Priceline for One-Way LD Car Rentals?
 

Has anyone had any luck Pricelining one-way long-distance rentals? I want a larger vehicle for a one-week, 1500-mile, one-way trip (delivering kid to college). I've had fine luck with Priceline for short-term return-to-location rentals, but never one-ways (or any rental so potentially expensive). The posted rates for the kind of rental I want -- minivan or FS SUV -- are $1100-$1400 all in, and none of my usual discount codes have much effect, so any savings would be great. Stories? TIA.

Try using Costco travel and budget

Great idea, thanks. I just made a provisional booking there @ $975 all in which is $150+ less than anything else I've seen for this trip. If someone else thinks a PL NYOP bid could undercut that, though, please chime in.

Before your trip you may want to walk around your airport rental parking lots and check if they have cars with out of state plates - the closer to your destination, the better. Often station managers are willing to negotiate a decent price to send those cars in the right direction. Obviously your size requirement makes it more cghallenging but it can't hurt to check.

Www.carrentals.com
Look for airport to airport pickup/drop off but don't forget to look for local offices in town to rent from/drop off
Might be cheaper to rent from a local CR office and drop off at your destination airport or another local office location

I've also had luck going to the rental locations at ATL and arranging a car/van to take to another state cheap. Driveaway companies might also work.
Craigslist check ride share or the moving section. If per chance you are going to/from Florida certain times of year they have cheap drive in and drive out rates. Dollar or National have no drop off fees which add to the cost of the other rental companies fees.

It is my understanding the Priceline OWs are location specific. Some do, some don't.

So if at first you don't succeed, maybe worth checking another nearby workable location?

Romelle

It is my understanding the Priceline OWs are location specific. Some do, some don't.

They are only for one-ways within the same market, such as JFK to LGA, or MIA to FLL, etc.

Before your trip you may want to walk around your airport rental parking lots and check if they have cars with out of state plates - the closer to your destination, the better. Often station managers are willing to negotiate a decent price to send those cars in the right direction. Obviously your size requirement makes it more cghallenging but it can't hurt to check.

This is usually no longer the case, since most locations are corporate-owned with a shared nationwide fleet. So cars don't need to go "home." Rates reflect mileage depreciation and difference in demand. Hence the FL one-way specials, as demand changes with the seasons.

So it sounds like PL won't entertain inter-market one-ways. (Mine is SEA-MSP, btw... Florida not involved.) I'll check www.carrentals.com, thanks.

No, Priceline and Hotwire won't offer that as an opaque price. The only time I've seen them offer opaque pricing for one-ways between markets is in FL.

You might have better luck with Hertz HLE pickup, or even U-Haul.

From Priceline's Help area:

"Note: One-way rentals are available with our Name Your Own Price® service in select locations. More locations are available with our "Shop & Compare" service where you can choose your rental car company and rate upfront."

They don't go on to define that 'select locations'. But on the actual screen for making a bid, there is a place to indicate a different drop-off point.

I did try SEA-MSP though, and that pair didn't work.

Romelle

Do you have access to a CORPORATE RATE with a major corporation? In most cases, there is a provision where you can initiate a one way rental at an increased DAILY rate WITHOUT a drop-off fee. For example, one contract that I have seen recently in a client's contract has a normal daily rate of $45 and a ONE-WAY daily rate of $69/day. When they need a long OW rental, they have the driver drive to the final location and trade the vehicle in for a local rental at the lower rate.

I do not know if that will work, but it is worth a try.

More common are corporate contracts that give a percentage discount off the higher retail daily rate, or for the largest companies, the same flat daily rate as roundtrip but with a per mile charge. That might work out to be cheaper for short distance regional one-ways commonly used by business travelers, but not for long distance one-ways more often done by leisure travelers.

I own my own company, and Avis has issued us our own AWD code, but it usually has no impact on base rates and sometimes makes things worse. A couple of the AWD codes posted here in the Avis forum are as AutoEnthusiast describes:

You get a seriously lowball day rate, but a per-mile charge of $0.30 to $0.38, so on a trip of 1000+ miles it's less advantageous.

In California, Priceline offers NYOP one-way opaque bidding between LAX-SNA/SAN/ONT/SBA and SFO-OAK/SJC/MRY. There may be more combinations within Southern California and the Bay Area, but those currently display as available for bidding.

Last Fall I was researching a few markets under NYOP, and SFO-LAS and SFO-PDX were both available. But a check today reveals those city pairs no longer display. I wonder if NYOP is available on a seasonal basis in some markets?