Car Rental

I rent cars for my company travel once or twice a mont. This week something happened to me which reminded me of the need to check my car rental receipt.

I had made a three day rental in Houston, Texas and was returning the car in Dallas. When I had made my initial reservation the estimated total was $394. This is a lot for three days, but I justified it to myself with the fact that this included a GPS and a second driver, and that I was returning the car to a different location.

When I dropped off the car in Dallas I was asked if I wanted to charge the rental to the same credit card, I said yes, and was then given a receipt for $650!

I am fortunate in this case to have taken a look at the receipt- normally I just put the receipt in my briefcase to expense it later. Of course I went to customer service to complain, they told me that I had been charged more because I was returning the vehicle to the airport rather than a regular location. This did not really make sense to me- they had changed the daily rate because I was returning it to a different place? I only had a car for three days, and no, it was not a Mercedez, it was a minivan.

The customer service people did change the daily rate and brought the rental down to $420 but said something about taxes that they could not change. I did not have time to stay around and argue but it did leave me thinking that it is a good idea to double check the receipt that they give you when you return a rental car.

Has anyone noticed that more and more airports are moving their rental car locations much further from the actual airport- forcing you to take a long shuttle bus on your arrival and drop off.

I have just come back from a trip where I went to Dallas, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. All three of these airports have car rental facilities which are far from the actual airport.  I know for sure in the case of Phoenix and Las Vegas that this is new. What it means to me is that I have to make sure to come to the airport even earlier in order to take into account the shuttle back.

Here is my tip for the day. This one is about renting cars.

If you are renting a car in a city which you are unfamiliar with, consider renting a car with GPS.

I am notoriously bad with directions and by now being able to rent cars which have GPS units, I can now travel without needing a map. This is especially useful if I am travelling alone.

GPS units are not very expensive, typically you can rent these units for around ten dollars a day- and they are very easy to use. You input your address and the unit will calculate the most direct rouet to your destination.

If you have never used one, the best thing about this technology is that if you miss a turn, the system automatically calculates a new route to your destination. This is the big advantage of using GPS over traditional maps.

One other advantage is that the system will give you an approximate idea of the time it will take to reach your destination- which is good to know if you have an appointment at a certain time.

One downside is that it does not always take you exactly to where you need. You may be close, but the place you are going to may actually be across the street for example.

But when you compare the price of renting a GPS to the price of getting lost and being late for appointments- this is a must have technology.

I will not rent a car without it.

If you are going to be renting cars for any of your travels- here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Check all available rental companies from your pickup location- especially if you are renting at an airport or other place with multiple rental companies- there can be quite a difference in price between companies. During my last trip to scotland I save 100 pounds (200 dollars) on the same sized car by choosing enterprise over avis (who I usually rent from). An easy way to do this comarison is on sites such as expedia.
2. If you are unfamiliar with the area, rent a car with gps- and use it. This will help you immensely in finding where you want to go. If you have not used this technology before, you type in the address of your destination and a small computer will give you step by step directions of how to get there. The best feature of using GPS is the fact that if you happen to miss a turn that the computer recommends, it will automatically recalculate another route to our destination.
3. Rent a car using a credit card which will cover your collision insurance. This will save you a lot of money as insurance can easily double the price of your car rental. Bring proof of collision insurance with you. As there are many different credit cards with many different options , and as not all companies are familiar with credit card options, bring proof of this collision insurance with you, or be prepared for the rental agent to call up your credit card company.
4. Before you leave on your trip, check if you will need an international driver’s license. Depending on the place you will rent your car, this may be required. They are usually easy to pick up in your home town and are not expensive.
5. When the rental agent asks you if you will bring the car back with a full tank, get them to explain what they charge for gas. Some rental companies charge the regular gas price to bring the tank back to the same gas level you started with and others will chrge you for a full tank whether you bring it back empty or half full. If you are lucky enough to be renting with the first type of company you will not need to worry about filling up the tank before you return the car. If you have the second type- better to bring it back full. The rental agent will usually tell you what makes more sense

In my last post I talked about frequent flier miles and some basic rules to consider. Aside from the obvious, which is collecting frequent flier miles directly from the airlines, there are many other ways to collect miles. Here are a couple of ideas:

• Car rental agencies have their own programs, but they will often also give you frequent flier points as a bonus for renting with them.
• Credit card companies are probably the best way to collect additional miles; many cards will allow you to collect one mile per dollar spent on the card. If you travel for business this can add up to a lot of miles. I have averaged 50,000 spending per year in the last few years which is enough for 2 short haul flights in North America or one flight to Europe ever year. Even if you do not travel for business if you put most of your expenses on credit cards it will add up to a lot.
• There is a third category which will also give you miles but in actual fact you are probably better off signing up to their own programs and that is hotels. Hotels usually have points programs of their own which can be very useful. Starwood hotels has a very good program called preferred guest which allows you to collect points to use for hotel rooms, but it has one other special feature- these points can also be converted to points on most major airlines- so if you are missing some points for your next reward ticket you can transfer it from your preferred guest account.

If you get a credit card which is partnered with Starwood preferred guest you have the best of all worlds- you will collect a lot of points for hotels which can be transferred to airlines if needed. In Canada we have the MBNA MasterCard and in the United States there is the American Express for this.