vickh

Debating if using a Car awards from AA or any other carrier would be better than this. Need atleast a full size:

e.g
https://www.useaamiles.com/carhotel/


vs

Pick-up: Wed, July 26, 2017 - 12:00 PM
Drop-off: Mon, July 31, 2017 - 12:00 PM

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)


Rental Car Cost: $261.21 (1 x $261.21)
Taxes & Fees: $79.72
Estimated Total: $340.93

FlyinHawaiian

Have you tried www.autoslash.com?

vickh

thanks. Submitted. Would love to use my miles if better..

AAMillionaire

Be careful when using miles for a rental car. I did this a few years ago with AA miles. I don't remember exactly what the issue was, but I recall thinking that it was not a good use of miles. I also recall that I paid a lot of $$ when returning the car.

arollins

Using miles for car rentals is not necessarily a good use of redemption, but, on the flip side, with the way that airline miles are being devalued, who knows. Granted, your rental is about $350 and the lowest miles redemption I see its about 59075. If you are miles rich, and really have no use for air miles, go for it. I also will second the poster who suggested using autoslash. Give them a few days and you will see how your $350 rental can drop down substantially. I've used them numerous times in the past and have saved me $$$$$

To the poster that mentioned that even after using miles he also had to pay money after the return, I can only think that either he returned the car latter than what was supposed to be, without gas, or maybe he encountered an agent that was very overzealous and sold him every single insurance, gas option, GPS, toll, etc. and the renter had no idea.

AAMillionaire

None of the above. I returned the car as scheduled, with gas and did not buy or pay for insurance. I'll try to dig up the rental agreement and post my findings.

Brendan

Many so-called "free"/award rentals, incl. when using Avis Preferred Plus points, still require the renter to pay all the taxes & fees of a revenue rental, which can be hefty when picking up at an airport ! Also, if you're lucky enough to get it totally free, you won't be covered by your credit card's collision coverage, because $0 is charged to that card!

Duke787

I wouldn't bother using miles for a car rental. There are enough promo codes and discount corporate codes (including AAA and Costco) that make the price reasonable.

arollins

I've myself have never done a car rental, but if that is the case, that you are still liable for taxes and fees, not worth it. I was reading on another thread in the car rental forums where a person rented a 2 day car rental for $9.99/day, but the taxes and fees added an extra $21.00 to the total cost. Yes, certainly not worth it if that is the case. Give autoslash a try.

beckoa

Please follow the redirect as we send this to MilesBuzz.

~beckoa, co-moderator Information Desk

swag

With useaamiles, the rates can drop significantly if you have elite status.

For OP's rental, I still see 57,900, about what you saw. But when I then log in as an AA Gold, the price drops to 21,100 miles. And I'm only Gold, a Platinum or Exec Plat might save even more. At those levels, you're getting better than a penny per mile, which is not unreasonable if you have a large stash of miles, especially given how sparse AA saver award seats are these days.

Yes, the price doesn't include the taxes & fees. Those aren't shown, but should be the same as for a paid rental.

The main thing to be aware of are the T&Cs. In particular, changes cost $30 and cancellations cost $150, and it's non-cancellable within 4 days of pickup. Given that cash car rentals are usually penalty-free, that's significant.

https://www.useaamiles.com/carhotel/termsCondition.asp

Edit - I was looking economy, but full size car cost and savings are similar.

javabytes

Assuming you're looking at the very first line, I (an EXP) also see 21,100 miles for Budget. So it seems like being a higher tier elite does not yield more favorable pricing than being a Gold.

However, their sorting seems screwed up, because a few rows further down, I see Hertz vehicles in the 18k range.

pinniped

I like my AA miles too much.

I'd take the 10-15 minute metro ride to Rosslyn, rent a $175/wk car off-airport, and use my miles for flights. Play around with the coupon codes and you can probably get it even cheaper.

AA isn't nearly the program it once was, but I still prefer to use the miles for flights.