Car rental prices are through the roof this summer. But in a fluke I found it pays to keep checking.

I had a reservation for the holiday weekend to pick it a car tomorrow. For the two days it was going to be $400+ total but when I booked three weeks ago that was best I could do after checking through car rental websites, airline website, kayak, hotwire, etc.

Yesterday I realized the start time of the rental was 10 am when I would prefer 8 am. I tried to change the start time on line through the airline website I booked it on. (Was same price as others and I get extra miles that way). It wouldn't let me change it there, said special rate. I tried through the Hertz website, same problem. I tried to call Hertz and the recording said either go to website to change it or pay a fee of 5% of the rental to talk to a representative.

My new plan was to just show up early and see if I could pick it up then but go out for nice breakfast if not.

But then I thought what if I just tried to make a new reservation for the new time. The old res was cancel at any time, no charge. Short answer is through hotwire this morning got a new res at the earlier time at the same Hertz location for $126 total.

Nice! Probably last minute double bookings and cancellations.

But it has always been like that. I book car rentals several times a year eg at Christmas some months before travel and it is always expensive but I book it just in case. If I check a month or less before travel date, very often I cancel and rebook a much less expensive rate.