One way US Car hire

stricko

Hi there, has anyone got a way of avoiding the exorbitant one way hire charge in the US. We are doing a road trip from Atlanta to Dallas in June/July, and I can't find a deal anywhere that doesn't include a steep one way hire charge. In some cases the one way charge is more than the rental itself.
On previous similar trips I've always managed to find a deal, but I'm struggling this time.
I've checked the usual obvious routes, credit card company deals, airline loyalty schemes etc. but nothing is showing up.
Thanks in advance

Backbiter

No way to avoid them, but I found the charges varied hugely between rental agencies. We did a one way rental from Atlanta to Memphis, and scoured the web for ages till we found a price we felt we were prepared to pay.

Later on on the same trip we did a one way rental from Pensacola to New Orleans, using Affordable Car Hire. We found a good all-inclusive price which specified that we'd pay the one way fee on collection, but they never did charge the fee.

On our last US trip we found the best deals with ebookers and direct with Avis, both via Quidco., But on other trips we've used Dollar/ Thrifty and Alamo

stevie11

A suggestion which may ior may not work. Do you have an itiniary planned that includes stopping in various cities? Try shorter one way rentals to see if the total cost is reduced? I know it will be more inconvenient but worth a shot?
Good luck.

cubegame

The best way to avoid is to choose a different itinerary. Atlanta to Dallas would be very dull. What are you must sees? Can you do circles instead?

Forndog

I’m actually driving in May from Orlando to Dallas and our fee is £300 I booked this as part of a BA holiday.

Duckyduck

Are you picking up at the airport? I played around with routes and companies for a one way rental last year and was able to largely offset the one way charge by picking up in my starting city rather than the airport (but then dropping off at destination airport rather than city).

I’m not aware of any known tricks or tips to get the price down, other than playing around with all combinations. On my last trip Enterprise came out best, but often Alamo have the best rates I’ve found.

EssexExile

It's a good little money spinner. Last time I rented a car in The States there were cars from all corners of the country in the parking lot, so it's not as if they have the expense of returning them from whence they came.

northwest1965

Done this a few times, Avis and Ba seemed to work out cheapest for us

stricko

Hi all, thanks for the responses, a quick update on progress so far.


Like northwest1965, avis and BA have always been good for me in the past, but there have been no offers lately that might help.


Duckyduck's idea of not picking up at the airport has brought the best results, saving nearly £200 on a 19 day rental. We are not landing in Atlanta until late in the evening, so there seemed to be little point renting a car on arrival. So we tried starting the rental the next day in the city. Gave a small saving, but then we tried the same trick for drop off. By switching from dropping at Dallas Fort Worth, to a city location (not in Dallas itself, but Grapevine, which borders the airport to the north). The rental came down from £650 to £450. The same price was coming up from the brokers, and Hertz itself.


By using the Hertz site directly, we were able to use a CDP for Amex card holders which reduced the price a little bit further, and added waived extra driver fees and the promise of an upgrade.


Got there in the end. Thanks for the tips