I'll be in Alaska for almost two weeks in July, flying in and out of Anchorage. I need to rent a car and am trying to decide between the rental companies. Does anyone have a sense for which company tends to have decent cars -- new, clean, non-smoking, in good condition... at a decent price? Priceline is giving me some good pricing, but I can't decide between the companies. I generally rent from hertz when I travel for business, but am open to any option as long as I'm sure to get a decent car. Ideal would be a wagon (Suby, etc.) for storage space, or a small SUV, but I'd go as small as an intermediate sedan. Thanks for any help!!

Fox Rent A Car <http://www.foxrentacar.com/> is now in Anchorage.

Can anyone help with priceline? I want to use the "Name Your Own Price" option for a rental car, but when I click on it, it takes me to the regular pricing options, and there's nowhere to enter my price. The help button shows me screens that look different from the ones I'm seeing. Anyone have experience with this? Thanks.

You can have significant savings renting from downtown vs the airport. At the airport you can expect at least 25% in taxes/fees. There are many rental agencies to pick from. None being a problem with maintained cars. A SUV is going to be costly and is not necessary if looking for cost savings.

I am also looking for a rental car for Anchorage on name your on price at priceline. I can't get it to work either. Did you ever figure it out sportychick?

When I went to Priceline and clicked on the Cars icon, the Cars screen had a big picture on the right side that says "Save up to 25%*. DEEPER DISCOUNTS when you name your own price." Click the "Go" button on that picture, and off to name my own price I went.

Hope this helps...

And I just happened to need a rental car for an end-of-month trip, so I used the Name Your Own Price method I mentioned in my previous post and saved over $20 on a three-day rental in Sacramento (compared to the cost for the lowest rental price for these dates on Travelocity or Expedia).

So this definitely works. Not the biggest cost savings I've ever had on Priceline, but every little bit helps...

Hey Don!! Thanks and I'm so glad that it helped you out and appreciate you taking the time to try to help me!! I found out the problem was ANCHORAGE. I could name my own price for other places but not there. I wrote priceline customer service and just received this reply:

Thank you for taking the time to send us an e-mail. We understand that
you would like to submit a rental car request by using the Name Your Own
Price option for Anchorage and you get the negotiator. You would like us
to help you.

At this time, the Name Your Own Price option is not available for your
desired location. We suggest that you try the next closest major city.
If we recognize the city, our system returns the closest city that we
serve.

If there is no city that is convenient for you, we recommend you choose
an itinerary from a list of our participating partners. Either way, you
will get an excellent deal.

We apologize for the inconvenience and hope this information is helpful
to you.

Sincerely,

Manthan S.


I'm not sure what I should do next. How would the next closest city help me and what would that be???

I hope this helps others too!

That's a shame, Tammy. I didn't realize they didn't offer Name Your Own Price in every city.

The only other Priceline locations for car rentals in Alaska are Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Sitka, so I'm sure that's no help.

The "try a nearby city" part sounds like it could be useful for people who have an option to fly into a nearby airport--like Oakland instead of San Francisco, or JFK instead of LaGuardia, or something like that. Anchorage--not so useful.

Wow, I go away for a day and you guys figure it all out! Thank you (for pointing out that it wasn't just me who couldn't make the Anchorage feature work).

Now just to find the least-overpriced option and check "car rental" off my list.

I had similar problems with getting a good price with a rental car. I called a travel agent and she found a corporate rate about 20% below anything I could get on line.

Try renting from car dealerships...sometimes they have decent rates.