Cheap Car Rental: Tips to Rent a Car On a Budget

For those road warriors who handle their own car rentals...

Tom Parsons is one of the more experienced business travel writers today. He runs the informative [http://www.bestfares.com] site. He tells travelers how to get the best car rental deals. Here are a few of his tips:

– Before traveling, check the Internet to find any special or limited time offers such as deeply discounted rates, free upgrades or free added days.

– Find out if your frequent flyer discounts apply anywhere. If you don’t, “you can end up spending as much as 50 percent more than you have to pay,” he says, since all major car rental companies except Enterprise and National — which follow a strategy of lower base and promotional rates — offer these discounts. Ask for the frequent flyer rate when you call for a car.

– Membership in organizations such as Best Fares Discount Travel Magazine, the American Automobile Association (AAA) and other auto clubs, the American Association of Retired Persons, the Small Business Association and even the American Red Cross offer discounts.

– The Sunday travel sections of major newspapers provide discount information on car rentals, fly/drive packages and other specials that can lower your car rental rate, Parsons says. “Scan them carefully — a hotel or airline ad also may contain a car rental discount offer.

– “Fly/Drive packages,” and car rental/hotel packages — both new to the United States — can provide excellent savings for leisure and business travelers. In this case your car rental discount comes from the volume business that the air carrier or charter company provides the car rental company.

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