Rental Car Update
Jun 10, 2018, 12:59 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2008
Location: PHL (kinda, no airport is really close)
Programs: AA Exp, but not sure for how long. Enterprise Platinum woo-hoo!
Posts: 4,550
Rental Car Update
Just before coming this time, I checked for rental car prices.
They were in the range I've come to expect, around $180 all-in for a week. I usually rent from Nu-Car, which is technically off-airport but in fact it's right across the street from the rental car facility. The only downside of Nu-Car is that they close at midnight.
Nu-Car seemed to be sold out. The options I had were $180 for an on-airport (really means "at the rental car facility") vendor or $155ish for "off airport." These are companies like Fox and a bunch of others. You have to take a second shuttle from the main garage. I saw this option as a pre-paid ("Hot Rate") rental from Hotwire.
I took the second option. I'm never in a rush on my return, and I figured I'll deal with the second shuttle on the outbound.
Well you get what you pay for.
I was assigned to Ace. First, they have no phone, at least not one that anyone will answer. Their entry on Hotwire says they close at 11:30 but their recording says they close at 1:00 (AM). The recording says the shuttle runs every 15-20 minutes but it took about 30 for us to get picked up. When I finally got there, they wouldn't give me a car because they said I was too early. (Due to a flight cancellation I had to change from a connection to a nonstop.) So I left for an hour (I was hungry and I walked about a mile to a restaurant and then took an Uber back). When they finally gave me a car, it had temporary tags. They said they buy cars at auction and it takes 30-45 days to get a permanent license plate.
So if I have to do it again, I won't rent from Ace, and instead of doing an opaque Hotwire, I'd do something like Google "Las Vegas Car Rental Agencies" and then get their rates directly. I suspect the "Hot Rate" rates aren't that much less than their website rate, if at all. But in practice, for a $20-25 difference, I'll just rent from one of the Big Boys.
They were in the range I've come to expect, around $180 all-in for a week. I usually rent from Nu-Car, which is technically off-airport but in fact it's right across the street from the rental car facility. The only downside of Nu-Car is that they close at midnight.
Nu-Car seemed to be sold out. The options I had were $180 for an on-airport (really means "at the rental car facility") vendor or $155ish for "off airport." These are companies like Fox and a bunch of others. You have to take a second shuttle from the main garage. I saw this option as a pre-paid ("Hot Rate") rental from Hotwire.
I took the second option. I'm never in a rush on my return, and I figured I'll deal with the second shuttle on the outbound.
Well you get what you pay for.
I was assigned to Ace. First, they have no phone, at least not one that anyone will answer. Their entry on Hotwire says they close at 11:30 but their recording says they close at 1:00 (AM). The recording says the shuttle runs every 15-20 minutes but it took about 30 for us to get picked up. When I finally got there, they wouldn't give me a car because they said I was too early. (Due to a flight cancellation I had to change from a connection to a nonstop.) So I left for an hour (I was hungry and I walked about a mile to a restaurant and then took an Uber back). When they finally gave me a car, it had temporary tags. They said they buy cars at auction and it takes 30-45 days to get a permanent license plate.
So if I have to do it again, I won't rent from Ace, and instead of doing an opaque Hotwire, I'd do something like Google "Las Vegas Car Rental Agencies" and then get their rates directly. I suspect the "Hot Rate" rates aren't that much less than their website rate, if at all. But in practice, for a $20-25 difference, I'll just rent from one of the Big Boys.
Jun 13, 2018, 2:48 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,391
Autoslash... saved me quite a bit on my rentals out of LAS over the years.