Originally Posted by
joshua362
Gotcha, that is weird pricing since National, Alamo and Enterprise are owned by the same conglomerate.
Several here have suggested Costco for good car rental codes / rates.
I understand collecting WN points but *think* they are relatively small and fixed per rental while at least National give you credit based upon length of rental. They aren't points per se but credits towards free days. But it sounds like the last thing you need is more rental cars!!
The pricing is beyond weird -- it's like dynamic pricing run amok. I always eventually find a good rental deal, but it takes perseverance. The mechanisms the car rental companies use to set pricing (which can frequently vary from HOUR to HOUR) are an absolute mystery to me. So I just play the game and keep hunting and working the codes until the price is acceptable.
The WN points for a car rental can be excellent, but you have to use the bonus point offers to make it worthwhile. I'm pulling in 2400 WN points a week for a car rental, or roughly one free airline flight a month. Costco does have excellent rates, as does AAA, but I can't get the WN bonus points that way.
The car rental points vs. airline points depends greatly on where you live and travel, I guess. Here at Tucson I have no need for free car rental days and if the wife and I go anywhere the car rental costs have never been a financial issue (we're not "big city" folks). Getting to where we want to go, however (via WN), makes the airline points much more valuable!