djohannw

Hi!

I am going to Phoenix in August and am looking for a rental car for our two week holiday. When checking rates I discovered that the surcharges, taxes and fees charged at PHX airport add up to a whopping 48% of my base-rate, what I think is ridiculously high, as rentals at off-airport locations only add about 22% to the base rate.

Avis has the same rates available for off-airport-loactions and allows drop-off at the airport without additional charges, so I guess that is my best bet. So which of these Avis-locations is reasonably close to the PHX-airport?

- Bell-Towne Plaza - P2A, 245 E Bell Rd, Ste 24, Phoenix, AZ 85023
- Avis - C5A, 3855 W Ray Rd, Chandler, AZ 85224
- Gilbert / East Mesa - GI3, 3821 E Baseline Road, Gilbert, AZ 85296
- Downtown Glendale - GD2, 7260 W Bell Road, Suite 4, Glendale, AZ 85310
- Goodyear / West Phoenix - G5Y, 2000 N Litchfield Rd, Goodyear, AZ 85338
- Mesa - M1Z, 1844 W Broadway, Mesa, AZ 85210
- Avis - S4A, 10392 N Scottsdale Rd, Ste 101, Scottsdale, AZ 85254
- Doubletree Paradise Vly Rst - SCO, 5401 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85250

We are going to Tucson immediately after picking up the car, so it would be nice if the station would be not too much of a detour to there. Also, if I take a cab, how much will the fare be approximately?

My other choice would be to pick up a car at PHX (cheapest available) and drop that off at the location where I get my "final" car for the two-week holiday. This would also yield me another 500 miles...;-)!

Any suggestions are very much appreciated!

Greetings - Dirk

YVR Cockroach

Perhaps use mapquest.com to locate the places.

Tucson is of course south of Phoenix and I think the highway is E/SE of the airport so an agency in the direction would be good.

djohannw

I tried that, and from that Chandler will be my best bet. But sadly mapquest does not list any cab-fares...;-))).

Greetings - Dirk

TransWorldOne

If you'd like to post your dates & times and car class preferred, I might be able to post some advice for you.

~$25 from the airport to Avis on Ray Rd. This location is good because it is on the way to Tucson.

If you rent from Mesa, you could take the RED or 40 city bus from the airport to Dobson Road (effectively departing the airport every 15 minutes). At Dobson Road, you would either walk one mile south or transfer to the southbound 96 (departs every 30 minutes). The fare is $1.25 per person. Transfers are complimentary.

hedoman

Super Shuttle might work to one of the locations for a reasonable fare.

To the airport boards/cities that think they can add over 25% in taxes on car rentals. PHX was eliminated by me three years ago as a place to visit. I've cut the number of trips by 70% to Cleveland and Seattle.

j379pa

There are also several shuttles to Tucson, particularly to that airport. I think they run around $25. I'd be happy to do little local research and report back if this interests you. You may find lower fees in Tucson, but I don't know how that would affect your drop off.

I believe that enterprise will meet you at your location with a car, but I doubt they would do that at the airport. Were you at a hotel in town the first night, you could use their shuttle and pick it up there.

I always get a kick out of meeting people from overseas. I live and work fairly close to the airport, and would be open to giving you a lift if it worked with my schedule.

None of the locations you listed are on the way to Tucson from the airport. Budget has a location in a hotel on Washington St., that is very close. You might consider this one.

JP

djohannw

I'll be arriving in PHX on August 17th with the daily LH flight from Frankfurt, and will rent a midsize car or up. So far I prefer Avis as they have a decent discount-code (the usual D002807) and in addition accept Coupons for a rental, so my rental comes to 157$ per week plus tax.

Quote:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
~$25 from the airport to Avis on Ray Rd. This location is good because it is on the way to Tucson.

That would be less then a car for two hours...this comes to approximately 38$ including taxes, so the 500 extra miles would be pretty expensive.

Quote:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">If you rent from Mesa, you could take the RED or 40 city bus from the airport to Dobson Road (effectively departing the airport every 15 minutes). At Dobson Road, you would either walk one mile south or transfer to the southbound 96 (departs every 30 minutes). The fare is $1.25 per person. Transfers are complimentary.

Thanks for that advice, but I think after twelve hours in a plane I guess public transport is too much of an experience for me...;-)!

Thanks again for the advices!

