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Hi, when I was in Europe a few years ago I did a road trip and rented with AutoEurope, I picked up my car in Aachen, Germany and drove south towards Munich then east through Austria, Slovakia and then north through Prague before reaching Berlin and dropping my car off at the Tegel airport there for no extra charge. The deal was that returns within the same country do not incur any extra fees. It was absolutely BRILLIANT (off topic - 5* recommendation for AutoEurope they are amazing!)
Any similar thing here in the US? or am I just dreaming??
Most of the places I have checked the rental rates are about thrice as high if you drop off at another location.
Obviously there has to be a limitation since the US is a huge country but I am wondering if there is anyone who will waive the drop off charge if I can drop off within the same state...for instance one pickup at one end of California and drop off at the other end.
Most Car Rental places are Franchises, They 'own' the cars (and want them back), There are some deals, and contracts (Corp agreements) that allow 'free' drop offs, or drop off within a region.
Each year I get email from Hertz & Avis for real cheap rental from FL to anywhere on the East Coast, with no drop off charge. As the 'right' size the fleet in FL after the summer season.
My Hertz/Gold Corp will allow me to drop off car with in the 'region'.
Most Car Rental places are Franchises, They 'own' the cars (and want them back), There are some deals, and contracts (Corp agreements) that allow 'free' drop offs, or drop off within a region.
Each year I get email from Hertz & Avis for real cheap rental from FL to anywhere on the East Coast, with no drop off charge. As the 'right' size the fleet in FL after the summer season.
My Hertz/Gold Corp will allow me to drop off car with in the 'region'.
I've gotten those offers as well.... I think they are shuffling cars after spring break or something? I think that the last one I got about a month ago was for like $9 a day plus they threw in a free tank of gas...
My company just paid $250 dollars for me to fly into one airport and drop the rental car off at an airport 200 miles away all in a 24 hour period. Glad that wasn't on my dime!
Most Car Rental places are Franchises, They 'own' the cars (and want them back), There are some deals, and contracts (Corp agreements) that allow 'free' drop offs, or drop off within a region.
Each year I get email from Hertz & Avis for real cheap rental from FL to anywhere on the East Coast, with no drop off charge. As the 'right' size the fleet in FL after the summer season.
My Hertz/Gold Corp will allow me to drop off car with in the 'region'.
Those Florida deals generally are good between the end of Spring Training or Easter in April and the end of June. They involve picking up the car in Florida and delivering the car to some point outside of Florida (some require delivery to the SE states).
I have paid as little as $40 on a ten day rental (including taxes) on some of these trips.
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In addition to Florida, you can occasionally find deals between Las Vegas and Phoenix, again after spring training.
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Occasionally, you can find deals that allow one-way rentals without a drop-off fee. You generally pay MORE per day. For example, on a trip between Des Moines, IA and Chicago, the normal rental is $42 while the one-way rate is $69.
Hertz allows one-way no drop-off charge, not 100% of the time but very close to it. We use Hertz very often mostly because of that reason. The most recent time was two months ago, in Feb, when we rented a Hertz car for our family members to drive from Southern CA to SW Florida (picked up at a Hertz city office in CA and dropped off at a Hertz airport location in FL,) no drop-off charge, and with unlimited mileage. We paid $382 (full insurance and taxes included) for a two-week rental period.
Within the state of CA and FL, no drop-off charge and unlimited mileage deals are very easy to find. In FL, we always rented a car to drive from our home to the airport (2.5 hr away,) dropped it off there before starting our trip, then at the end of the trip, rented another car at the airport to drive home. Even with airport taxes, it still ended up less expensive than driving our own car and paying the long-term parking cost for two weeks or more.
Last edited by Ol' Wanderer; 04-28-2012 at 04:49 PM..
As has already been noted, it depends on where and when you're dropping it off. Some places need the extra vehicles, and there is no extra drop-off charge. The last couple times I've dropped one off (2000 miles and 350 miles) there was no drop-off charge.
as mentioned earlier, franchise places usually wont go for it. i've gotten away with it before (with budget and enterprise) but it's not 100%. never had a problem doing tihs w/ hertz. hertz seems to be the cheapest for long term rental right now anyway so i've been using them exclusively this year.
btw what's the benefit of hertz gold? someone mentioned that, just wondering. have been renting a car w them since january and according to the site i should qualify for hertz 5 star gold i think. doesn't seem like there are many benefits, or am i mistaken?
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