We need to find one-way transportation from Chicago to Des Moines -- long story that I'll shorten by saying we are planning to pick up a Winnebago RV at the factory in Forest City and take it on our trip down to Florida (there are some fantastic deals on doing this including 26 days of brand-new RV use, 2500 free miles, full CDW with no self-deductible etc. etc. -- all for an extremely low rental price).

We'll fly into ORD from Germany around March 9th and enjoy 3 days in Chicago before having to be in Des Moines on the 12th. One way flights are exhorbitant, even buying a round-trip and throwing away the return will cost us $300 each, a one-way car rental will also run about $200 for 24 hours including the drop-off fee. That leaves good old Greyhound (until Megabus extends their routes). Does anyone from the area have any other possible suggestions?

TIA

Amtrak? I'm not a rail expert, so you might want to check the Amtrak forum. However, it looks like the California Zephyr route runs from Chicago to just south of Des Moines.

Thanks for the help. The closest "whistle-stop" on the Zephyr is Osceola, Iowa (according to google it's some 50 miles from Des Moines). Then comes the problem of getting to Des Moines from there - arrival time is 8 PM and I can't imagine we could rent a car at that hour.

We may be stuck with Greyhound! But, thanks very much.

You don't have many options I'm afraid. What you may want to do is see if you can find some rental car rates/deals/codes that don't penalize you for the one way rental.

I have never used them but there is Burlington Trailways and it looks like they are $48 one way.

You do know that Forest City is a good 2 hours straight north from Des Moines don't you?

Thanks, UAVirgin! I'll keep looking and thanks for the tip about burlingtontrailways. The "deal" includes a night & breakfast at the Airport Best Western as well as the transfer to Forest City (their bus or shuttle or something!)

Hope the weather doesn't cause us much trouble in mid-March, but, since the RV includes full-collision and liability insurance, we'll just try to head south pretty quickly. Since we'll be leaving on a transatlantic cruise (back home to Europe) from Miami about 10 days after we bring the RV to its' new agency, it's a pretty good opportunity for us to see a part of the US that we haven't visited before.

The weather in March can really be nasty or it can be OK. The worst of winter is generally over by then.

I just relocated to DSM and the airport is expensive especially for one way flights. Not sure how heavy you are traveling, but for a budget suggestion you might check the Rideshare section of the Chicago Craigslist. Otherwise you are probably stuck with the one way car rental.

Thanks for another alternative.

But, we are travelling pretty "heavily", since we'll be taking the RV from Iowa to Florida (different climate zones right there) and then spending a couple of weeks in Florida before doing a 14 night cruise back to Europe. So, lots of packing for those 6 or 7 weeks total.

Have checked out the Greyhound option (not bad at $38 pp with 7 day advance booking) or one-way car rental from Chicago to Des Moines. For the one-way I've found a good possibility with only $100 drop-off charge, making the total about $170 incl. taxes, if I book with our German auto club. Since we would need a taxi from Greyhound to DSM, where the RV company has reserved (and paid for) our hotel overnight etc. etc., we may just go with the car rental -- for the small difference in price. That's all presuming that there is no snowstorm

check out the coupon connection- see if someone has the national free day coupons- they are good for 1-way travel- might be able to trade for a lot less.

Thanks, rustyr! I've been away for a few days and just spotted your message. Do these certs. usually have a minimum rental period or can they just be used for the one-day?

Just contacted someone on coupon connection and he has several one-day certs. from National. Will try to work something out with him.

They are for 1-day max per coupon. It might be good to check ahead if you have exact date to see if they accept it.

After making the contact on coupon connection, I tried all possible configurations of pick-up/drop-off location pairs and kept getting the message that the location had no availability. So, it looks like we may rent a car through the German auto club (ADAC) which has a decent one-day, one-way pricing of �26 for the car plus $100 drop-off fee with Hertz. Since that includes all insurance -- probably necessary for early March in the mid-west -- and no advance payment, it's not a bad deal.

If the weather really gets bad, we'll cancel the reservation and hop on the Greyhound bus instead.

You might try Enterprise Rent-a-car, and I would recommend calling a location rather than using the website. I was able to rent a car tomorrow DSM-SUX one way at the regular rate of $30 + a $40 drop charge. Total with tax will be around $83. This is without insurance so it might not be good for a foreign traveler, but a good heads up. As a business traveler I don't usually consider Enterprise but I thought I'd check it out today. I saved $100 over the Hertz rate.

Thanks, zdave. I might try Enterprise, but I think - especially after watching weather issues at the moment, and knowing that March might be just as bad - that we might stick to the offer with Hertz through the german auto club. It will be quite a bit more, but we are then covered completely for every situation. And I can cancel without any fee if we end up having to take the Greyhound bus.