Hi. First time poster, apologies if this breaks any rules.

I've not rented a car in the US before, I normally borrow a friends. This time I plan to do a road trip and I need a car for just under a month (full size).

There are a few things I'm having trouble with:

• I am 25, but my additional driver will be 2 months short of 25 at the time of the rental.
• I'm an Australian, and our personal car insurance policies don't extend to rental cars (except in some cases cover the excess, likewise with our credit cards). Over a month, the LDW is very expensive.
• The Avis additional driver fee appears to be capped at $65USD.

The cheapest price I can find right now is with Avis, via Orbitz (with their $9USD/day insurance), $65USD additional driver fee, and an underage fee of $702USD ($27USD/day). That's a total of $1835USD for a 26 day booking in PA (airport pickup/dropoff)

Are there any suggestions? Is it possible Avis might waive the underage fee for my additional driver given he would only be 2 months off renting?

Thank you in advance.

EDIT: This is 2/26/11-3/24/11. If I'm better off creating a new thread please let me know, cheers.