<p>Have been debating flying vs. driving for Bama Bound. Rental car price is holding me back from flying. Lease expensive I’ve found is $119 for 2 days and a few hours (which I know is 3 days, but I’m not going to sit in the airport for 4 hours to save $40).</p>
<p>Any local tips to share or just keep watching the deals as they come up? Wish I knew how high gas prices will be by the end of May.</p>
<p>where are you coming from</p>
<p>I’ve looked all over and my results are the same as yours - rental cars seem to cost a fortune in Birmingham. The problem I’m seeing is that the usual discounts I get are on weekend or full week rentals, and Bama Bound is just a couple weekdays, so you end up paying the “business traveler” rate (minus their corporate discounts). We’re definitely flying (flights are booked!) so I’ll watch this thread with interest.</p>
<p>That is also the price I got for our visit April 10-12th. I’m thinking about renting a van to drive D to UA in August and then flying home. I wonder how much that will cost me?</p>
<p>You may want to try Hotwire.com, which gives a good discount, but requires that you prepay and it is nonrefundable. I just checked for May 4 (6:00 pm) - May 6 (noon), and can get a Ford Escape for $106 (what I would want for moving our son’s stuff to storage), or a compact car for $41.75, which is pretty cheap.</p>
<p>Coming from Chicago, going to 2nd session. If gas is $4 a gallon, it will cost me $320 to drive. That’s about $50 less than tickets to fly (although I will use points, but could use those points for a different visit) but still need to add in airport parking, rental car, etc. </p>
<p>@linnylu - you will probably get hosed on a rate if you want a one-way rental. Better to go round trip or ship your stuff. Has anyone ever looked into using PODS? I have no idea what that would cost and would never use it, but it might be an option for those who have to fly.</p>
<p>I have found the best rental car discounts through my car insurance company, which also comes with insurance for the car. Looking at the receipt from Capstone Scholars Day, we rented a luxury for the price of a premium, 2 days for a total of $78 plus tax. </p>
<p>You might check the website for your car insurance provider.</p>
<p>Linnylu, you might look at UHaul for that type of thing. They are more accommodating of one-ways, and have small trucks.</p>
<p>linnylu quote:</p>
<h1>That is also the price I got for our visit April 10-12th. I’m thinking about renting a van to drive D to UA in August and then flying home. I wonder how much that will cost me?</h1>
<p>That would cost an arm and a leg. One way rentals to other states have a large extra charge (when the other state isn’t very closeby). A UHaul truck would be better. Or, just packing/sending stuff may cost about the same.</p>
<p>When D1 moved to NOLA, we shipped boxes Fedex and then flew down. We had ordered all her stuff at BBB and picked up there with our rental car. Each shipped box was 20 bucks or so. Very easy. I think this is the best way to go if you cant drive your own vehicle down there. We are planning on driving down from IL but purchasing the majority of stuff from local stores once we arrive.</p>
<p>We are renting a car in B’ham next Friday for Greek Preview weekend…then heading over to Atlanta to play tourist for a few days. My rental car is costing $490 for 5 days because of the one way!! If we returned it to B’ham it would be less than $200.</p>
<p>I would imagine the one way from Chicago area would be an even higher penalty.</p>
<p>Figured Birmingham and Atlanta were pretty close so I did not anticipate such a huge penalty.</p>
<p>I am just debating flying for Bama Bound. I know we’ll drive for move in.</p>
<p>Have you checked to see if membership in AAA would save you $ on the rental car?</p>
<p>Is there any real reason for all of us to get our own rental cars in B’ham…then have them virtually sit at UA for 2 days…and pay a fortune? If you can coordinate w/ others flying in for the same bama session as you are (kids/parents can do this coordinating through FB, RMF, or CC posts), I should think that there would be many people willing to share rides (and get to know each other!). My $30 a day rental on Hotwire (a van!) is just going to sit there in the parking lot at UA since I’m staying in the dorm, and don’t even need it to get from hotel to campus, or even to dinner, as I plan on walking everywhere w/ other parents. Go green: share a ride! :)</p>
