oiris11

Based on your experience what are the cheapest cities to rent with National in the US?

Also, which pair of cities have you found to be cheap to rent one way? everybody knows about good rates renting one way to or from Florida/Phoenix, but I have found some other from time to time. Last month I rented 28 days from LGA to RDU for around $450. It would be cool to have a thread for these findings.

nd2010

The non-airport NYC locations are cheap when it comes to fees because they only charge the sales tax. Wilmington, DE is also cheap when it comes to fees.
So when there's a Florida drive in special, rent from the Brooklyn location; they usually match the airport rate but the taxes are lower. If you want to choose from the aisle, it's possible to one-way from an airport to a local branch for one day, then keep the same car at the local branch when you rewrite the contract.

SinglePapa2

but that 1-day to a local will cost dearly(?)

NCLSEA123

Cheap rates are getting harder and harder to find at National, but I think that EHI's management team is doing a decent job pricing the "experience" between their brands. At leisure destinations for instance, Alamo will often be cheapest, followed by Enterprise, then National. Often times National will have rates similar to Hertz and Avis, while Alamo and Enterprise will be closer to Budget and Thrifty.

I've also seen situations (usually at non-aisle locations) where National will be the most expensive company while not logged in to National.com, however when logged in, they match or beat Alamo and Enterprise's prices with discounts and coupons.

I do value National's Executive Aisle and am fine paying a small premium, as I'm usually at least able to pick up a PCAR or IFAR at the ICAR rate. While I'm starting to get tired of Chrysler 300s, they're definitely better than a Chevy Malibu.

Using a free day is a good way to do that. I once did a 3 free day one way on a premium SUV, and the value of the coupon was $500 per day.

jackal

It's been awhile, but I used to do credit runs at National in ANC in the dead of winter. Dollar/Thrifty/Budget/Enterprise were often as low as $6-7 a day, and National would be a huge premium over that at $15. (And since I knew the guys at the Alamo/National counter, they used to let me drive whatever I wanted for a midsize booking, which was nice...)

That was several years ago, but the Alamo/National location at ANC is still (AFAIK) franchised and so they manage their rates pretty aggressively to stay competitive with Enterprise.

SouthernCross

LGA/RDU probably was a "Drive In" rate, as the term really just refers to the seasonal flow of vehicle demand. Is there any trick to finding Drive In/Drive Out rates? I've stumbled across them a few times, but rarely find them when looking. Perhaps that is what the OP is asking ...

pitflyer

I rented at Vegas on the weekend for $16/day with National. That is the cheapest National rate I've seen in a while (they used to be competitive, but I have seen know that they make the Alamo brand competitive and National is usually priced a lot higher). I used it for a rental run -- there's a story about a guy who's made millions of miles renting cars from Vegas.

I'm trying to find other options like this too, since I have stacked promotions where I can get a free day (which can be worth a lot) after one rental somewhere.. used to do mileage runs, so figuring out if a rental run is worth it!