reason to catch the airport bus to downtown (then rent a car as needed) (Pittsburgh: rental car, rentals)

[pman]

if you're a visitor that is
Pittsburgh International to add $3 daily fee for car rentals

[jimmyev]

They passed the rental tax along with the drink tax when I was still living out-of-state. After that it was cheaper to fly/rent going into Cleveland than Pittsburgh. So I switched airports. Maybe Pittsburgh doesn't know it has to compete with other airports?

[greg42]

Rental cars are always the place where you get a ton of "stick it to the people who can't vote for you" taxes and fees, since most car renting especially at the airport is done by people from out of town. Car rentals are tops for this, then hotels (which typically have a 10%+ tax rate).

Even with this new one I don't think these rates will be as high at PIT as some of the worst offenders around the country. Which isn't to say it's a great thing. But the majority of people aren't going to choose a distant other airport like CLE just because of this. I suppose it depends upon where you're going. If it's anywhere near Pittsburgh, then the driving time plus gas spent flying to CLE at least adds up to more hassle if not more actual $$. If it's somewhere like Erie or other place that's significantly north and west then CLE can make more sense. Unlike in the old days of US Air I wouldn't expect CLE fares to be significantly less on a consistent basis so that is hit or miss.

[ditchdigger]

Airport officials said rental car users should help pay for the garage work because rental companies make use of the facility.

Q. Then why don't they just raise the rent that the rental car companies pay them for the space?

A. Because that's just a lame, BS justification for what Greg said above.

We'll occsionally drive the 10 miles down to the airport and rent a minivan for extended family trips where the car would just be too cramped. Except for going to/from the rental place, we don't even use the damn garage...

[greg42]

I usually rent from a closer place than the airport, but a couple weeks ago I needed to leave really early on Monday and didn't want to settle for picking the car up before noon on Saturday, so off to the airport I went. The rate happened to be dirt cheap that weekend, the deadest weekend of the winter or something. The rates from the local Hertz in Wexford were running high so even with the drive figured in it saved a ton to go to the airport that time. I'm checking again for upcoming, though, and it does not appear to be holding that way even just a couple weeks later. Airport rates are up and the local rates are down a hair.

Of course, from where you are the airport might be closer than anything but Enterprise, which I can't stand. I've given them 2 or 3 chances in Cranberry and that store at least sucks (and the sucking seems to come at least from the regional level; I got a call from the regional manager once after giving them some bad feedback but he didn't follow through with what he said he was going to do).

[BrianTH]

I agree money is fungible so this isn't really about the garage per se. But the airport is still paying off construction debt, a lot more than expected thanks to USAir going bankrupt and voiding its contract. So that money has to come from somewhere, and if not this, it will be landing fees, or taxes on County residents, or so on.

[grimacista]

This isn't big news. Visitors from out of town get stuck with goofball taxes and fees everywhere. Not saying it is right, but it isn't like we are totally going off the deep end here.

[pman]

Originally Posted by grimacista

This isn't big news. Visitors from out of town get stuck with goofball taxes and fees everywhere. Not saying it is right, but it isn't like we are totally going off the deep end here.

seems pretty high to me...borderline gouging.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by pman

seems pretty high to me...borderline gouging.

Check Phoenix, among many many others. Again, not to say it's a great thing necessarily (although I would say such entities have made many worse choices), but it's pointless to single out Pittsburgh for something that happens everywhere.

[Copanut]

Years ago Phoenix had a 40% tax on car rentals to fund their new stadiums, only on out of towners.