<p>Does anyone know any rental car company that allows you to pick up and drop off the cars at different spots without high penalties?</p>
<p>We researched this for a trip in August, but it does seem to be a lot more expensive to do it one way, even with unlimited mileage than to drop off in same city.
We researched Hertz & Enterprise.</p>
<p>Google cheapest one way car rentals and you start digging</p>
<p>Have used Hertz in our one-way rentals. What helps shave off a little money is if you use the one-way rental for the shortest possible time period & then return the car & have a 2nd rental at the target city (or even 3 rentals–one in originating city, one for the one-way rental & one in the target city). The price per day in a r/t rentals is MUCH, MUCH lower.</p>
<p>Never thought of that HImom, thanks.
:)</p>
<p>I was surprised to find that picking up a car at an airport location, and returning it to a city location in the same town, incurred a drop-off fee. They consider that a one-way rental.</p>
<p>Very annoying…</p>
<p>ZipCar.</p>
<p>Sent from my MB865 using CC</p>
<p>For us sometimes, it has been convenient to rent at the airport & return at the hotel we’re staying at or a nearby hotel. When you weigh in the convenience/inconvience, it can be good to avoid the daily parking rates, especially in places that have good transit. When we flew into Denver, we got a great rate & it was cheaper & easier for us to rent for 1/2 day than catching transit from the airport to hotel. :)</p>
<p>Hertz generally doesn’t charge “one way rates” but has higher rates overall to compensate. Some rental companies have very low rates but then tack on a one-way charge. Check the total prices so you know exactly what you’ll be paying. Consider the convenience/hassle of shuttling cars as well.</p>
<p>We also found Hertz to have the best one way rate. We were also surprised that it is cheaper to rent directly from car companies rather than Expedia or even Hotwire.</p>
<p>If you will be doing a “significant” amount of rentals, it may be worthwhile to get a Hertz Gold membership (our AAA gave us one for free) so that you will get points that will work toward rentals and/or other benefits. Just something to consider. 
They can accummulate quite quickly–our S has used them for free car rentals when his car was broken & he was trying to decide what he wanted to buy next.</p>
<p>That is not surprising. Rental car companies pay a commission to the likes of Expedia and Hotwire. By and large that commission is passed along in the form of higher rates than booking direct. </p>
<p>OP, try National. As I recall their one-way rates are not as high as others.</p>
<p>Actually it is very surprising because I could often find cheaper rates for hotels, same rate for air by going through online travel sites. I have asked hotels to honor the same rate or cheaper rate than travel sites, and they have told me no.</p>
<p>I think the rate depends a lot on the destination…if you want to go the opposite of where everyone else wants to go, the rate is great.</p>
<p>I have rented cars one way at times, and costs vary widely. If you can somehow intuit what the rental company wants or needs it can be a good deal, like taking cars out of Phx to go north at the end of the spring tourist season. There is also some mysterious difference between leased locations for a company and main locations for a company. </p>
<p>When my S was going to Pitt, I used to get a one way from Pitt airport to Northern Illinois to get his stuff home. Rentals in IL were hundreds of dollars cheaper for a one way than going an hour N to our home in WI, and this was with Hertz. One way in the NW from Portland to Seattle was not to bad, but Bellingham to Seattle, very expensive. That main site/leased location thing again. </p>
<p>Budget has often been good to me with one way rentals. I very often pick up in a city and drop off at the airport for an additional $10 or so with various companies. This has saved me hundreds in Phx. and Denver, where the airport taxes are out of sight expensive.</p>
<p>I have found the best rates by far through Costco.com. I have not done a 1-way rental through them so you would have to check it. I used to get great rates by bidding on Priceline, but don’t seem to get any good deals there anymore.</p>
<p>
I do this all the time including from one major city to another that’s about 120 miles away. I never pay a one-way charge. This has been through Avis. I’ve used it as transportation to the airport - sometimes in the city 120 miles away and there’s no dropoff charge and it’s cheaper and more convenient than an airport shuttle or parking in the lot.</p>
<p>Just don’t assume anything on one-way rentals and be sure to check with them if you plan to do it. You might want to call the specific rental car outlet and ask them. Maybe they have some cars they’d like to move back west, east, north, or south and won’t charge the drop-off fee if you’re going in the right direction.</p>
<p>S1 did it recently. He didn’t mention the cost. He gets a military discount though.</p>
<p>We did speak with rental agent once on a one-way rental. He promised to give us a price break and just charge us one extra hour even though we could keep the car for as long as we wanted until he returned to work the next morning & we weren’t POSITIVE we’d be able to get to his hotel to return the car before the rental office oficially closed. We returned the car before checking into the hotel (where we were staying & Hertz had a little office) and thereby avoided parking charges. </p>
<p>Another time, because they wanted to have a van driven back from Seattle to LA, they gave us the minivan for the price of a compact–which was great for the kids who were still moving their gear around. It made the long road trip MUCH more spacious & comfortable as well. :)</p>
<p>This is just picking up a car in San Francisco, but dropping it 4 days later at the Oakland airport. Sounds simple enough, but makes the daily fee basically double :-(. My plan B is to send DH on BART over to Oakland to pick up the car.</p>
<p>Still looking…I get 25% off at Hertz, but they start out more expensive so not sure I’m gaining anything. Somewhere I have an entertainment book…maybe that will help.</p>
<p>We have used HImom’s trick of short one-way rental, followed by a local rental once we got there. </p>
<p>There was one mad-dash summer involving two funerals during vacation time that involved several different cities and Hertz cars. For the long Ohio/NY one-way leg, DH paid a few extra dollars for a Cadillac and ended up being so comfy that he completed the trip without the anticipated overnight stop.</p>