How have you gotten cheap car rentals from IAH?

[lovebug33]

I have gotten two one way rentals for not too good of a deal. Then, I got the Costco coupon book and they want 400 dollars for a week car rental! I have heard of people getting the whole week for 150 bucks or so. How did you do it?

[srselby]

Check out enterprise. Last time we cruised we got a one way for 25 bucks. Same for this time for our cruise in Sept

[munchkin4]

Our rental from Enterprise was from Houston Hobby and we are traveling in mid-September. The total cost was about $150 from Saturday to Friday. I booked on their website and we did use AARP discount. Oh, and that was for a full-size car not an economy.

[lovebug33]

I'm still trying to figure out how you got that deal, munchkin. When I call, I get 400 bucks, still. I guess it has to be the time of year. And, I know why I can't get 25 bucks at Enterprise because they are closed on Sundays. This is very frustrating. I don't think we will ever sail out of Galveston again because of this issue. If we had known how bad it was, we would have sailed out of Florida.

[munchkin4]

Has to be the time of year. I went in to the website and "pretended" to book one for June and the price nearly doubled. Still wasn't $400, though. Have you tried the website instead of calling? Maybe part of it is an internet discount. There are several alternatives. We were going to use Galveston Limousine. Found their info on galveston.com along with a couple of others options. Good Luck!!

[lovebug33]

We need a car because we can't stay in Galveston (two night minimums for 180 a night :eek: ) and we don't want to get to the airport at 12:00 in the afternoon because our flight doesn't leave until 7:00. I got a better deal on line, but the prices on the phone were for the Costco discount, which is really interesting. We are just going to have to stick to our lousy deal with the two one ways and deal with all the hassle that creates. Yuck!

[inotdown]

I have gotten two one way rentals for not too good of a deal. Then, I got the Costco coupon book and they want 400 dollars for a week car rental! I have heard of people getting the whole week for 150 bucks or so. How did you do it?

 

there are sites that will tell you how to do it. do a search on fatwallet or slickdeals and you can read up on some of the car rental discounts out there. 400 is steep. What type of car are you looking for? I come no where near 400 and that is with NO discounts whatsoever. With discounts (found on the sites i named i am looking now at 149-189 for the entire week!

[lovebug33]

Just an economy/compact. Did your 149-189 include all of the fees? That is what we are coming up against. It is another 100 or so bucks for fees! The 400 bucks was with the Costco discount, so I'm thinking they jack up the prices then give you the discount because that is ridiculous. When I brought that up to the people, they weren't able to give me an answer. I'll look at those websites, though. They might help.

[blyle]

try booking away from the airport and taking a taxi there. There are many rental sites all over. Most fees happen at the airport only.

[munchkin4]

I just looked at our confirmation to make sure and the full size car was $109.25 from Sept. 20 - 26. Add on all taxes etc. and the total was $152.56 and that included an AARP discount. We will also pay $35 for parking at the Lighthouse. I booked directly from the Enterprise website. We also needed a car vs. limo service as we are staying an extra night. So sorry you are not finding good deals. We were lucky. Unfortunately, Galveston is what is easiest for us to sail from due to time and distance. Keep looking. I hope you have better luck. If I come up with any other ideas, I'll let you know.

[inotdown]

Just an economy/compact. Did your 149-189 include all of the fees? That is what we are coming up against. It is another 100 or so bucks for fees! The 400 bucks was with the Costco discount, so I'm thinking they jack up the prices then give you the discount because that is ridiculous. When I brought that up to the people, they weren't able to give me an answer. I'll look at those websites, though. They might help.

 

Yes it included all fees and taxes. There are alot of codes out there and it may take some time but they are out there. Again, check F A T W A L L E T DOT COM and S L I C K D E A L S DOT NET. There are some great posts on getting different preferred memberships and discounts. Read the entire posts and you will find something. A good measuring stick is to do your search on K A Y A K DOT COM as well. They display the rental information in different formats and you can get a guestimate on how much it is going to cost. Keep in mind that the K A Y A K quotes are all without discount codes so if you can find a quote and add a discount code or coupon then you should find significant savings. Good luck.

[RHefley228]

1. Join every car rental program (they're free): Avis Wizard, etc.

2. Check Expedia and Travelocity to see who has the cheapest rates through them.

3. Go back to 1 and check those websites signing in as a member of their programs.

4. Try going through the website of the airline you're flying in on.

5. Try HotWire to see if you can beat the cheapest quotes you found in 3 & 4.

6. Book your best deal and remember that you can probably decline the insurance coverage the car rental companies want you to take. (Check with your credit card company and your own auto insurance company to make sure you're covered through one or both of them.)

[rallygnome]

I rented a car from Thrifty Car Rental and it was about $130 for the week. Sign up to be a member and get the Wild Card Deal. You get at least a mid sized car. I did this in Las Vegas and had a really nice mid sized car. Thrifty has always been good. Just make sure you sign up for the free membership so you don't have to wait in line. One more thing. One way rentals are always more expensive. Just book it for the week and stay somewhere with free parking. Even if you pay to park at the pier, it is still cheaper than the one way charge.