Any suggestions for a reasonable One Way Car Rental?

Hello

We are planning a trip for early June (June 4 through June 18). Our plan is to fly to Vegas, stay a few nights and then meander home on a road trip, hitting up some national parks. We live in WI. The car rentals I've checked for this is just CRAZY expensive We'd like either a mini-van or SUV to fit 4 of us and our luggage comfortably. So far, the best price I can find is $1,172 (I have this booked.) with Alamo BUT there's also a charge of 35 cents a mile. That will probably be another $1,000 (at least). I've seen prices at other companies as high as $5,000!!! If my price is the best I can do, then we'll live with it but if anyone has any suggestions I'd be grateful.

TIA!!

I price one-ways freqeuently (in smaller vehicles), I think what you're seeing is not unusual.

See if it might be possible to break the rental into segments. Say, Vegas to Denver, Denver to St. Louis, St. Louis to WI, something like that. The companies may be better setup for that.

For what it's worth, I rented a Mustang from Hertz maybe 3 years ago from Minneapolis to Denver for about $280 for a week, miles included. I also rented a fullsize from National from St. Louis in to Washington DC in 2007 for about $400, miles included.

In my experience, National seems best for long-distance one-way rentals at (relatively) reasonable prices.

Good luck, I think you have a lot of computer time ahead of you.

Ok I don't have a suggestion on one way car rentals. Never have done that but what we do is rent from Alamo and the milage is unlimited. Is it because you are booking one way is why milage is not included? We rent and book our trip in kind of a circle. Like one year we drove from Dallas to Phoenix to Vegas and then drove back through the Grand Canyon Alburqueque, NM and home. We just go one way and come home another and never had to pay that one way drop off fee that seems high. One year we even put 3500 miles on that unlimited milage on the east coast.

I did a last min. one way rental one trip. Was about 500-600 mile distance. Was about $150. HERTZ.

We usually rent from Alamo, too. I can take off a code and get unlimited mileage, but then the price jumps to $4350. I could also rent from Avis with unlimited mileage but the price is about $2200. We tried to figure out a rough estimate of our mileage to see which way would be cheaper and came to the conclusion that it would be just a couple hundred cheaper with our original Alamo reservation, which also includes a free additional driver and full coverage insurance. (We have our own insurance, but hubby likes the idea of using their insurance for such a long trip so it would be less hassle if something happened.)

Anyway, I guess I'll just keep my reservation and keep checking


Thanks for the responses!

Have you thought about reversing the trip by driving a rental to Vegas and flying home? The rates may be different & you miss out on the crazy Vegas taxes

SUV's and minvans tend to be expensive. Would a full size car fit your needs?

Certain times of the year, rental cars move part of their fleet from one geographic area to another and offer incentives for one-way travel.
It's doubtful you would be lucky enough to could score this, but it's always worth checking.

Check into 'moving' a motorhome either way.
often manufacturers are looking to deliver MH from state to state and will give you one just for getting it there in good condition

Re: Have you thought about reversing the trip by driving a rental to Vegas and flying home? The rates may be different & you miss out on the crazy Vegas taxes

We already have our air booked and our vacation days scheduled, so this wouldn't work. Just for fun, though, I checked it out and it wasn't an option.
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Re: Would a full size car fit your needs?

Nope. We'll be gone 2 weeks, will have 6 bags and know we'll have to pay more for a bigger vehicle, but feel it's worth it.
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Re: Certain times of the year, rental cars move part of their fleet from one geographic area to another and offer incentives for one-way travel.

Yeah, I thought about this and checked it out. It doesn't seem to be an option.
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Haven't checked into the motor home/rv idea, yet. I'll see what I can find.

Thank you so much for your advice. I really appreciate it

Check your credit card as another source for insurance, Once you sign up on American Express and use the card for the rental they charge you $24.95 for something like 100k in insurance. The nice thing about it is It's a one time charge for the rental up to 30 days.

Just something you may want to check out.

Mandinga