Car Rental Help, Please?
 

Hello,<BR>Due to the help from this message baord, I am almost through planning our August Maui vacation at Kea Lani. However, I still have not rented a car. As per suggestions on this board, I would like to rent a convertable at the airport.<BR>The best price I have so far after checking with Enterprise/Hertz/Avis/Thrifty/Dollar/National is from National:<BR>7 days $367.47 with tax and AAA discount. Does anyone know if there is a better deal to be had elsewhere?<BR>Thank you kindly for your suggestions.<BR>Beth

Beth,<BR>Are you a Costco or Sam's member? I got a better deal at Costco than I could anywhere else, including AAA. If you go online to their travel section, it will give you an 800 # to call. Good luck.

Check Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, and Priceline.

Beth<BR><BR>$207.69 for a week at Alamo. Use rate code 6T.<BR><BR>Bob

Bob, thank you! thank you! thank you!<BR><BR>That just saved me $80 times 2! Now for one itty bitty question: what does the rate code mean, and will I get flagged at the counter?

Tried to book this code at the Alamo.com<BR>website. A convert. didn't even show up. Did you call or book online.<BR>What is 6T?<BR>Thanks

Have you tried Orbitz? I've gotten amazing rates with them recently, no discount code required -- but then, it wasn't Hawaii either!

Just want to mention that we had problems with Alamo in Maui--had to wait in their office nearly 3-4 hours for our car (with many many other unhappy customers.) If you can get as good a rate with someone else (but not Hertz--they're even worse), I'd suggest it. I did really well through expedia.com.

Whatever you do don't book with budget at the west Maui airport. By the time we were done with them, they had a $900.00 hold on our credit card and we only rented a car for three days. They had something like 4 seperate holds for all different amounts on our card. A woman named Napua kept telling us that it was not from budget but our credit card company verified that it was. We finally had to have a conference call with our credit card company and Budget to confirm this. Our credit card company was so frustrated with them that they took these holds off of our card charging us only for the days we rented. Be warned about them. We have had great luck with Alamo. I have heard some people on these forums tell of cockroaches in these cars, but we have not had that experience.

Beth you and I are both jfsj for not booking as soon as our airline tickets were purchased. Don't make matters worse by waiting now.<BR><BR>Also remember to call and not just book from the web. I got the best rates from Alamo when I called online rates were higher.Other posters that are Hawaii residents added they also got best rates from Alamo. Remember to use any price club membership or AAA.<BR><BR>I would bid if this years car rental were up to me.

Lily, I went to the Alamo website and tried it again just now. Used dates of Sep 11 through 18th, rate code 6T, for OGG (Maui) and got the same rate, $207 for convertible (plus taxes). Did you scroll down when the screen changed? Each car type has its own box, you check off the one you want and click on "continue"... Which airport are you using? What month? I used it successfully for Kauai (lih) also. Hope this helps.

Me again!<BR><BR>Surprise surprise! I just tried xxx's suggestion and called Alamo direct. Wow! Weekly rate for a convertible - ready? $188 in Maui, $177 in Kauai !!! This was with a Sam's club membership (she tried AAA also but Sam's was lower and INCLUDED a free additional driver - nice perk), with taxes and fees, the Maui convertible will be $234 and Kauai $222. Thanks all! Fodorites rock! Now I must cancel my web reservations so we can free up some cars for the rest of you!

Good for you Joan, glad it worked out for you!

Went to website and called Alamo.<BR>Dates 7/29/02-8/05/02. Used AAA, Sam's and at website 6T. Convert. didn't show at bottom of page and prices over the phone were in the 400.00?<BR>Tried priceline - low pricing wasn't accepted. Will keep looking around.<BR>Thanks all -----

Lily, I tried it for you and got the same results you did. Must be because the date is so soon, they don't have the inventory...sorry this wouldn't work for you! Perhaps you could get a car close in price and try switching to a convertible on arrival?

Going to pitch my two cents in: On Joan's suggestion I called Alamo. Their first quote to me was $367 convertible for a week on Kauai in September. I mentioned the rate code and the $207 on the net, he said, "Well, you have to mention that to get it". I then told him about a friend getting $167 with a Sam's card, and wonder of wonders, he "just happened" to find that deal for me too. Diabolical, isn't it? Somebody else could feasibly be paying $200 a week more for the same car.