jacepro

My family situation is totally screwy right now - overseas US diplomat spouse, meanwhile I'm stuck in the US and we haven't seen each other since March.

Anyway. There's light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm flying across the country to set up our new place in DC. We'll need a car for a month or so before our car arrives from overseas.

I've never rented a car for this long before and the prices I'm seeing are like <$1500 for the month. That seems pretty high and I don't want to pay that much, especially when I see y'all getting your daily rates down so much lower.

Can y'all help me out? I don't care what company I go with.

IAHtraveler

Welcome to FlyerTalk, hopefully you find us useful and enjoy our company!

A few suggestions, since you didn't list a ton of details on your needs/pickup location/dates/etc:

• Try 28 day and 31+ day rentals. Some consider >30 days a "mini-lease" and rates can vary significantly for a day or two difference, up or down on price.
• Book OFF airport if at all possible to avoid airport taxes. Anything > a week can yield significant savings, usually.
• Try Autoslash.com as they look at most companies
• Be careful on what insurance you're using. If a credit card for vehicle damage, most limit the rental to <30 days.
• Since you're going to be in DC, take a look at locations in MD, DC and VA, as the local taxes could yield enough of a savings to warrant an Uber/Metro trip to get the car.
• Don't be afraid to sign up for a paid subscription as they could yield significant savings. For example, Costcotravel.com requires a Costco membership to book, but you can see rates before booking.

I made dummy bookings using CostcoTravel.com, selected Washington DC 7/29-8/26 and 7/29-8/29, Noon-Noon. I selected the first 4 locations listed (an Enterprise, Avis, Budget and Alamo locations) and an intermediate was $721 at Avis/Budget on L Street, inclusive of taxes for an intermediate. You can play with the dates you need, and other nearby locations to see if they yield anything better but at least that's HALF of what you were finding. I've spent much more time writing these comments than searching there, so it's likely you can tweak it and save some more if you search a bit. Renting from DCA is a >$1300 for the same rates.

If you have follow-up questions, don't hesitate to ask. Some of us will help in any way we can, short of giving away our private/corporate code that can't be used outside of our organizations

AutoSlash

Good advice here. A couple of comments:

• Once the rental reaches 28 days (or even 27 days and a few hours), it's generated priced out on a monthly rate plan. Given how popular long-term rentals are these days, it may be cheaper to do a weekly rental so try 27 days even and then 28-31 days and compare. You could also even think about pricing out multiple weekly rentals and see if that's less expensive.
• Note that off-airport is generally cheaper, but the old rules are out the window right now, or at least they may be, and airport locations, even with their higher taxes and fees may end up being less expensive, so best to check both on and off-airport options.
• AutoSlash compares Costco, AAA, etc. so you can get an across-the-board picture of the best deal across all affiliate channels. We do show when the Costco or AAA discount is applied in our quote, so you'd know if you need to factor in the cost of membership.

Good luck!

sdsearch

Maybe you won't? Is your new place in DC proper or the DC suburbs? You haven't mentioned where exactly you're coming from. On Monday DC proper will start a quarantine requirement for anyone arriving from a hotspot (exact hotspots yet to be announced). If you are going to DC proper, and coming from a hotspot, you may not be able to use a car for the first two weeks.

USA domestic federal / state / city Covid-19 travel restrictions & isolation measures (starting at post 326)

Often1

Presuming that California will be a designated "hotspot" you may or may not be subject to quarantine depending on whether you are returning from essential work or travel. Your wife, as a federal employee, is expressly exempt (although the State Department may well impose a quarantine or other limitations on her movement as part of its plan for FSO's returning from overseas).

Putting that aside, you may also want to consider whether you really want or need a car in DC. You may find it easier and cheaper to simply use Uber and then get an Uber XL for the larger trips. Also permits you and your wife to go your separate ways when it suits, e.g., she can take an Uber to work and you could take one to buy groceries..

Uber, of course, raises independent risk issues of its own.

m907

Even if the quarantine requirements are constitutional, they're unenforceable.

sdsearch

They may be enforceable by individual businesses, just like mask requirements are. A rental company could theoretically say your arrival flight (that you had to provide to the rental company so that they could know when you were actually arriving) was from a hotspot state and your drivers license is from that hotspot state, so we can't rent you the car. I don't know if any will, but they could.

Btw, California has no quarantine requirement of its own that I know of, but I just got a phone call from my boss yesterday asking where I went on my recent vacation trip (which was within our state), because our company has a quarantine requirement for any employee traveling overseas! And obviously you have to abide by any rules your company sets if you want to continue working there.

randix

Oh c'mon, that would infer that a car rental company was being responsible, and I've not seen any evidence of that over 50 years, even from the majors. Better chance of Pelosi and Trump hugging as they are getting out of an elevator. Put down that your arrival flight is from Nebraska.

sdsearch

How? They ask only for an airline and flight number! I'm supposed to do all the research to see if and when a flight from Nebraska might be arriving??? And if the only arriving flight from Nebraska is 4 hours later than I'm arriving, putting in that flight number will mean I won't have a car waiting for me. So what a ridiculous suggestion. You apparently don't use this feature, because you don't seem to know how it works.

In case you're not aware, there had been hotels asking for documentation that you were an essential worker before they'd give you a room. (Not many asked, but there were some.) So travel companies requiring that you document something that fits the government requirement has happened in this Covid-19 era, even though that was a different part of the travel industry than car rentals, and was a different aspect of Covid rules than where you had come from.

CrankyToday

Since you are flying to DC, consider using Silvercar. They rent loaded Audis for $50 per day. That would be $1500 for the month, but keep reading... The company is owned by Audi and they view each rental as a test drive for a potential buyer. So they might be willing to offer a good deal on a month-long rental.

dragonlady13

Is this considered official travel? If so, don't forget to look for the government rates, which can be substantially lower. If it's not, you may still want to consider government employee leisure rates. Off airport almost always a better deal because of the raking of visitors who can't vote against rental taxes and fees. Keep in mind, if you're planning to store the car in DC proper that parking can also add up quickly.

randix

It was meant as humor (putting down Nebraska as your origin). After all, we all know that Nebraska is a destination, no one ever flies out of Nebraska!

Geesh.

dayone

Use the code 30OFF15+DAYS to save 30% on rentals at least 15 days long. Rental must be booked before December 31, 2020 and be at least 15 days in length.

sdsearch

Well, in my opinion, it was poorly-written humor, since you chose to phrase it in a way that is impossible to do. As I said, you specify a flight number, not a place of origin, for your arrival info for a rental car.

If you wanted to make a good joke, you should have picked a halfway-believable one.

And shouldn't you lighten up with your bold green stuff?!?