Hi everyone. We are staying with friends in Anchorage the end of June into the first of July. We are going to take a small trip ourselves to Valdez from June 30- July 3, and will need to rent a car for this trip. I have been searching car rental prices for just an economy car (which seem to all be running about $100 per day). Does anyone have any input on the different car rental companies, or where/ how to find the best deal (discounts, etc..)? Any help will be appreciated...

Maybe go to Priceline and enter the dates to see the available rates from several companies, I think you get quotes from 8 or 9 on Priceline ... we are paying about half what you mention for a mid-size later in August, I'm guessing it's higher around July 4th. We ended up with Alamo, some of the others were up to double the cost, probably because they were running low on the size we wanted.

Taxes and airport fees add a lot to Anchorage rental costs (I'm thinking 35-38%, something like that), you can save the airport fee (I think 8%) by picking up at a site outside the airport, but nothing you can do about the state and city and sales taxes.

Good luck ... basically prices are high up there because they have high demand for about 3 months and little demand for about 6 months.

Bill

For grins I just plugged in June 30 - July 3 at Priceline ... 3 companies had no compacts those days (including Alamo, the one we found was cheapest later in the summer).

Four companies were $89 - $92 per day, another $112 per day.

Good luck finding a cheaper deal that time of year at this late date. Sorry.

Here are a few links containing car discount codes:

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...uid=0&t=634835
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...uid=0&t=281859

It's tough to find car rental bargains in Anchorage. They may or may not accept some of them.

we used Eagle River car rental, and they have a shuttle pick us up at the anchorage airport. we had a van for about $80

Thanks everyone for the tips... I'm going to look up the places you all recommended right now and see if I have any luck!

The response about picking the car up off the airport lot will save u some money however most of those places close early and may not be open if u arrive after 6pm

I'm picking up a vehicle from Enterprise on 7/2 at an off airport location in Anchorage. I was able to get the "El Cheapo" for $532 for 8 days. I looked at Denali rent a car, also in Anchorage, and they wanted $690 for the same length of time for a 3 yr old vehicle that they wouldn't be able to do windshield insurance on.

NOTE: Buy the windshield insurance. There are a lot of gravel roads and you don't want to end your vacation buying a windshield for your rental.

In the toursaver coupon book there's a buy one day get one free coupon from Avis. Think you have to call ahead to see if available. Used books are selling on ebay.

Orlando_Vic... thanks so much for the links for discounts. I used one of the discount codes, and saved alot of money on the rental! In case anyone else wants to try them... try several of the codes because some of them don't change the price, but then another one will. It was definitely a great savings! Thanks!!!

Try Costco.com if your a member. We are renting for 12 days ins July and best prices I was finding totaled around $1,300 for a compact. I tried Costco last night and booked a Standard through Avis for $850 with tax and surcharges.
Cathie

I tried the links for my late August trip. I saved 50% using one of the discount codes! The $225 savings will pay for gas for my 9 day trip. Has anyone ever had any problems with these rates when you pick-up the car? I hope I don't have to show some sort of corporate ID for the code that I used!

Hey, I'm only the messenger. Don't shoot me if any of the codes don't work.

I suspect that if the web site accepts the code, you're in. It probably wont be questioned further. However, Alaska car rental places are funny - many are not corporately owned so they don't give discounts if they don't want to.

Thanks, Orlando_Vic. I don't expect to have any problems. When I rent a car for business, I'm never asked to show any ID related to the corporate code used to book the car. Thanks for posting the codes. I can't get over how much I saved!