Rental Car Coupon Codes - LAX

ryefig on 25/08/2022 - 22:20

Hello Ozbargainers,

Trying my luck here to see if anybody knows of working rental car coupons (or "hacks") for booking a rental vehicle in the USA, preferably from LAX. I understand that car rental rates are relatively high as rental companies sold off a lot of their inventories during covid - At least that is what I heard happened here and in NZ.

There are a few rental companies located around LAX (Alamo, Fox, Avis, Budget, Enterprise etc etc) and I am not too fussed which one.
If it makes any difference, I would prefer at least a "Compact SUV" vehicle type and would prefer to book direct - but if a third party is legitimate and significantly cheaper I will consider it (So far, Expedia, booking.com and kayak all seem to be more expensive than booking direct).

Any tips/hints how I could get a better deal than the public rate would be appreciated!

Travel Car Rental

Comments

  • Hybroid on 25/08/2022 - 22:23
    +1

    LAX is particularly expensive. I generally cross-shop Opodo Cars and Rentalcars.com. Both offer lower prices than booking direct. SUVs sell out very quickly so have to keep looking as prices fluctuate daily. I tend to book refundable ones and cross-shop every few days for better price or class upgrade.

    Sometimes playing with dates and times will change price considerably too. Don't shortchange yourself but sometimes booking a return following morning 9AM is cheaper than previous day 11PM. You can still return it early no problem so play about.

    Wisecars has even cheaper offers but only seem to deal with Fox and is completely no frills (no $0 CDW etc) but isn't really clear what's included or not in each bracket so I avoid them. They also aren't at the airport, have to take shuttle offsite somewhere (be very careful, LA is NOT SAFE and many gangs have setup targeting early morning visitors when it's still dark) and many reviews state their cars are old and not cleaned or maintained well. Up to you if worth the risk.

    • djkelly69 on 25/08/2022 - 22:40
      +3

      They also aren't at the airport, have to take shuttle offsite somewhere

      Pretty sure all car rentals are offsite at LAX, hence the constant stream of hire car shuttles around the airport loop?

      • Hybroid on 25/08/2022 - 22:43
        +1

        Yea that's true. I meant Fox are always separate from the rental car yards with all the brands in one place.

    • ryefig on 26/08/2022 - 09:03

      That is a good tip about the drop off time. thankyou!

      Do you have any insight on rental car insurance. When renting here or NZ, the car is covered and you can pay to reduce the excess if you want.
      From what i understand in America, it seems that there is no level of cover whatsoever and you have to add it on - adding damage waver to the car and damage to other peoples property separately - this really drives up the price and makes the rental car insurance excess cover as part of my travel insurance pretty redundant.

      • Hybroid on 26/08/2022 - 13:37
        +1

        There's a couple of ways to deal with car rental insurance. Firstly, every USA car rental I've seen from the big names includes full CDW & theft protection with $0 excess as standard when booked via aggregators. Except for Fox cars. I know booking direct with AVIS try to upsell you a $25.99 a day extra charge, avoid doing that. One of the rare occasions where it actually pays to go through a third party rather than direct.

        Here's the inclusions on my LAX booking for next month which was cheaper than going direct: https://i.imgur.com/tpuT2Pi.png

        The only thing it doesn't include is wear and tear items like tyres or windscreen, lost keys, misfueling, towing outside cities etc. So you might want to take separate third party insurance to cover those items. If you do blow a tyre, you have to get yourself to the nearest tyre garage, get it replaced and pay for it yourself. You then lodge a claim with the additional insurance party and they'll reimburse up to a certain limit. Keep all paperwork, receipts etc.

        If it's a one or two day rental, then both those sites over a $9-12/day cover for these items. Worth it for peace of mind, barely two coffees.

        If it's a longer trip or hopping between different states then consider taking out actual travel insurance. Which you probably should anyway to cover a whole host of other things, primarily and most importantly any medical costs you may incur (hopefully not) in the US which isn't cheap there.

        Here's an example quote for 10 days cover in the USA: https://i.imgur.com/YcWSHRy.png

        Turns out to be ~$11 a day anyway and includes tons more inclusions as well as $4,000 rental car excess coverage. That's the route I generally take.

