Car Hire from San Francisco Airport with Drop off at Las Vegas

FinglisHobbit

FinglisHobbit

FinglisHobbit

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Hi guys.

Im in the process of arranging car hire for our holiday this summer. We land in San Francisco and we will be travelling down the west coast via San Diego, LA, Yosemite, Grand Canyon etc.

We finish up in Las Vegas.

Im looking at quotes now from airport to airport. The car choice Im interested in is something simple like a Focus or Toyota Corolla. Nothing big and expensive. Just cheap but not a tiny little car.

Has anyone got any experience of where similar? I have found :

Pick-up
Start dateJul 03 2015 16:30 pm
LocationSan Francisco - Airport (California)
Pick-up typeAirport Terminal Pickup
Return
End dateJul 17 2015 11:00 am
LocationLas Vegas - Airport
Make and modelFord Focus or similar
Vehicle classCompact
Car hire brandHERTZ

Edit search
£ 457.42
Total price, you pay today
Included in the price
All taxes and charges
Theft Protection and Collision Damage Waiver
Zero excess
Free cancellation and amendment.


Ive seen another quote which mentioned a "one way fee" . Would I be expected to pay a fee ontop of this one Ive just mentioned above? It says all taxes and charges are included so I figure not.

Any input appreciated.

Cheers
 
Check in the T&Cs of individual hire companies - a lot of them don't charge one way hire fees between Nevada and California.

edit: just read something different after a quick google, seems times may have changed since I did it!

editit: doing more reading reveals it might be something to do with San Fran specifically as they're trying to discourage one way hires emptying San Fran of its hire cars, so it would appear one way charges apply from SF during peak season http://www.tripwheels.com/guides/one-way-fees
 
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You can book this rental through Virgin Holidays for much less - the same class of car is £100 cheaper than with Hertz. Virgin use National/Alamo who IMHO are a better rental firm and generally have newer and lower mileage cars.

Infact for the same £471 Hertz want to give you a crap Focus, Alamo will give you a Luxury Saloon. Or you could opt to save some money and pick a Fullsize car for £398 - still cheaper than Hertz but a better car. You don't fly all the way to the USA to road trip Highway 1 in a Ford Focus. You could even have a Mustang Convertible for just £489.

One-way between California and Nevada is zero charge.

http://www.virginholidays.co.uk
 
[TW]Fox;28061518 said:
You can book this rental through Virgin Holidays for much less - the same class of car is £100 cheaper than with Hertz. Virgin use National/Alamo who IMHO are a better rental firm and generally have newer and lower mileage cars.

Infact for the same £471 Hertz want to give you a crap Focus, Alamo will give you a Luxury Saloon. Or you could opt to save some money and pick a Fullsize car for £398 - still cheaper than Hertz but a better car. You don't fly all the way to the USA to road trip Highway 1 in a Ford Focus. You could even have a Mustang Convertible for just £489.

One-way between California and Nevada is zero charge.

http://www.virginholidays.co.uk
Click to expand...
Which is interesting because direct through Alamo's website (.co.uk) they quoted a one way fee of $301.42 when I priced it up.
 
This is why it often pays to book through one of the UK based brokers. From the Virgin terms and conditions for Alamo:
No O/W's permitted between USA - CANADA or v/v.
O/W's in Florida are free.
O/W's between California and Nevada are free.
Click to expand...
 
[TW]Fox;28061582 said:
This is why it often pays to book through one of the UK based brokers.
Click to expand...

I often use a UK broker to book "Dollar" cars in Vegas as they are cheaper and also often have more comprehensive insurance packages (well easier to understand anyway)


The only reason I used dollar often is they have a pick up/drop off office at the Bellagio
 
Can you get quidco through Virgin holidays for car rental? You can if you book with Alamo UK. Might make a difference to the net price?
 
Doing exactly the same but in October. Need to hire a 4WD though...cheapest I have found is £450 for a Jeep Grand Cherokee; intermediates (Focus, Corolla etc) were around £350 from memory. No one one way charge.

That was using these guys:

http://www.rentalcars.com/

I have used them more than a dozen times over the last 5 years and had no problems whatsoever.
 
Just checked the above site...Ford Focus for your dates £368.

Need to check that it has all the insurances you need, I think it does apart rom the zero excess.
 
Snubber said:
Just checked the above site...Ford Focus for your dates £368.

Need to check that it has all the insurances you need, I think it does apart rom the zero excess.
Click to expand...

I bought a worldwide excess-reduction policy from Questor for two people, cost sub £30 if I remember correctly. Significantly cheaper than adding insurance options to the rental!
 
USrentacar do a compact through Sixt for £263. I used USrentacar for a Mustang when I went out there and was perfectly happy with them.
 
Redgie said:
I bought a worldwide excess-reduction policy from Questor for two people, cost sub £30 if I remember correctly. Significantly cheaper than adding insurance options to the rental!
Click to expand...

You don't need this for the USA as all the decent sources include zero excess full cover as standard.
 
Snubber said:
Just checked the above site...Ford Focus for your dates £368.

Need to check that it has all the insurances you need, I think it does apart rom the zero excess.
Click to expand...

Which is more expensive than the suggestion I made for the same car class and also it's worth bearing in mind that with a Virgin holidays booking with Alamo you can online check in and do skip the counter which none of the other brokers can offer.

This means you walk straight into the garage, over to a row of cars in your class, pick the one you like and drive to the exit booth without needing to queue or speak to anyone.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll have a look into them today. I appreciate a mustang or something would be more suitable for such drives but I think a focus would be competent enough to get me from a to b. Would use less fuel too. Which admittedly isn't going to be much anyway.

A focus or similar would be perfectly fine to drive down a straight highway I'm sure.
 
Except it’s not a drive down a straight highway, is it? It’s a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, one of the world’s most iconic drives. It’s very much not straight.

I’m sure a Focus would be fine but then a trip to Spain instead of California would be fine too and you obviously decided you wanted something better there. You were happy enough with the £471 quote from Hertz for a Focus, so a Mustang deal I found for the same price is surely tempting?

Every ‘1001 things to do before you die’ book has ‘Drive the Pacific Coast Highway in a Convertible’ in it. None of them have ‘Drive the Pacific Coast Highway in a 4 cylinder Ford Focus’. It makes the trip even better, it makes your holiday photos even better, and it makes the enjoyment of the drive even better. Give it some real consideration, ticking the ‘Mustang Convertible on the PCH’ box is really quite a special thing to be able to do, IMHO. I’m not even a Mustang fan, I go to the US on road trips every year but I still remember the time I drove down the PCH with the roof down. Holidays like this are about creating memories, otherwise you’d just go to an all-inclusive resort in the Costa Del Dullsville.

And if you do decide you really don’t want a convertible, the Fullsize car is only a few quid more than the Focus and is more refined, more comfortable and generally a more appropriate place to be for what will be quite a lot of long drives. You’ll be mixing with big trucks doing 70mph+, don’t do it in a hatchback, do it in something properly sized. You’ll probably end up with something like a Dodge Charger which whilst hardly amazing is very American and still a great part of the experience. If you want to drive a Ford Focus, do it on the A38 just outside of Bromsgrove in the rain :p

The petrol cost is an absolute non-issue, the difference will be virtually nothing. None of these cars are V8 powered monsters.
 
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