Road Tripping in the USA!

Was just what they gave me for a 24 hour one way rental. It was totally crap. I booked a full size and they 'upgraded' me. It was the only US plated car on so I reckon that's why they palmed it off on me.

Happily though I now have my main rental for the next 17 days - a 2013 Cadillac ATS. First impressions - wow. This is a seriously credible 3 Series rival.
 
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Cheap rates in places like Vegas pulled the average down. On my current trip the average is about 65 or so. I booked most of my current trip in advance but left the last 5 days to chance and to be honest it isn't any cheaper just more flexible. Wi-Fi is everywhere, in the unlikely event of broken Wi-Fi just go to McDonalds or something.
 
Are your test bookings like for like, ie same time of the week? Prices vary hugely depending on time of year and day of the week so your test is of limited value sadly :(

Random places in the middle of nowhere generally are fine to book whenever.
 
Capt Doufos said:
Yellowstone is amazing, you are really missing out. We stayed in West Yellowstone it was a best western I think. It was significantly more than anywhere else but it's cheap to eat there as it's in Montana you only pay 3% tourist tax. Having said that £200 is a lot I think ours was about £100.
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You cant see everything in one trip, instead I am visiting Mt St Helens today and have seen many other great things :) I couldn't make it work in this trip.
 
With 12,000 miles and 3 months I'm sure you can work out a nice loop instead. Then you can rent something without getting hammered for one-way charges. Plus you'd never cover the same ground twice even with a loop - with that amount of time I'd be wanting to do something like LA to Vegas to Texas to New Orleans to Florida to Washington DC to New York to Chicago and then back through perhaps down to Colorado then up towards Idaho and Washington then back down the coast to Los Angeles.

All without needing to worry about the car. A quick check brings up prices for 3 months of £1600 total cost for a Fullsize Sedan or £2700 for a Luxury Sedan.

Doing a 3 month road trip is going to cost you an absolute fortune anyway so against that backdrop £1600 for a car seems like a bargain part of the trip.

Something like this, tweak to fit:

http://goo.gl/maps/xmc8N

Even that is only 9k miles!
 
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I will never rent a vehicle from Budget again. They were cheap for a reason, awful. Bunch of amatuers.

Alamo on the other hand were excellent.
 
mjt said:
I've not had any problems. Care to expand?

I normally go with Hertz, but Budget were really half the price for the same car.
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I was Budget Fastbreak, the quick service. It took 25 minutes from desk to leaving because they gave me paperwork with an estimated extra charge on it which nobody could explain even though it was a fully prepaid rental. In the end they said it just needed to be removed at the dropoff point.

Get to dropoff point, meet rude staff asking stupid questions (Is this really a car that belongs to us?). Then have to queue for another 15 minutes to 'hand in paperwork'. No idea why, Alamo just scan and you walk off. Waited 15 minutes. Gave him paperwork, he said thats fine, the charge is nothing to do with him.

Got back to UK. Charge on credit card. Rang customer services who after a week have credited back half of the amount. Customer services is designed to be only open within strict office hours - 9-5 Monday to Friday.

Granted, our Lincoln MkZ had an ant infestation, but we were given a Taurus (wow the US car industry has improved over the last 10 years!!!) replacement without hassle.
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So they downgraded you - an MKZ is an entry level Luxury Sedan, a Taurus is a fullsize Sedan. Did they credit you for the downgrade? I rather suspect not! :p
 
The new 2013- MKZ looks nice - I almost took one in Seattle last month but went for the Cadillac ATS instead. Another reason I love Alamo - take any car you want from the lineup in your class.
 
Free hire cars through packages are a con, it's usually better to ignore the free car and book your own. USA trips are not worth booking through tour companies.
 
Westyfield2 said:
Unless the President of the USA has a hissy fit about not getting unlimited spending, all the state run parks & museums you want to go to are closed, and your self arranged trip doesn't have insurance to cover it :p.
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You honestly think if you booked a USA trip inc flights, accomodation and car hire through a travel agent or tour operator you'd get a full refund because the national parks are closed?!

Best thing I've read all day, that :D
 
Westyfield2 said:
Of course not a full refund as there's more to the place than just the state run parks... but I'd be pretty ****** off about it all if I'd been planning/saving for a while and then stuff was just 'shut'!
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So would I but I have no idea what your point is, you'd be equally affected by that whether you'd booked everything yourself or through a travel agent :confused:
 
Skywalker said:
Don't have to pay it as it comes with basic insurance as it is , So the CDW etc is optional on top .
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You pretty much do have to pay it because CDW is essential for renting in the US, the financial consequences of not doing so are quite harsh (Which you obviously agree with or you'd not have paid some £600 for CDW). Most UK based rental agencies refuse to rent cars to UK citizens booking from the UK without offering them a rate which includes CDW as a result. It's a known 'scam' from holiday companies to throw in a 'free' hire car only to then result in you paying a fortune for insurance.
 
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