Originally Posted by
Zudnic
I am heading to Hawaii for my honeymoon and thereafter will embark on a RTW backpacking trip - so I'm looking to cut costs where possible. On this trip, out of pocket expenses trumped maximizing points.
I've booked a convertible through Budget for Kauai. The same car is $100 cheaper over six days via Hotwire, but UA has changed my itinerary once and I am afraid of them doing it again and getting stuck with a car for the wrong times.
My trip's in mid-April ..
So two questions, and TIA:
- Are flights to Hawaii - and LIH in particular - more or less susceptible to schedule changes than other, better-served destinations?
- Is my Hotwire price likely to increase or decrease in the next month or so?
How much is your itinerary changing by? If it's just by a few hours then you should be fine. Tell Hotwire that you want to pick up the car a few hours earlier than you're planning to be there and if you're a little late you won't have a problem... heck, even if you show up a few hours earlier than you were scheduled for you should still be fine.
As far as returning the car goes, the car rentals are all done in 24 hour increments, so unless you're flying out at the same time you're arriving you should have some grace time there too. Set the schedule to return the car a few hours after you're scheduled to depart if you want, but even if you don't do that you should be find returning the car after your scheduled time as long as it doesn't push you past another 24 hour period.
If you're looking at the hotwire discount rate or whatever they call it where you can't see who you're renting from, then I think that's fairly likely to increase over time. If it's a regular fare that you can see the name of the rental company, then I would guess that it would be more stable.
HTH,
Brett