Car rental blues?
Posted on June 26th, 2009 – 3:46 PMBy jbuchta
A story from the New York Times this week reported a dramatic increase in the cost of rental car rates at a time when other parts of the travel industry are offering big discounts to encourage people to get out of the house and hit the road. In fact, Michelle Higgins of the NYT’s said that the average rate for a weekly airport rental of a compact car booked seven days in advance was up 73 percent compared with the same month last year, in large part because car rental companies are reducing the size of their fleets. Are you paying more to rent a car? Are you finding any deals out there? Share your suggestions for saving money on car rental with other readers.
- Jim Buchta
One response to "Car rental blues?"
I use Priceline to rent a car a couple of times a year out of Midway airport in Chicago. I’ve always gotten my car for $25 per day on this site. No luck this year. The published rate for July is $129 per day. Priceline suggests a winning bid should start at $59. Airfare to get to Midway in the first place is down 50% from last summer.
Kerri Westenberg has globe-trotted for National Geographic and other magazines. Now she zips around the region, on the lookout for travel news you can use.
Elizabeth Larsen lived in Salzburg, Austria, and has traveled throughout Europe and the Americas. She can say "diaper," "bottle" and "crib" in four languages.
Troy Melhus has heli-skied on glaciers, dived alongside Monk seals and raced for 24 hours on a mountain bike. All this, and he rarely spends more than $500 on a trip.
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