surcharge is getting out of control
 

Maybe I have missed it somehow, but how did these surcharges rise up so high without any explanation of what they are for? This is for an upcoming LAX rental...


Base Rate: 5 day(s) 1 hour(s) 156.00 USD
Taxes & Surcharges: 69.88 USD

Surcharge 51.19 USD

- $0.53 per day (Energy Recovery Fee)
- $2.23 per day (Vehicle License Fee)
- $10.0 per rental (Customer Facility Charge)
- 3.50% (Tourism Assessment Fee)
- 11.11% (Concession Recovery Fee)
Tax ( 9.750% ) 18.69 USD

Mileage:Unlimited
Approximate Total 225.88 US

Taxes, VLF, etc. I understand. But what is the $51.19 surcharge?

And if airlines have to advertise their full price, why doesn't Avis have to?

$51.19 is the sum of all surcharge elements other than the applicable state tax of 9.75%.

Surcharges must be disclosed. They need not be advertised. You have your disclosure as plainly evidenced by this surcharge detail. Airline pricing isn't subject to the full variety of state, county and city taxes, and airport PFCs are capped under Federal law.

They're a mix of Avis fees and fees from the local jurisdiction.

-ERF: Avis fee, not sure of what it exactly covers
-VLF: Avis fee, exactly what it sounds like
-CFC & TAF: Local fees that you'll pay on any rental from that location
-CRF: Another Avis fee that I'm not sure of the reasoning
-Tax: Local/state taxes

You could try an off-site rental from any agency to see if the fees happen to be any lower and worth the hassle.

Another example of why I hate policians that dump fees onto travelers who rent cars.

I'm fairly positive the Concession Recovery Fee is a pass-through fee that all rental car companies charge at all airports as long as their location is on-site. Airport commissions consider rental car companies to be concessionaires at the airport and charge them a concession tax on all transactions which the companies then pass on to the customer. Below is a summary of the taxes and surcharges on a quote from National for a car at LAX:

Taxes, Surcharges and Fees
Customer Facility Charge $10.00
Concession Recoup Fee 10.60 Pct $22.33
Tourism Fee 3.5 Pct $7.37
Sales Tax (10.250%) $23.88
Subtotal $63.58

It looks as though National passes through less of the AP concession fee than Avis (10.6% to 11.1%), but charges a different sales tax rate, I haven't picked up a car at LAX in a few years, maybe the National lot is in a different ZIP code than the Avis lot?:p

Just wait if you make a change after the car is picked up.

$10.00 change fee
$10.00 fee for being late (29 min of grace) plus almost a full day fee for the 1st hour for being late.

While a agree the add ons are from taxing authorities, and must be listed that way, and airlines do the came. It is the concession recoup fee, just add that into the base fee, just like all of the other concessions do at the airport when setting their prices