For my upcoming Las Vegas trip, I booked a two-day rental from Budget at $65.64. That was the lowest price I saw, thanks to Autoslash.
As mentioned in another blog, I rebooked my return flight to save miles on Southwest. This caused my rental-car dropoff time to be later and went outside of the two-day original rental.
My original rental was pick up at 11 a.m. (10:30 flight arrival) and drop off at 9:30 a.m. (noon flight departure). My new departure time is 2:30 p.m.
I figured I could stretch the pickup to noon (and maybe do a little airport slot hustling) and make my drop off at 12 noon as well. There is a 29-minute grace period with Budget as well.
When you book through Autoslash, they use Priceline to manage the actual booking. So first I contacted Autoslash and they said they couldn’t make any changes. Then I contacted Priceline and they told me the same thing. If I rebooked the reservation through Autoslash, the rate was now $77.
Finally, I called Budget directly (the rental company I had chosen). After a four-minute wait, I was connected and Budget had no issues with changing the pickup and dropoff times.
If you use Autoslash, once you make the reservation, you cannot modify it. The same with Priceline. The pleasant surprise what that the rental car company itself was so accommodating.
I criticize rental car companies a lot (and rightfully so). In this case, I’m giving Budget the praise that it’s due.