Air miles car rental

[dennise]

has anyone used air miles for car rental? Rates are so high I was considering this. We have insurance through our car insurance here.

 

[Donald - my hero]

All the time, never had any trouble. Just make sure you take a copy of the email confirmation you get so they don't charge you anything extra. Reserve the car you want because they will charge you an arm and a leg to upgrade! We never take any extra insurance since ours covers rentals as well.

 

[Silvermist999]

We’ve booked many times, with no issues. Also, as soon as you know your dates, book your car rental. The number of air miles needed tends to increase as you get closer to the pick up date. Even when you are still a few months away.

 

[Starwind]

I was doing some pricing out for a trip we plan to take in just over a year [they don't have prices for that far out, so I am using a year from now's for ballparking]. The rates are pretty much the same as booking through Costco for the same dates.

I noted that for booking a car rental through Air Miles that the booking is non-refundable. However, is it CHANGEABLE ? i.e. can the date be changed [same location, same vehicle class, just a date change] ? If so, I assume there is an admin fee to do this, anyone know what that is ?

And... I know from booking our trip this past December we booked our car rental through Costco. We ended up rebooking it [which they allow for no charge; book a new one and cancel the old one] about 3 times because the rate kept dropping from the original booking. We ended up going from $90 to $60 plus taxes for a one day rental.

Does Air Miles cost tend to drop like that or does it just tend increase ?

Thanks !

SW

ETA - right now, using dates in June 2021 as that is the closest to the actual August date we want, for one night, minivan in a Canadian city we are looking at:

AM: 970 AM + CAD $40.76 ($29.46 taxes/fees + $ 11.30 booking fee)
Costco: CAD$90.21 + $30.03 taxes/fees