        You may also have travel insurance already with one of your credit cards, worth checking before you buy extra cover.

        • ryefig on 29/08/2022 - 09:37

          Wow, that is really good advice. Thank you!
          I applied my knowledge of booking flights directly through the airline as being the same with rental cars. Knowing that CDW and theft is included with third parties is a massive benefit. I'll start my search again with third parties that include $0 excess coverage.

          • Hybroid on 29/08/2022 - 12:27
            +1

            @ryefig: No worries. I believe if you're booking from outside USA then CDW is compulsory. For some reason booking direct doesn't pickup geolocation but third party comparison sites do and their rates are far more competitive than adding a flat daily charge. Cross-check Rentalcars.com and Opodo (one of the CarTrawler sites).

            You might also want to consider RentalCover.com for extra coverage. I have found it to be far cheaper and got $20 off voucher for signing up. Managed to get 10 days cover for $41-20=21 which is great. Also applies for all bookings from any rental company.

      • ol mate on 27/08/2022 - 11:07
        +1

        When I booked cars in the states in 2019 (all through Hertz, as they were the cheapest - but checked with other providers too), it was pretty much mandatory full CDW ($0 excess) as soon as you changed residency to a country outside the USA.

        I found that booking direct with Hertz was cheapest when I did it via the UK site (payment on pickup in USD), and using the CDP for AAA-associated car clubs (which include RACQ, etc.) but YMMV.

    • Sasha Brown on 31/08/2022 - 11:30

      try private car rental. much cheaper. turo.com

      • Hybroid on 31/08/2022 - 11:46

        Not ideal for longer durations or longer journeys. There's lots of added costs that make it uneconomical in some cases. Also not having to deal with people and getting to them rather than 24-hour desk at airport upon arrival has value.

        You also need to sort our your own insurance for most cars.

        You need to make sure you are covered. If there is a problem or accident, we will be contacting your insurance company and making a claim through your insurance company, we will assist you with working directly with them..

        • Sasha Brown on 31/08/2022 - 12:23

          no turo is perfect for longer durations, as gets cheaper the longer. Also 3 insurance options on every car I've looked at. With many cars, you don't ever meet the owner.

  • djkelly69 on 25/08/2022 - 22:39
    +1

    I got a great deal on a one way from PHX to LAS for the end of the year through Economy Car Rentals. Worth a shot.

    Also got a good deal for Orlando by searching through Kayak or some other aggregator, then seeing the code it was using when redirecting to a suggested Hertz car. Then went direct to Hertz and used the same code myself and got a big discount on a different booking.

  • Donaldhump on 26/08/2022 - 08:11
    +1

    OT, a great way to get from the airport to cheap hotels if needing a place to crash overnight while transitting is to hop on the europecar courtesy bus pretending to rent a car and then walking off.

  • krayz on 26/08/2022 - 09:50
    +1

    I highly recommend using an app called Turo. Its like the Airbnb for cars, where you rent someone's car from their place (pick up and drop off usually).

    When I was in LA a couple of months ago, you could get a Honda Civic for like $40USD/day, a Maserati for like $160USD, or even a Lambo for like $450USD!

    • ryefig on 26/08/2022 - 10:45

      Yes good point! I looked into that too but there are two considerations that work against me for Turo:
      - This will be a longer term rental (around 3 weeks), and I'm sure the car will not be as spotlessly clean when I return it. Most of the rentals on Turo ask that you bring the car back in the same state that it was rented to you, which is absolutely fair enough. But I do like that cleaning fees are already included in a rental car. I wont trash the car but i am going on a road trip so it wont be the most clean and wouldn't want to be stung with a hefty fine if the Turo rental wasn't pristine when I return it (yes i could clean it myself, but I'm on holiday eh)
      - Most of the cars on Turo that offer unlimited miles are not the best. Otherwise paying for unlimited miles is about an extra $30 - $40 per day, making it more expensive than through a rental company.

      • altomic on 27/08/2022 - 01:59
        +1

        also with Turo your credit card complimentary travel insurance (with rental car $0 excess cover) will not cover it.

        As Turo is not a car rental company, but a "car sharing" company.

        I used Turo 4 years ago . Pick up at LAX (nearby) , drove to San Francisco via death valley and Bridgeport, then back down a long the ocean to LA 11 day trip for ~$35 per day.

