You are still going to inconvenience someone when you return the car. So I think a better solution is have your sister or a friend of hers or your Dad to pick you up and you pay a big chunk of that $317 to her/him.
Three hundred bucks to rent a car you’re returning after just a day does seem like a lot of money, even if it’s a one-way rental.
500 quatloos says that when you get to the location, there is no car there. Sign on the door that says “Due to staff shortages, this location is closed until tomorrow”
Your analysis looks pretty good to me, the quoted Uber price seems very low. Santa Fe to Albuquerque airport, about 65 miles with a reasonable chance of getting a return trip, is about $130.
If OP can get an Uber to do that trip for anything under $200, that seems like the best option to me.
Seinfeld clip that explains:
“You see, you know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation.”
you beat me to it. I once rented a car at MIA on Hotwire, which told me we had a couple of hours’ wiggle room between when our flight touched down and when the rental location closed. (On-airport rentals at MIA were stupid expensive, but a tax ride away, were much more reasonable.) It would have been an awesome plan if the rental location had actually been open. We ended up taking a very expensive cab ride to FLL< where we found a more reasonable rental (I had booked one there as well as a backup.)
If you go with a third-party agent, definitely double-check all the specifics.
Sometimes this works out well. I reserved and paid for a compact car for a business trip many years ago and they were out of compact cars, and instead gave me a Ford Mustang to drive for a week. It was amazing.
I’m wondering if the issue is that with how much they would have to spend to drag the car back to ATL - money that they would charge YOU that no one took the deal since it would be cheaper for people just to rent and return.
Are you me?
I had an Air Force “business trip” to DC for meetings. I was on the same plane as a LtCol and a young Capt from the same organization I was in, going to DC for their own meetings.
When we landed, I did the customary NCO thing of letting my superiors go ahead of me in line at the rental car counter.
Lieutenant Colonel gets his compact car.
Captain gets his compact car.
I get a Mustang GT convertible because they were out of compact cars.
The Captain stared daggers at me the all the way out to the car lot.
I’m not sure Covid is to blame, but I’m currently battling Thrifty over a bogus “detail charge” that was added to my rental car bill recently. This particular location (and for all I know, it could be a system-wide scam) apparently frequently tacks on a cleaning charge for returns, based on other complaints I’ve heard, regardless of vehicles having had normal usage, i.e. not having been driven through mud or left with filthy interiors.
These days it’s valuable to check reviews not only for rental car companies on a national basis, but for individual locations as well to spot scammers.
Maybe I am, because I was also in DC! Maybe the Mustang upgrade is a DC thing.
I mean, technically I was in Arlington… I was there to provide support to a customer which was the Virginia Mason hospital in Arlington, but in reality I was there to apologize profusely and kiss everyone’s butts and make everyone less mad at our company who had screwed something up. (I have no idea what, I was just the guy they sent to smooth things over with mad customers, which is weird for a tech support guy but whatever, it was a skillet I had apparently.)
Even though the customer was in Arlington, I flew into DC and spent a majority of my time getting lost there. (This was in the days before GPS, and getting around meant figuring out a paper map.)
OK, you aren’t me, since my meetings were at Air Staff offices in Reston. But I bet the rental car place was the same, and maybe the Mustang was too.
If it was silver with black racing stripes…
I suppose the skillet could come in handy if they wouldn’t accept your apology.
@Elendil_s_Heir just above: Bravo! Excellent play.
I mentioned my recent expensive car rental experience upthread.
I left out that two weeks previously I’d reserved an upper-middle range car. For which the website had quoted me an already stupid-big price, but it’s just for one day and I like my snobby comfort and performance.
I get there and darn it all, they’re out of that class. But they’ll be glad to rent me an even higher-class car that’s normally $60/day more for only $30/day more. I had already pissed away a bunch of time in the long line at their understaffed counter, so I grumbled and said “yes” when my real inclination was to say “screw you” and head down the block to Brand X’s lot.
Is this a well-worn scam? One perpetrated at the behest of HQ or at the behest of the local manager? Or just bad luck multiplied by an increasingly flaky uncertain supply of cars? No way to know. This was a major name-brand national agency, just not one I regularly use.
Maybe? But the car rental contract I was apeaking of was negotiated by the Department of Defense, and apparently the terms of that contract prohibited upcharging if the rental agency couldn’t satisfy its obligation to orovide a compact car.
Between and individual and an agency, anything goes, I guess.
From what I recall there was no upcharge, they just gave me the Mustang for the same price and even seem relieved I was okay with it. (My only condition was that it was an automatic transmission, and it was.)
Maybe I should have been suspicious that it was haunted or something but no, it was great to drive. I never understood the appeal of a sports car until I drove one. It’s a completely different experience than anything else.
Isn’t a one-way car rental called… a taxi? If I were in this situation I’d look for cab firms in the vicinity of my destination and call a few of them. You might get lucky and find one that already has a booking from the locality to the airport earlier that day, and would welcome a return fare to near their home location - you might even get it cheap. As for collecting supplies along the way, surely any decent cab driver would agree to do that for a small additional cost? I’d be amazed if it came out at more than a one-way car rental.
I used to drive Uber and Lyft, I’d do it only if you agreed to tip me at least $75 -$100 for gas and my time on the way back to my home base with an empty car. I’m betting that is still much cheaper than a one way rental AND you get door to door service with not having to deal with the rental company hand off (or potential lack of hand off).
Turo, the car equivalent of Air B&B. You can talk, message with the owner. Probably get him to drive there with you and he’d take the car back. Easier for him security-wise and his car is available to rent out the next day too.