<p>Found out about the one-way rental thing the hard way when we flew down for UFE weekend. Our flight was canceled to BHM so our option was Montgomery or the following morning to BHM. We could keep our BHM return but the car rental was astronomical. </p>
<p>My options:
Fly into Montgomery, drive to Ttown
Return to BHM, fly home = $ 378 for less than 48 hours rental</p>
<p>Fly to Montgomery, drive to Ttown
Return to Montgomery, fly home =$75 for less than 48 hours rental</p>
<p>Fly into BHM, drive to Ttown (this was the original plan but airline canceled flight 20 minutes before departure. I still get flustered just thinking about it)
return to BHM, fly home= $ 48 for less than 48 hours rental</p>
<p>I guess that it’s important to note that the $48 was prepaid (mid-size)and the rental company would NOT refund payment. Be careful about penalty for prepay. I had no options to fly into BHM where the prepay auto was located. </p>
<p>I was irate because the airline was like, oh well, your problem. </p>
<p>One last thing, if you ever happen to have the joy of flying to Montgomery (sarcasm at it’s finest), beware of the car rental options. There are 3 companies. Hertz, Enterprise and some other one.
*Hertz will run a credit check (pre-rental) and hold $300 authorization for 10 days after your rental is returned. This was because my bank MC had the word “debit” on it…what?!
*Enterprise had steeper prices but much less of a hassle.
*The third company had a minimum of $ 300 rental charge for any reason. It’s “policy.”</p>
<p>WE survived the disastrous air travel/rental fiasco for UFE weekend now we’re barely surviving the selection notification.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about Birmingham, but I flew into Huntsville (much cheaper for us than Birmingham) during my visit and the car rental prices dropped drastically 2 weeks before our trip. Schedule a rental now, but keep checking back to see if prices change as you get closer to the date.</p>
<p>Researching rates for the May 29-30 Bama Bound (pickup on the 28th, so a 3 day rental), I was able to price out a midsize car for $75.60, taxes and fees included, for the the entire trip using Entertainment Book* coupons and corporate codes through National. Since BHM has Emerald Aisle service, one can join National’s Emerald Club for free, walk directly to the garage, and pick out any car in the Emerald Aisle section, which are usually full size cars and sometimes premium vehicles, minivans, crossovers, and midsize SUVs. In the past, National has even let me choose a crimson colored Chevy Impala with an Alabama plate (try to get a vehicle with an Alabama license plate to look less like a tourist) even though it was not on the Emerald Aisle and is a full size car.</p>
<p>*Entertainment Books can often be had for $20 or less and include lots of coupons. You can also see if a friend who has the book is willing to give you their coupons. Using other Entertainment book coupons, one could rent a minivan for $98.22. Similar rates should be available for other Bama Bound sessions.</p>
<p>Rental car companies with the same corporate parent usually share the same rental car fleet at BHM. National/Alamo/Enterprise seem to charge the least amount of taxes and fees (8% sales tax and an 11.11% concession recovery charge), while the other companies add additional surcharges.</p>
<p>As a general rule, pay with a credit card to avoid any holds and take advantage of the card benefits that include some rental car insurance. The rental car companies will ask if you want additional insurance or to prepay gas; you can decline these options. There is a BP station located a block behind the two Shell stations at the BHM airport exit that is usually 20 cents cheaper per gallon.</p>
<p>SEA_tide - Thanks, I will try another round of coupons/corporate codes after work. I don’t have my entertainment book handy. If you have time, can you try the same code combo using arrival 5/30 at noon and dropping off 6/1 at 4.</p>
<p>I used autoslash for my car rental last month. The website monitors car prices and rebooks as prices drop.</p>
<p>I tried everything - autoslash, carrentals, flyertalk, slickdeals, fatwallet, etc etc
The entertainment book was far less - by at least $40. Thanks SEA tide for the tip.</p>