        Ladybug.com is a good car rental aggregate site

  • 2jzzzz on 26/08/2022 - 09:54
    +1

    Zoomzoomzoom has done well for me.

  • Sterio on 29/08/2022 - 10:13
    +1

    Definitely book thru an aggregator. Plenty of sites. I have previously used Argus car hire and rental cars.com.
    Must do’s are ensure you have CDW without a deductible (zero excess), supplementary liability and try to get breakdown included. All this together with any credit card insurance will put you in a good position.
    As mentioned previously, book with an aggregator that provides free cancellation.
    Follow a couple of sites daily and note offerings, provider and price. Once you have an idea what prices are like and are comfortable book it. However keep following prices as there are considerable price variations. Cancel and rebook.
    I have been following prices for my 2 week trip to Vegas/LA/San Fran back to LA in Oct/Nov. Going for a large car (Camry) and prices have fluctuated over the last 3 or so months from $1,092 to $1,478 ($84 pd to $114 pd). Some with the same provider I.e. Alamo.
    The aggregators I have been checking daily are:
    Drive-USA.de (pay up front plus credit card fees, not just those fees associated if you use a card that charges conversion fees)
    Airport rentals.com (not bad show all inclusions)
    Webjet (seem to use the same search engine as airport rentals)
    Various others.

    Don’t forget to check each’s inclusions. Some with same company on different sites I.e Alamo will offer breakdown insurance and the other won’t but the price is the same.

    Good luck. I’d be interested to know what daily average prices you are getting for your particular car.

    • ryefig on 29/08/2022 - 14:29

      Thanks for that. Knowing what I know about booking flights, I was really only interested booking a car directly with the rental company, but like you and many others have mentioned - booking through third parties is legitimate so I think I will go down this path.

      Just so that I have something locked in, I have booked with Alamo on their UK website as it allows a pay now option which is cheaper than the pay later option (which is the only choice through the US or AU version of their website) and it includes LDW and 'extended protection'.
      It is refundable until 3 days before the booking so ill keep an eye open on the aggregators every other day to see if the price is better than what I booked in for and do it that way.

      It is really interesting that the aggregators might have cheaper stock available than through the company direct, I guess they take a cut of their commission to beat the direct price?

  • Howdydoo on 29/08/2022 - 15:30

    I am really struggling with finding cheap enough car rental for Calgary to Vancouver for around 2 weeks at end June to mid July 2023. I wanted to hire longer but the prices are exorbitant. Over A$100/day for a mid to large size car (so a total near A$1800 for 15 days). In 2020 pre covid I had a car booked for Calgary to Seattle for 21 days and it was only A$880 (and was similar for a Vancouver drop off).

    Any ideas or help??? Thanks

  • Sterio on 29/08/2022 - 17:32
    +1

    Last time I went to the US on my annual Vegas LA trip in late 2019 I paid approximately $40 pd with full coverage. For this years trip the cheapest I have found over several months looking has been $84. Still haven’t booked. Unfortunately COVID has played havoc with hire cars plus the semi conductor shortage and the falling A$.

    No different to the situation here in Oz. Try hiring car in TAS.

    • Howdydoo on 30/08/2022 - 00:07

      Agreed. I cancelled a trip to Tassie as the car hire was beyond ridiculous (over $200/day).
      Thanks for your reply

  • djkelly69 on 30/08/2022 - 11:02

    Can't see it mentioned and think it is kind of important - when you get to the counter to collect your rental car in the US, you will get a hard sell on taking out extra insurances, etc. Not just an off-hand type question like you might get here, but really pushing you to take it out "because XX might happen and you will be bankrupt", etc. Probably more than once, and for each type of insurance they offer.

    So for me, it is important to know exactly what you are already covered for before you get there, and being prepared to say no a lot.

    • ryefig on 30/08/2022 - 15:56

      I've definitely seen a few google reviews that complain about this.
      I read into Alamo and they have 'express' checkin where you can do it at a self serve screen rather than a person - might be worth booking with them to get avoid the hard sell altogether.

      • djkelly69 on 30/08/2022 - 16:19

        Fair point - last time I rented in the US was 2015 so self-serve and app checkins could have changed things a bit.

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