CrazyOne

I wish it would give me those nice AAA prices at HLE. I can only get them here at the airport. Although it was so low with that plus the new $10/day off coupon that I booked it at PIT anyway. Cut over $30 off the Budget rate I had booked a couple weeks ago, and now it's also for a larger car. I might not use it, but might as well have a booking in. What I'm really looking for is some kind of deal on SUV, in case it snows. I just tried a lowball Priceline bid for that, no go. Figured maybe if I get the SUV that will make it not snow for sure.

For me, though, the rate on Hertz.com with AAA CDP is about $18/day as of yesterday, and yes it went down to about $16/day on the AAA.com site, for F. So not quite so dramatic as $27 vs $16. This was for Dec 23-27 at PIT, which previously priced high.

EDIT: it looks like AAA.com basically gives the prepay rates, as it shows $16.xx as the prepay rate on Hertz.com, with the AAA CDP.

drzoidberg

So it's a pre-pay rate on AAA that doesn't require me to pre-pay? E.g. I can cancel a reservation made thru AAA without worrying about a penalty?

On the AAA site, it lists 2 columns, one for pre-pay and one for post-pay. The post-pay prices on the AAA site are slightly cheaper than the pre-pay ones on the Hertz site (when using AAA CDP).

GreeNYC

Yes. its like a regular Hertz reservation.

As for compering the AAA site rates to the pre-pay rates on Hertz.com, it might be the same amount of percentage discount.

CrazyOne

Yes, 10% would be about right judging by the rates I remember.

Still not sure why AAA.com gives additional discounts over and above, particularly given that it's only sometimes and only on some classes. Also, while you can put in a PC, it doesn't give you a rate post-PC. I was thinking of making a booking and seeing if what shows up ultimately as a res via Hertz.com would show the proper coupon and all. I haven't ever completed a booking on AAA.com for some reason. I know I've searched and found such rate differences before, but when I've actually needed and booked a car, there was not a difference so I just booked on Hertz.

thetallone

I clearly am doing something wrong because I never get a rate that low. The lowest I've ever gotten at hertz.com was roughly $65 per day. Am I just not booking enough in advance or something? geeeez i frequently book three sometimes four day rentals at DEN for about that rate.

heffa

$65/day. Not sure when and what you are trying to rent, but I wrote above that mine was for a Economy/Compact weekend rental. Or maybe you are trying to book my http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz...-day-rate.html.

cordelli

Give a specific example of the dates, times, and location you are looking at.

thetallone

I was trying to rent the Mercedes SL500.

Nah, just a regular mid-sized. I look at the economy cars but man I worry so much about snow and weather when driving those little toys that I sometimes think my life is worth more than $30-$40 a day. But Iunno, maybs its not

CrazyOne

If you're not over a weekend that's a pretty common enough daily rate these days for many airports. Although I usually don't see big differences between compact and midsize, and sometimes not even that much up to full size. Still, $65 is pretty high unless you have nothing in for CDP. Even AAA should bring that down a bit. I find the USAA CDP to be good for daily rate sometimes when nothing else brings it down at all. Most people can find some way or another to be officially qualified to use the USAA if you aren't already, although I've certainly never been asked for proof.

$18 rates are for weekends, over a Saturday night, maybe a 3-day minimum keep sometimes, and of course when Hertz has very light booking so far. If bookings have been light the rates might fall quite a bit as the time gets closer. That seems to be what has happened in these cases for December. The airport makes the tax higher but I'm still happy getting a 4-day full size for an all-in cost of 80 bucks after a new coupon. Until recently there were no particularly great coupons that worked past Dec 15, but now there's a $10/day off at the airport that works into January.

drzoidberg

I believe anyone can qualify for USAA, you don't have to be military affiliated. They have a separate signup link for non-military folks.

vtmike

Pretty much only the auto and property insurance policies are restricted to military affiliated persons. All the banking/investment stuff is open to everyone now. Don't know what it actually takes to be technically eligible to use the USAA CDP, but I have never asked to show any proof when using it.

thetallone

So I just did a test, renting from the same location, same dates etc... comparing NY AAA rates to the United FF discount CDP I get and the United FF discount is more. The difference for a one week rental broke down as follows:

United FF CDP discount: $249.68
AAA NY CDP discount: $298.56

This was for a non-airport location.

heffa

Did you check the AAA over hertz.com or aaa.com? The latter gives substantial better discount.

CrazyOne

On many weekends, at many locations, non-airport costs more than airport. This is just due to typical patterns. At a neighborhood HLE, local residents might be more likely to rent a car for a weekend trip or such, whereas at the airport they wouldn't get as much business traffic on a weekend. Now at places where there's plenty of tourist traffic this probably wouldn't hold up.

You also typically find richer coupons for airport rentals. But then sometimes this is offset by the higher taxes/fees that might be collected only at the airport.

Which CDP is lower can vary seemingly with the direction of the wind. I always figured the airlines were pretty much all the same on any given day, but perhaps I should try the United CDP more often. I can't recall having an airline CDP price less than AAA anytime I've tried one, but it just goes to show that is impossible to predict completely accurately.

thetallone

Actually no I don't think I did. So they're not the same then? Looking at fares on AAA.com versus using a AAAcdp on Hertz.com?