artnbarb
1000+ Posts
I've spent a lot of time this morning online and on the phone, trying to find the best (of the worst!) car rental rates for our 63 day rental in Sept/Oct. Calling AE resulted in a lower rate than what I was seeing online - the agent said she would see if she could get me a better rate since we were long-time customers. The prices are insane this year, and the smaller (more affordable) cars are going fast. The agent told me they don't have any cars available to lease - what few they had are long gone.
I checked the AE site, both U.S. and Canadian, as well as Kemwell. Even though they're owned by the same people they still use different algorythms and the Kemwel site often has better rates. Today I found that the AE Canadian site had the best rate - partly due to the current value of the Canadian dollar. For a zero deductible, 63 day FCO-FCO rental I had been quoted US$3,978, but the CAN$4253 translated into US$3447 - so I went ahead and booked the zero deductible rate and now we'll have to drive ourselves back and forth between FCO and Umbria. The car is a Fiat Panda (can't wait to get that baby out on the A1!!!). It's in the "economy" category. If you move up ONE car size, to "compact" the price doubles!
We had hoped to rent from the Perugia airport, but the agent explained to me that with the shortage of cars this year the smaller locations are either closed or have very limited inventory. This was going to be the year I spluged and had a driver pick us up in Rome, but now that money's being used for the car rental. You know what they say about the best laid plans!
I checked the AE site, both U.S. and Canadian, as well as Kemwell. Even though they're owned by the same people they still use different algorythms and the Kemwel site often has better rates. Today I found that the AE Canadian site had the best rate - partly due to the current value of the Canadian dollar. For a zero deductible, 63 day FCO-FCO rental I had been quoted US$3,978, but the CAN$4253 translated into US$3447 - so I went ahead and booked the zero deductible rate and now we'll have to drive ourselves back and forth between FCO and Umbria. The car is a Fiat Panda (can't wait to get that baby out on the A1!!!). It's in the "economy" category. If you move up ONE car size, to "compact" the price doubles!
We had hoped to rent from the Perugia airport, but the agent explained to me that with the shortage of cars this year the smaller locations are either closed or have very limited inventory. This was going to be the year I spluged and had a driver pick us up in Rome, but now that money's being used for the car rental. You know what they say about the best laid plans!