drive less than 75 miles (unless you show a receipt proving gas purchase) and now they want to charge for driving more than 150 miles.

IAHtraveler

For this example, I think the customer facility charge is from IAH, not Avis, as is the Bus Cost Recovery Fee. The other fees are from Avis. It's crazy, but I don't think there's much we can do, unfortunately.

Yeah, mileage fees will be horrible. I've also asked Avis employees at several locations if the fuel fee (when you return the car less than full, without pre-paying) is pre-tax and pre-fees, but they have no clue! I love how even the employees don't know how it works!

Yeah, if it weren't for CC, I'd never rent from Avis for personal rentals. And if it weren't for corporate contracts don't allow ANY others, I'd never rent from them, period.

sobore

150 miles per day is truly absurd. When I rented from Advantage and received a basement low rate they had limited mileage.
However their limit was 500 miles per day which I did not feel was unreasonable, but 150 per day, can this really be?

crhptic

Next, I expect to see a new "moderate usage fee" if you drive between 75 and 150 miles per day....LOL

My company uses Avis and so far I have not seen a mileage cap when using our AWD on rentals that are returned to the same location as pickup. However, I did get a quote last month for a one-way rental that included *no* miles in the base rate (but when I switched to a different AWD, it gave a slightly higher rate with unlimited mileage...go figure).

seoulmanjr

OK - But before IAH built that nifty facility (five years ago now?), it was Avis that bore the cost of operating their own bus and own facility and their cost of doing business was built into their pricing. The new IAH facility was a convenient excuse to pass additional nuisance fees to the customer, while at the same time reaping the huge cost savings of a shared space and a shared bus. I really could be mistaken onthis since I'm just guessing, but there is nothing from IAH saying that each customer should be charged these fee directly. If the municipality/county wanted to be sure of the income from customers, they would build that into the tax of the rental -- they already get 15% as their pound of flesh, so clearly they aren't holding back. I lay those facility and bus fees at Avis's feet.

peace,
~Ben~

Auto Enthusiast

Corporate rate codes usually give free unlimited miles with Avis on roundtrip and short one-way trips, except sometimes for certain specialty large vehicles. I have such a code for myself, but not everyone is as fortunate.