Originally Posted by
Ocn Vw 1K
marcin.m, of the codes you listed, the ones least dangerous to use are the ones for which you meet the qualifications.
FlyerTalk Ruies disallow supporting, encouraging or promoting fraud on travel programs. See FT Rule 15. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.
Yeah, this is kind of the rub on one-way car rentals. If you play strictly by the rules, most one-way USA (but not foreign) car rentals are uneconomical and you don't do them. This is a lose-lose for both the customer (worse vacation) and the car rental agency (no revenue). Certain car rental codes DO make such trips plausible. Presumably, the agency doesn't lose money on the deal or they wouldn't have offered the contract rate in the first place. Indeed, for many, many years, the rental agencies generally looked the other way on rate codes -- much like some hotel chains currently don't put any real restrictions on supposedly-limited "friends and family" rates.
Lately, though, the rental agencies have made half-hearted (and sometimes greater) efforts to police usage of their codes. At the same time, they don't offer a viable alternative. Like some one-way rentals with a code go for $35/day, while a publicly available rate can be $200/day. It's a sucky situation for everyone, and I personally can't support a holier-than-thou approach which is both unrealistic and lose-lose for everyone.
BTW, those of us who are USA frequent travelers sometimes have an alternative to use our car rental program points (where one-way rates are much more affordable and logical -- you pay a premium but not a crazy one). Many travelers, though, do not have this alternative.