kumarsivan

I am an Executive Elite member of National Car Rental. I would like to do a one way rental between Dulles Airport (IAD) pickup around 15NOV09 and drop off at Detroit airport (DTW) around 09DEC09.

I checked the rates on the National website and it comes out to around $1650. Ofcourse, it does not have to be through National. Can be any rental agency.

Would be grateful for any advice on doing this without drop-off charges. Ideally I am looking to pay around $800 or so. I have a Visa Signature card that covers the insurance.

THanks in advance to you veterans out there.
Kumar Sivan

clacko

what size car?......you are renting for 3 1/2 weeks, could you stretch that to a month?....check the others....good luck...

jackal

Rental companies usually offer specials with reduced or waived drop fees to move large volumes of cars between two destinations with opposite tourist seasons--for example, moving cars out of the cold Northeast and upper Midwest to the South (especially Florida) as winter approaches.

Given that there is not much need for cars to be moved from DC to Michigan--especially not as Michigan goes into the cold winter where fewer cars are needed there--my guess is you're going to have to suck it up and pay a drop fee.

There are strategies, of course, for minimizing the drop fee costs. Try some of the following:

• For long rentals like this, try to pick up at an off-airport location. The airport access fees you'll avoid will often FAR more than pay for any needed taxis to get to one of these locations. Be careful, though--sometimes the rates are higher and negate any savings. (Also, off-airport locations are sometimes closed weekends, so try checking for pick-up on Monday, November 16.)
• For long rentals like this, National, Avis, Budget, and Hertz are the wrong companies to use. These companies run a model of not charging a separate drop fee but instead jacking the rate up for one-way rentals. On long rentals, the difference in rate can be substantially more than other companies like Dollar and Thrifty, who will charge the normal rate and add on a drop fee. (In other words, 3 weeks at $600 per week is more than 3 weeks at $200 per week plus a $500 drop fee.)
• Piece together a multi-stop itinerary, such as one-waying IAD-PIT and then separately one-waying PIT-DTW. I doubt something like that will be cheaper in this case, but it might be worth a try. It'd be a lot of work to try to find city pairs that would save you money, however.
• Play around with Travelocity's one-way rental screen, including checking for pickup "near an address" (to try to check off-airport locations). You can sometimes find some better prices that way.

For your dates, I'm seeing an all-in price of $965.27 for a compact car through Thrifty (with the Hot Deals promotion) if rented from IAD. Other options from Thrifty that allow one-ways are available at BWI, DCA, and a suburban Arlington location, but none of them is cheaper than IAD (Arlington has $90 less tax, but the rate is higher and offsets that). You may be able to use one of the discounts listed here to drop that price further, though probably not.

If you're just looking for an economical way to get between the two cities, Amtrak'll do it for $68...

Edit: I also found a Hertz off-airport (Lindsey Volkswagen in Sterling, VA) that will do it for $1,170.21. They're closed on Sunday, so you'd need to wait until Monday. You might be able to use a Hertz discount code to reduce that price. (Keep in mind that for equivalent dates--11/16 to 12/9--Thrifty is $945.91).

sonofzeus

1. No Amtrak station at IAD.

2. No Amtrak station at DTW.

3. No direct route between DC and Detroit.

4. When I ask for the time I don't want a diatribe about watchmaking.

jackal

Oh jeez...I provide five paragraphs of helpful information to the OP and all you can do is zero in on one wink-emoticoned comment I made.

1. There's an Amtrak station a 30-minute drive from IAD. And the OP said he's flexible, so what makes you think he needs to start AT the airport?
2. There's an Amtrak stop a 20-minute drive from DTW. And the OP could very well not be flying out of DTW that day. Heck, he could live there.
3. One connection is hardly painful. The Capitol Limited to Toledo and then a measley hour on a bus is pretty darn direct.
4. Look up the definition of the word "diatribe." I highly doubt anyone would consider my one sentence to be one.

fti

Don't forget the Ignore feature on FT

kumarsivan

Hi Jackal...I am looking to make multiple stops between DC and Detroit in PA, TN, KY, IN etc. So the Amtrak option is ruled out. Thanks. Kumar Sivan