Double booking through BA/Avis almost half the price of single rental!

[emmyloup]

Hello everyone. Am visiting Florida again in August for 21 nights and booked last April. Have been keeping my eye on car hire prices since then and as others have posted car hire is extremely high and hasn't reduced in price at all. Was hoping might get a deal over the Xmas period... We are travelling quite a bit (Miami/Orlando/Clearwater/Cocoa Beach/Miami again/Key West and finishing for a week in Naples) and have been looking at the Chevy Tahoe and possibly hiring a Mustang/Camaro convertible for a few days whilst in Naples. However, think the Tahoe might be heavy on the gas and the Convertible not particularly comfortable in back for 17 year old DD and 13 year old (almost 6' tall) DS. So to cut a long story short have (hopefully sensibly) now booked a Ford Edge for 20 days. Booked Avis through BA. Had been checking as a single rental... price was always coming out high (today showing as 1012 pounds with BA and 1133 pounds (equivalent standard SUV) with Alamo Brits. Bizarrely, the price was 560 pounds booking as a multiple car rental. So what we'll do is whilst in Miami (and staying in South Beach) pop in to the Avis Miami Beach Car Hire Centre and swap car/paperwork... bit of a pain but saving ourselves a minimum of 450 pounds! Plus we had 2% back through Quidco and as a BA Executive Club Member we have an additional driver included. Might be worth anyone who is looking for a cheaper car hire price trying the multiple car rental when searching on BA, obviously only if you don't mind the inconvenience of having to swap car/paperwork during your holiday.

[Alba20]

Well done, worth the £450 saving.

We had to play the game a few years ago. We had 3 weeks with a cruise in the middle but car hire for the 1 week either side was really expensive with the last week being much more. We decided to try and see how much the car hire would be for the entire time and it was cheaper to book for the whole time and pay for parking at the port than booking two separate weeks. I think this was because booking the whole time meant the booking started in March which seemed much cheaper than starting in April. Very strange.

You've got to play around with dates sometimes to get a decent price.

Alba

[Mr Tom Morrow]

OP. A really good post. Plus if you like the first vehicle I bet they will let you drive in with it and straight back out! Saves them valeting it.

[Jan]

Wow! That is a lot of money. Well done.

[wpalmer]

Brilliant tip. Going april and august so have done multi-car with different dates. 5 weeks with Intermediate SUV £720. Was being quoted more than that for the august trip alone. Saving about £500 i reckon!

thanks!

[sotagals]

Is this because the prices drop when the American kids go back to school late August ?

[welshwiz]

Brilliant post!

Have you split the rental up in to 7 day chunks or various other values?

I already have a deposit on a flydrive but still some wiggle room to play with another trip if the price is right

[wpalmer]

Originally Posted by sotagals

Is this because the prices drop when the American kids go back to school late August ?

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Dont think so. Ive said April and August for my two trips. Tbh my august trip is more July than august for 3 weeks.

[wpalmer]

Originally Posted by welshwiz

Brilliant post!

Have you split the rental up in to 7 day chunks or various other values?

I already have a deposit on a flydrive but still some wiggle room to play with another trip if the price is right

See more...

I just selected multi-car rental and put in the dates of my two trips. Have experimented by doing one full trip and selecting another car for 1 day in that date range and it brings it down hugely. Not sure if you could get away with just not picking up the other car?

[Kirky123]

A great find Op. I've just priced up picking up an SUV from Mco for11 nights, dropping it off at the Doubletree at the entrance to Universal, having our three nights at RPR (when we don't want to use the car, saving us $80ish parking) then picking another car up from the Doubletree on the day we leave and dropping it off at Mco.

Takes car hire from £404 for 14 days rental with VH (cheapest I can find)to £288 plus saving us approx £60 for parking charges at RPR. Even if we decide to use UBER to get too and from the Double tree to RPR we will still save over £170. Another option to not pick up the second car and just get an uber to the airport for approx $25.
Just need to run it by DH tonight .