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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Tangled Price Web
Cheap Charlie · April 28, 1999

I've just spent a week playing around with the Internet reservation sites of the major car rental companies. Boy, do they make it hard to find bargains.

I'm planning a trip to California in late April, picking up a car in Los Angeles and dropping it off in San Francisco. This seemed to be the perfect way to set up my car rental arrangements.

Wrong. Very wrong.

The rental car sites are straightforward enough and respond well. However, there are specifics that must be included in your reservations in order to get any bargains you may want such as AAA, USAA or AARP.

Now I know that I can get discounts for rental cars by joining these organizations, but heck if I know what the proper AWD# or CD# or PC# or BCD# might be for any of them. Believe me, you will need that information when you go into the Web sites to make a reservation if you are expecting a discount.

I would outline the numbers here, but found that it is not so simple as getting the basic AAA discount code -- there are lots of codes that vary based on with which AAA organization you have registered. USAA or AARP may be simpler, but I'll dig out those codes later and get them to you next week.

None of the Web sites allow for easy comparison of differing discounts. No Web site lists all any of the discount codes that I could find. Customers will have to put in a reservation for the same car repeatedly to check out how different discount codes affect your rate. This is cumbersome and time-consuming to say the least.

Here is the lowdown on what you will need to get a discount from each of the major rental car companies. All reservations were for pickup on 30 April in LAX (Los Angeles) and drop-off on 5 may in SFO (San Francisco). I have also noted what each company quoted for the non-discounted rate from the Web site. Note the variance:

-- Avis at http://www.avis.com quoted a rate of $167.99. For a discount you will need to know AWD# or rate codes for any discount you may have coming to you.

-- Hertz Rent a Car at http://www.hertz.com quoted $207.99.Hertz needs a PC# for any discounts.

-- Dollar Rent a Car at http://www.dollarcar.com was the least expensive with a rate of $22.99 a day. They require a CD# or Promo code for any discounts.

-- Budget Rent a Car at http://www.budgetrentacar.com ended up costing $289 for that period. They required a BCD# for their discounts.

-- National Rent a Car at http://www.nationalcar.com came up with a rate of $176. They needed a contract ID in order to allow any discount.

-- Finally Thrifty Rent a Car at http://www.thrifty.com noted that they offer no one-way rentals.

Good luck. This is a good lesson that cheap isn't always easy.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at cheapch@aol.com or access his Web site.