Thursday, January 20, 2011

Getting a good deal on a rental car

1. Use your own car insurance if you have an Auto Policy. (Valid in the US)
2. Find any valid corporate group you can be a part of eg. AAA, Costco, etc...
3. Find valid coupon codes
4. Sign up for email from companies
eg. Enterprise has Free double upgrades, 25% off, 9.99 weekends
5. With all of the deals watch out for other charges
a. Airport vs. local pickup will have fewer taxes
b. Newark, NJ vs New York City
c. Tourist taxes
i. Wayne County in Michigan (Detroit) has a stadium tax on Rental cars.
ii. the city of Bloomington has an additional Hotel Tax to help pay for the Mall of America
d. Unlimited mileage vs. 100 or 150 free miles + 0.20 for each additional mile.

I was booking a car on Enterprise's website, and hit a few of these issues.
The $9.99 weekend did not work for me as I was planning on using more than 100 miles per day, in the end I combined a Corporate discount with a promotional code to get a free double car class upgrade.

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