Greetings - Dirk

djohannw

I always though that these Shuttle-services only serve bigger hotels and Downtown-locations. But as there are three of us, so taking the Shuttle (paid by person) will probably be less comfortable and more expensive than a taxi...

Thank you for the suggestion!

Greetings - Dirk

TransWorldOne

djohannw said:
"...We are going to Tucson immediately after picking up the car, so it would be nice if the station would be not too much of a detour to there. Also, if I take a cab, how much will the fare be approximately?..."

Then, djohannw said:
"I tried that, and from that Chandler will be my best bet. But sadly mapquest does not list any cab-fares..."

TransWorldOne replied:
"&gt;&gt;Originally posted by djohannw:
I tried that, and from that Chandler will be my best bet. But sadly mapquest does not list any cab-fares...;-))).&lt;&lt;~$25 from the airport to Avis on Ray Rd. This location is good because it is on the way to Tucson."

djohannw replied:
"That would be less then a car for two hours...this comes to approximately 38$ including taxes, so the 500 extra miles would be pretty expensive."

Perhaps we're misunderstanding one another? I'm not sure what your reply means. My post indicates that the taxi fare from PHX to Chandler's Avis would be approximately $25. The Chandler location is good because it is towards Tucson, rather than the other Avis locations which are in opposite directions from Tucson.

TransWorldOne

SuperShuttle provides service from in front of each PHX airport terminal building to the front door of your destination, whether that be a home, business, hotel, or otherwise. They serve the entire metropolitan area.

Unfortunately, they are grossly overpriced unless you are going someplace extremely far from the airport. Another negative is that their departures to many areas of the city are infrequent. SuperShuttle's fare to Chandler's Avis location is $18 per person, while a taxi cab is approximately $25 total! With a cab you don't have to sit in the hot desert air and waste time while SuperShuttle makes you wait for a van.

TransWorldOne

j379pa said:
"There are also several shuttles to Tucson, particularly to that airport. I think they run around $25."

I know of NO shuttle service that runs between the Phoenix airport and the Tucson airport. If you know of a company that runs such a service, please share it with me. I'd be very interested in using it.

j379pa said:
"I believe that enterprise will meet you at your location with a car, but I doubt they would do that at the airport."

Enterprise has a location serving the airport. That branch office runs a shuttle service to and from the airport. The other branches in the area (that don't charge all the extra airport taxes) would almost certainly not pick you up at the airport, but if you took a courtesy shuttle to a hotel (say the Sheraton or Tempe Mission Palms) could pick you up there. I've found Enterprise's rates to be higher than most other companies (except for weekend rentals) but sometimes they will match a competitor's price.

j379pa said:
"None of the locations you listed are on the way to Tucson from the airport."

The Chandler location is the Avis branch which stands out as being the best choice for someone headed to Tucson. What j379pa said is technically correct, though, as the store is about 4 miles east of Interstate Highway 10 (the highway running between the airport and Tucson).


[This message has been edited by TransWorldOne (edited 06-29-2002).]

TransWorldOne

It is unfortunately true that these cities have exhorbinant taxes. I'd also add Denver to the list. My work around is to use public transportation and not rent cars in those cities. It works especially well in Cleveland (light rail to downtown from inside the airport terminal) and Seattle (express bus service to downtown and Bellevue from the curb in front of the terminal).

j379pa

I'll be in Europe on your arrival, so I couldn't be of much help.

There is a company that will take you from the Phoenix airport to Tucson for $24 each way. Their link is http://www.arizonashuttle.com/ . It lists several places they stop in Tucson. Perhaps one of these stops is near where you're staying, or near a car rental agency there.

Their website says both that they don't make regular stops at the Tucson airport, but that they will arrange with a third party (taxi, limo, etc) to drop you off at the location you desire. You would need to look at their site for how often they run each day.

JP

TransWorldOne

I used their service to go to the Tucson airport once. It was not very convenient. They dumped me off at a Circle K on Speedway Boulevard, near the University of Arizona, and called a taxi cab for me. The taxi that took me to the airport is one of the worst cab rides I've experienced. The old rattletrap was filthy and driven by an old man who harassed me the entire length of the trip about astrology. The fare was over $10 (in addition to the $24 I had already paid Arizona Shuttle). Their other stops are rather remote and not of much use in this situation (other than to perhaps be picked up by a rental car company) or to the average tourist.

j379pa

Not the kind of welcome we would want to give a visitor from overseas! Maybe ok for a budget traveler. Glad someone could chime in with experience.

JP