cabingirl

I'm trying to make a reservation for 7/13 - 7/17 at IAD and running into issues since it's Wed - Sun. After searching the forum and not coming up with any good ideas, I am considering staying in VA another night and picking up on Thursday, but I'd like to be on my way before noon if possible. Has anyone here been able to pick up a weekend rental before noon, or do they really make you wait until then?

Alternatively, if anyone has any brilliant ideas for my 4-day rental, I'm all ears.

Thanks!

Tummy

Most places are Thursday noon - Monday 11:59pm, though some start as early as Thursday 9am.

YYZC2

Not always. Weekends start at 0900 Thursdays at the Toronto airport, but not until noon in the city.

IceTrojan

In SEA, I'm picking up a weekend rental at 530pm on Thursday.

MileKing

There are many airports where weekend rates start at 9:00 AM on Thursday. Examples I am aware of include MSP, DFW, and SAT. I know of no locations where the weekend starts earlier than that. Picking up on Wednesday evening and having the car through the weekend is a killer because you will be paying the higher weekday rate for all of the days you have the rental.

subdawg

If the w/e starts Thurs 12pm, then you can schedule your pick up for 12pm, but actually get it at 11am. That will get you an extra hour of time, since they usually have the car ready for you at least 1 hr prior to your scheduled time.

Loran

When I was in a similar situation someone else on this forum suggested turning the rental into a weekly rental; this will usually result in a lower rate than 4 days at the weekday rate. You only needs 4 days and a few hours to have the rental switch over to a weekly rate. Just bump your return time to later on Sunday or Monday morning.

If you reserve this way but don't actually keep the car this long there is the possibility that when you return the car they will revert you back to the daily rate. Again, other people here have not had a problem with this - the return attendant keeps the lower rate. I would think that if they try to charge you more simply talking to a manager and saying your plans changed would solve the problem.

My plans actually did change before the rental, so I can't speak from experience with this, but I wanted to pass on the helpful advice I got.

channa

Thrifty usually has a more liberal definition of "weekend."

Frenchie Flyer

I had this same problem lately. My solution since it was a pleasure trip and I wasn't going anywhere but the town I was in was to Priceline the first day and then pick up the weekend rate next day. Of course I had to turn in the car and pick one up, but I saved $80 plus. This was at National and I am Emerald Club so it wasn't hard to do at all. The one day I picked up on Priceline was an Alamo rental (sister company) and I ended up with the same type car both days. At that airport all the cars are on the same lot anyway.

pinniped

First of all, just throwing those dates into Orbitz I see lots of available cars in the $30's per day, so that's good news. Your starting point isn't all that bad: definitely not bad enough to reconfigure a trip's plans just to shave a few bucks off the car rental. You just need to find some good codes to bring it down a bit.

My first option would be to go the other direction: make the rental slightly longer than four days. That'll kick in a weekly rate, and then you can drop in a good promo/discount combo and get some percent off, plus either bonus credits, upgrades, free gas, or additional dollars-off. You starting point is $156/wk with Hertz - a little higher for bigger cars, and maybe lower with other agencies.

If you need a specialty car, Frenchie has hit on a good option: Priceline. The Wed-Sun scenario is a rare one where Priceline usually does yield a pretty good option - for stuff like convertibles or minivans, you can save a lot of money for a minor amount of hassle.

I've done a car swap when needed - if I was already planning on being right near the Hertz location and the rate differential was significant. But my guess is that you can work the codes on this one to get it into a tolerable range, and then go about your previously planned trip.

There are long threads with codes on both the Hertz and National boards. Consider them both. The attractive Hertz promo at the current time is large amounts of WN credit with weekly rentals, or you can do the usual dollars-off, etc. The National folks have uncovered Amex and Carlson Wagonlit codes that seem to be stackable with other things like Free Days and big bonus miles.

cabingirl

That's where I am now...using travel partners CDP and 924932, I'm able to get the "weekly" rate for ~$130 all in. My weekend rate (Thurs-Sun) had previously been ~$51 but I really can't stay in the area an extra day, so I'm just going to suck it up.

Thanks for your help everyone