January 2024 Car Rental Thread

[ADisneyQueen]

Has anyone found a good rate for January? I've checked autoslash for rates for mid January and they seem to be a lot more than I paid last March. Even the rates on undercover tourist are high.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I've been stalking for a few months for the beginning of January and yes, they're currently a lot higher than last year. I'm currently booked via the Chase ultimate rewards travel portal for a car from Alamo for $69/day for an 8 day rental, plus an extra day (NYE) at $101/day (because adding that day to my 8 day rental makes it almost $200 more. So I'm willing to swap the car at the car care center to save $100.)

Last year, rates started falling in the 2nd weekend of November, and it looks like I cancelled/rebooked the last time in mid-December (for about $43/day.....$306 for a 1-week rental of a full size car through Hertz)

 

[EACarlson]

Is something going on Jan 20-21 that I missed? I've got a car booked with my corporate rate but checked Autoslash just to see and I couldn't find anything on airport for less than $400 for 5 days. I would be Ubering it for that cost.

 

[rdrjj5]

Is something going on Jan 20-21 that I missed? I've got a car booked with my corporate rate but checked Autoslash just to see and I couldn't find anything on airport for less than $400 for 5 days. I would be Ubering it for that cost.

Same here. been looking for months and for 5 days for us at the same time as you has been $400 + . Hoping to see it come down soon or Uber it is.

 

[andigomeep]

I've been seeing $600-700 for Jan 27-6th. I don't remember it being quite this high last year when I started watching.

 

[Herding_Cats]

My rental was down about $100 this morning. Last year I cancel/rebooked on the 11th, so this is when prices usually start to change.



ALSO, if you are booking using Chase ultimate rewards points, DO NOT put in "MCO" as your pickup location. Just put "Orlando" and then select a car that has MCO as it's location in the description.

For my dates, if I put in MCO the cheapest rental is through Hertz for $711, but if I put in "Orlando, FL" and filter for a car that's at the airport, the cheapest rental is through Thrifty for $575. Are they the same car-class? No. But there are another 13 rental options, all at the airport, before that $711 Hertz car shows up.

 

[nascargirl]

I have a rental reserved for 1/9-1/16 out of Sanford. I have a mid-size SUV at 511.35. I was able to use the VISA code 7016350

 

[leebee]

Jan 9-Jan 13, I have $242 for a standard size car through Alamo. Stinks... but we can't stay overnight on Saturday. I think that's what's killing us on the rental, no Saturday night over-stay. I'm going to keep looking.

 

[EACarlson]

Jan 9-Jan 13, I have $242 for a standard size car through Alamo. Stinks... but we can't stay overnight on Saturday. I think that's what's killing us on the rental, no Saturday night over-stay. I'm going to keep looking.

Really it's your length of rental, not the days you have it that are raising the rate. Four days is generally when it changes from being a daily rate to a weekly. $242 is a very good rate for weekly. Really to bring that down you'd need to shorten to 72 hours or less when it would get charged as a daily rather than weekly rate. Rental cars very rarely have a Saturday stay requirement, even the airlines have gotten away from that except for trans-oceanic discount fares.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Prices have dropped every day this week. I'm down to $56/day for my rental, which is about a $150 in total savings off my original booking.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

Prices have dropped every day this week. I'm down to $56/day for my rental, which is about a $150 in total savings off my original booking.

Can you give more details ? Type of car and where you are renting, discounts? I'm trying to find something in the airport without taking a shuttle.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Can you give more details ? Type of car and where you are renting, discounts? I'm trying to find something in the airport without taking a shuttle.

Intermediate car. thrifty. Chase ultimate rewards travel portal. 12/31 - 1/9. Full-size was $10 more.

I could get it for less through auto slash, but I’m using rewards points and not “real” money to pay for it.

 

[SplashMom]

We've had ours booked and it did drop about a month ago but it's back up now. We have Jan 15-29 booked (minivan) for $986 which is crazy high. It's through Costco. Last year I paid a little over $600 for the same vehicle and same timeframe. I'm really hoping for some big drops in the coming weeks!

 

[nekonekoneko]

Mine started about $600 for a standard SUV for 1/3 to 1/11. And it's been dropping every now and then. I got it down to $425 a couple of days ago.

 

[leebee]

I just got an alert from autoslash for my January rental (1/9-1/13, see prior posts). I booked a small SUV from Dollar for $181 (or $45.25 a day, tax included). I've gone from a standard car to a SUV and saved $61. I'll keep chipping away at it, letting autoslash send alerts. DH and I are the only travelers so vehicle size isn't as important as cost.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Prices through Chase dropped another $35ish dollars today for our rental, which comes out to about $4/day off the daily rental price (9 days.) We are now down to $460 for 12/31-1/9, Thrifty, Intermediate.

By comparison, we had started with $606 for 1/1-1/9, Hertz, Int. SUV (the cheapest non-compact/economy option at the time.)

 

[SkyGuy]

My Hertz price dropped about $100 for second week of January. I’ve been stalking for weeks, hoping I didn’t have to pay a little south of $400.

 

[nekonekoneko]

Mine dropped too, I'm getting really close to the price I paid during the pandemic.

 

[pooh31]

Mine dropped too, I'm getting really close to the price I paid during the pandemic.

What company is this with? Your trip dates are the same as ours.

 

[nekonekoneko]

What company is this with? Your trip dates are the same as ours.

I booked with carrentalsavers .com and Thrifty Car Rental. I need a bigger SUV.