One way car hire from washington DC to Palm Springs - help

[mac]

Hello

Can anyine help? We are taking a trip this summer East to West we have 12 days to complete the trip, we have our itinery planned and have been looking for car hire. We knew that drop off charges would be added to the trip but assumed that when we looked into pricing on Expedia that 'complete price' meant just that. We have just gone to book and have seen that way way drop off charges are payable at drop off location.

Can anybody recommend a car hire company whose charges are reasonable? Or even better another option?

Thanks

[Southwest Dave]

I'm afraid one way drop off charges are the normal, whether built into the price or added at the end. It pays to search around and see what's available for your dates and pick up and drop off locations. They can change daily and last weeks best deal might not be the same as next weeks. All you can do is price compare and check that the price includes everything.

Good luck.

[Lifemagician]

This topic has come up a couple of times recently, and here is what I have read from other posts....

Travellers from Europe often find better deals by going through a local company or consolidator. A search of the forums might help you locate some of them.

One poster recently mentioned that by ringing an agency office at your destination, and asking if they will have any cars which need coming back from the east coast, you may get a better deal. The main points in the post were to be sure that you speak to the actual office of the rental company, and not the freecall central booking number. The other point he made was to be a little flexible in your pick up and drop of locations. e.g. you might find that there is a car in Baltimor or Philidelphia (rather than DC) which needs relocating. Similarly, a rental office near Palm Springs may need a car brought back from the east coast.

It's worth a try.

Lifey

[glc]

A popular European consolidator is carhire3000.com.

[mac]

Hi everyone
I am replying to my own thread here in case it helps somebody else with one way car hire. I have booked and got a great deal with National car rental. The one way charge is $250 which is by far the cheapest. I have looked into lots of different companies, consolidators etc etc and this seems the best deal.

[Midwest Michael]

Thanks for reporting back with what you found. That does seem like a good price for the drop fee.

Of course, with the way rental car fees work, its quite possible for someone elses trip that another company would be cheaper, especially when you factor the entire cost (a $250 drop fee is great, unless you have to pay an extra $1000 for the base rental rate for example). Costs are very fluid in the rental industry, so it always pays to spend a quite a bit of time shopping around as the rates and fees can be very different with only minor changes to the details.