skiman723

I was trying to book a work related car rental for 3/26 to 3/29 in MCO and for just 3/26 (9AM to 5PM) in FLL or MIA, and the rates are sky high. Using my corporate discount code, the rate is usually $37 to $41, but for these rentals the rate is over $100 for MCO, FLL, and MIA. I tried a dummy PHX rental and the rates are right in the normal range.

Does anyone have any ideas if there is an event going on, or what the deal is?

Thanks.

Mary2e

Spring Break.

TerryK

Yes, Spring Break. You should be fine if you can postpone your rental until after 3/29/10.@:-)

Steph3n

also way too early to reserve, I never reserve with AVIs that early, it is wildly expensive. I do reserve sometimes a month out and keep checking if it goes lower I make a new rezzie and cancel the old.

sdsearch

If you don't want to have to cancel, you can typically get the new rate by modifying your reservation twice: First modify it to a different car class, then modify it back to the original car class. That way it'll pick up the new price. (If you just try to modify but don't change anything, it won't typically pick up the new price.)

I find this useful if I've entered a bunch of information for he rental I don't want to have to reenter: AWD, coupon, arriving flight, airline program, etc, etc. With a new rezzie, I have to re-enter it all (and since I follow bonuses, etc, all this info may be different from one rental to another, so I can't just store it). With a modify, I don't have to, and I can do it from any computer (since I won't have to reenter anything except my Wizard login).

traveling_again

Thanks sdsearch for sharing your re-booking experience. In the last month I had re-booked MCO many times to get the base rate down. Unfortunately the taxes/surcharges are still in around 30-40%, but I was able to get the total to only an annoying range using the visitor's bureau code of K199060. I should have tried your trick, be much nicer to not have had to check which reservation they had handed me keys under. Plus with your method you don't have to go back and cancel the old ones.

FL used to be cheap, now its turning into a triple whammy mess (base rate/taxes/fees-surcharges)

sunrisegirl

Err, no!

I need a car 3/29 - 4/11 but it's pricing at almost $800 for the duration for a Group K convertible. That's on a travel industry discount too

In October I did a 21 day rental which cost less than the 14 days I need in March/April.

Interesting comment about being too early to book. I booked the October rental in February 2009, but looking closer to the date the price just kept going up and up until 1 week before it was pricing at over double what I paid. So it may not be the case of being too early.

Much as I dislike them, I've now booked the same car for the same 3/29-4/11 period with Alamo for $500.

Avis rates really do seem to have gone through the roof.

Non-NonRev

Yup - and then you'll be in time for rates to be impacted by the visitors coming to spend Passover (seder) with their retired relatives.