Alamo car rental - Costco - Nice savings for this scenario.

My family is headed off to Minneapolis on September 1st, so I decided to start shopping for rental cars today. By doing a general search it looked like Alamo was going to be the most competitive among the major car rental companies.

My wife and I have one son so I wanted to try and get a standard size (Pontiac G6 or similar) as opposed to a midsize (Pontiac G5 or similar, and much smaller and less comfortable in my opinion). The major break point with the car rental companies is upgrading from a midsize to the larger standard size. The difference in price for our stay from September 1st (4:30 pm) through September 5th (11:00 am) was significant. Actually over double the price.

• Midsize - $76.00 for our rental period (without taxes etc)

• Standard - $161.72 for our rental period (without taxes etc)

Solution:

1. Go to the Costco travel site here: Costco Travel Site
2. Click on the "cars" tab on the top left of the page.
3. Cick on the Alamo rental car picture in the middle of the page.
4. Click on the tab "Alamo Rental Car Save Up To 25% Plus Receive A One Class Car Upgrade"
5. Click the red "Click to Book" icon in the top right corner of site.
6 Click on the midsize car to get the free upgrade to standard size in addition to some other savings.

Total saved in my case:

A little over $93.00 (all fees included) for our stay as opposed to $219.40 (all fees included) . So a savings to me of about $126.40 (well over 50%) Not too bad.

I am a Costco member but wasn't prompted to enter my Costco number when making the reservation. So if you're not a member this may or may not work.

I realize this deal isn't for everyone,and it will not help much if you already needed a larger car than a standard size to begin with. However, if you just want to make the jump from a very small car to something a little bigger and comfortable this is the deal for you. I hope this helps some people out

Cheers!

Also I believe you get the second driver fee waived if you are a Costco member.

Thank you, but Priceline came back at $249.00 (as opposed to the $93.00 i'm paying). So in my case anyway, this is still a great value.

Oops, I didn't name my own price, but they would still have to beat $13.00 a day for a standard car. I don't think that is going to happen as when I went to bid they said $33.00 a day would give me a great chance and $32.00 a day would give me a good chance.

This is FYI only.

I just rented from Alamo, Ontario, CA airport location two weekends ago. I had a reservation at Enterprise too.

I reserved for a Full Size car. When I went to Enterprise, their version of the Full Size car was (I forget the name) but was slightly smaller than an Altima. I looked at the guy and thought he was joking! Nope. I left and went to Alamo.

Alamo also offered similar. These car rental agencies are now playing with the size of the cars. So you may have a Full Size, but don't expect a Camry size. Their standard size car was a Corolla! I don't know about you, but a Corolla would be considered a small size car to me!

So check with them before you are happy with the size you got! (ha..pun intended I guess! haha).

Just tried for a long weekend out of Miami airport in late October - came up ~$250, not much of a deal at all.

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The costco contract ID gives some pretty good rates. There is a double upgrade coupon out there that you can combine.

A lot of hertz local locations will pick you up or pay for a taxi too

ezwrighter said: austin3119 said: Thank you, but Priceline came back at $249.00 (as opposed to the $93.00 i'm paying). So in my case anyway, this is still a great value.

Oops, I didn't name my own price, but they would still have to beat $13.00 a day for a standard car. I don't think that is going to happen as when I went to bid they said $33.00 a day would give me a great chance and $32.00 a day would give me a good chance.

You would be surprised...just bid your trip at $10/day for standard car. If Priceline rejects, you lose nothing. If they accept, you just saved yourself some money! The only exception I have found with this is if the coupon you are using has extra drivers on it and you really need that feature...the car rental companies charge a stupid amount per day for letting another person drive, when it really makes ZERO difference since the renter is responsible for any damage or issues with the car.

Keep in mind that all rental car companies are not alike. My last Priceline bid was for Hertz, which was a myserable experience - long time at the airport, all kinds of upsell pressure (larger vehicle, additional driver, claims that my class of vehicle was at another lot), extra scrutiny for damage at return - and they do not allow the use of #1 Club for Priceline rentals. While it may mean paying a little more, Alamo's kiosk avoids the rental counter entirely, making it a quick, hassle free experience.

Thanks a lot OP! Good reminder! Costco Travel quite often seems to slip from my mind.

Just made a reservation for the long weekend and the price is better than anything I could find elsewhere. I'm still bidding on Priceline but so far my bids have been rejected.

I also noticed that my Costco Travel reservation included an additional driver. Very nice perk! I don't know if this is something Alamo does automatically or it is a part of the Costco deal.

i was looking for a deal and found that for my 4 days rental i can get better deal using the 25% off plus $20 off 3 days with saturday night stay. the upgrade deal turns out to be more expensive (for getting the same class) in my scenario. so you may have to play around to figure which offer is best for you. surprisingly i find that additional driver is already included, which is awesome. at the end of the reservation i was simply given the page of confirmation but nowhere during the process it asked for credit card so i assume all businesses will be concluded on the premise later then.

wildviper said: This is FYI only.


Alamo also offered similar. These car rental agencies are now playing with the size of the cars. So you may have a Full Size, but don't expect a Camry size. Their standard size car was a Corolla! I don't know about you, but a Corolla would be considered a small size car to me!

National is doing this also, last rental was "full size - Pontiac G6 or equivalent". When I got to the counter they asked if I would like to upgrade to a premium which would be a G6... It took some arguing about full vs premium, then in the end they gave me a Yukon for $4 a day upgrade.