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Rental fees at airports depend on supply and demand. When no demand (such as weekends when business travellers are not renting) they can be super cheap.
I always rent an economy car - the airports don't have them so you will get a free upgrade to an Intermediate car. This typically save $10-20 per day. They typically try to upsell you to intermediate but once you say no, then they admit they are out and put you in one anyway. If they do have an economy car and you don't want something with hand crank roll-up windows, then see about paying for an upgrade.
Fees on airport rental cars are typically $50/day:
Consolidated Facility Charge
Concession recoup fee
local expo (or stadium) tax
state rental vehicle fee
title registration recovery fee
sales tax
energy surcharge
out-of-towner take advantage of you since you're a business traveller fee...
Most of the time the car is $50/day - so $100/day total for a rental car. Its often cheaper to take a cab or Uber than to rent a car unless you are driving to a far off location. If in a big city, you'll often have to pay for parking as well. Downtown Seattle can be $40-50 per night at the hotel - so then a car is costing you $150/day. In some cities like Seattle, you can take a train/subway from the airport to downtown for $3 each way.
The one place I have found cheap rental cars is through the Southwest Airlines Website. for some reason, they often will have one rental car company at the airport for $25/day - with taxes and fees its still totals $50/day, but its not bad.
If you need a car for a week or so, then getting it at a local (non-Airport) rental counter will save you quite a bit of money on fees . more than enough to pay for the Uber or cab ride back to the airport.
Fees on airport rental cars are typically $50/day:
Consolidated Facility Charge
Concession recoup fee
local expo (or stadium) tax
state rental vehicle fee
title registration recovery fee
sales tax
energy surcharge
out-of-towner take advantage of you since you're a business traveller fee...
All of those fees, short of the Facility Charge and perhaps the concession recoup fee, you're paying at ANY location, though.
The 'added' fees at airport locations only are generally $10 to $20. And, pending on where you're going, the rental charge may offset alot of that. But, yes, there's nothing worse than finding some great $28/day rental that winds up costing you over $60/day.
Do you expect the cars to be parked right outside the terminal door for you?
I swear you post some of the densest stuff I've ever seen.
El Paso's rental car lot for most companies is right beside the terminal. So it does happen some places. Last time I was there, they were turning the lot into a multi-level parking structure, so you might have to take an elevator to your car now :-)
El Paso's rental car lot for most companies is right beside the terminal. So it does happen some places. Last time I was there, they were turning the lot into a multi-level parking structure, so you might have to take an elevator to your car now :-)
GSP is in an attached garage.. Just a few steps from the counters over to the cars.
I remember Dubuque, IA having the cars in a little lot right outside the terminal, but.. Our pilot blew the landing twice, and I swear corn stalks were slapping off the wings on the landing that he made successfully.. So, I've blocked alot of things about that airport out. I may be misremembering that.
At PVD you can practically see the cars from the rental counter. Granted, it is a small airport but they do exist.
Memo from outside the little bubble you live in: many airports are large enough that rental fleets that are still on-site are far enough away that it is necessary to provide transport to them. That doesn't make them "not at the airport" it just makes them too far away to walk, especially with luggage.
I read lots of articles saying it's cheaper to rent a car from locations other than the airport, but that has never been the case for me. For example, Avis at DFW is much much cheaper than Dallas downtown hotels or Sears auto center. So why is that? Often the surcharge I have to pay from a hotel rental location is much more than the airport rental too.
Are you sure you are comparing apples to apples? I just rented at the Charleston SC airport yesterday and between rate display and confirmation the rate jumped a little over 25% even thought I have great insurance and declined all extras. It was all taxes and fees. I didn't have much choice on a Sunday.
I don't think you have been to PVD for awhile. The walk to the rental cars ---I feel like I just walked to Connecticut!
It used to be great---right outside in the Garage, but it hasn't been like that for a long time.
That’s exactly how I remember it. It was a pleasure.
Thanks guys. I just figured out the low daily rate for rental cars at airport (<$20 for 2 weeks) is offset but the airport surcharges. I would have saved $100 if I rented at some other locations (convinience as a trade off).
They may claim they are at the airport but if I still have to take a shuttle then it is not an airport location.
Strange rule to have when some airports are so huge you (practically) need a shuttle/people-mover to get from one part of the airport to another part of the same airport.
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