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Reader Kristin writes:

My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to Alaska this summer and realized we’d save a lot of money in our travels by renting a car once we get there (the Alaska railroad is *expensive*). The only problem is that we will both be under the age of 25 when we’re there (he’ll be 24, I’ll be 23) and every rental car agency I can find would charge us a huge daily fee. We both have impeccable driving records (not even so much as a parking ticket between us), good car insurance, and AAA. Is there anything we could do to get around this fee, or any company out there that trusts us under 25s?

This is a tough one. For the most part, rental car companies aren’t very flexible with the surcharges for under-25 renters, unless you’re renting your car as a government employee. You can be the greatest driver in the world, but that’s not going to matter here. Your age means higher rates. Sorry.

There are some minor exceptions, so it’s important to shop around. But don’t get your hopes up.

Check the local rules. Most national chains, perhaps with a whiff of irony, will charge $25 per day for an under-25 renter. But those policies are national guidelines, not hard-and-fast rules. Many local outlets of major chains will charge less than the maximum. Others, such as those in New York, will charge more. For example, a quick search shows me that National Car Rental charges only $10 per day surcharge at its Anchorage Airport location. It’s still a fee, but it’s less than they could charge, and less than their peers are charging.

Try mom-and-pop shops. Another option is to call (instead of surfing the web) to contact smaller, local providers. Find them in the yellow pages (or an online directory) and then work the phones. These shops might not rent the newest or nicest vehicles — ten years ago, I rented a crappy little Ford Fiesta for a few days from a no-name local rental company on Kodiak Island. But these local companies may be more forgiving with the under-25 requirement. This may take some legwork, but it could save you a bundle. Mentioning your clean driving record might have more influence on a family-owned one-shop rental joint than on a global corporation’s local representative or franchisee.

Work your memberships. Finally, if you’re a member of any organization that has a group discount code with a car rental company, see if you can use that affiliation to waive the surcharge. It depends on the terms of the umbrella agreement that the association negotiated. Again, you might need to use the phone to get the straight story. I get little cards for car rental discounts from my insurance company (USAA), my credit union, my alumni association, professional associations, and even my gas bill. Check your member benefits, and see if something works. You may need to show a member card when you show up at the rental counter.

If you reserve via the web, print copies of everything, including the general rental policies. Many rental chains won’t give you the under-25 surcharge up front, but will bury it in their FAQs. Look carefully, and print a record of it.

Also, print a copy of your personal auto insurance policy and take it with you when you travel. Having proof of insurance could assuage a nervous rental agent.

Bottom line: When it comes to car rentals, being under 25 stinks. You’ll need to work harder to get a deal, if you get one at all. But if it’s any consolation, you still have your youth.

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It’s not just belligerent passengers who made headlines in the last week — and there were several of those, each impressive in their own awful way.

Passengers urinating on each other, drunkenly assaulting pilots, and smoking in the lavatory before letting their fists fly.

But pilots are getting in on the action too, with stories and behavior fit for the Jerry Springer Show.

To wit:

• An American Airlines pilot was acquitted of charges of attempting to fly a plane while drunk. A British jury believed his defense: sleepdrinking.
• A Virgin Atlantic pilot was similarly let off the hook, after accusations of drunken aviation, though the culprit in his case was his diet. His body was producing high levels of acetone, which was mistaken for alcohol. (Anyone know which diet produces sniffable levels of acetone?!)
• Finally, a Northwest pilot was removed from duty after swearing repeatedly, first on his cellphone, and then later at passengers, dropping F-bombs left and right. Adding insult to injury, the flight from Las Vegas to Detroit was canceled, leaving 180 people looking for alternate flights or last-minute (and unwanted) overnight lodging.

Perhaps the last pilot was upset at the recent FCC ruling that keeps cellphones turned off on planes?

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Mileage and point addicts, rejoice! There’s a great new site to add to your toolbox.

PointMaven launched recently, designed to help travelers find the best point-earning offers for hotel stays. It’s the sister site of MileMaven, which has a similar mission for airline frequent flyer miles.

(I’ve mentioned MileMaven before in passing, and I’ve had it in my Useful Tools pulldown menu at right for some time, but I just realized I had not ever given it the attention it deserves.)

Both sites effectively start their search with a similar question: Where are you going?

The service providers who get you there or take care of you at your destination are, perhaps ironically, of secondary importance in the phrasing of your search.

If you’re not handcuffed to a specific brand, either by corporate contract or a preponderance of loyalty points, and if you’re a member of multiple loyalty programs, then these sites are for you.

For PointMaven, enter a city or airport code, and a “map” of the different hotel chains’ point offers appears. Hovering over each box will bring up information about specific properties, promos, etc. Clicking through gives you details of the bonuses, and lets you book your room accordingly. (Some bonus offers require registration, or are targeted but a subset of the chain’s clientele.)

For MileMaven, enter the cities you are traveling between. A grid of airlines and their point offers appears. You may need to register for some offers, and some offers are targeted.

What the sites don’t do is give you the rates or fares up front. But that’s okay. It’s not their mission. Points first, prices later.

Two readers wrote in regarding late returns and grace periods when renting a car. Reader Francine writes:

When I rented a car from National recently, there was no grace period for late returns. None! Is this the latest way they get you?

And reader Peter offers this story, and advice, from his recent rental with Budget Rent-a-Car in Montreal:

I was late getting out of Vermont and late getting the car back to the airport. When I arrived I discovered that I had signed a contract that stipulated $33.xx CAD/hour for being late on a $55/day rental. Further, since I was 2hrs 15 minutes late they claimed I was 3 hours late (the grace period disappeared) and they charged me for another DAY, stating it would cost me less than 3 hours of the late charge.

I haven’t had any luck getting Budget to discuss this with me. If you rent from anyone be clear at pickup 1) what constitutes late and 2) what it costs when you are.

Indeed, grace periods are no longer a given when it comes to late returns. Hertz cut their grace period in half a year ago, and others soon followed suit. Nowadays, you really need to know what you’re signing (and initialing).

In Peter’s case, I see only one possible “violation” here on the part of the company: The forfeit of the grace period. But even then, if he returned the car two hours late (instead of three), he’s better off paying a full day extra, rather than two hours’ overtime. It sucks, but those are the terms.

With contracts like this, if you signed for it, you’re on the hook. These hourly rates are one of the items you’re often asked to initial.

Not all companies are the same, though: Late-return policies vary by chain, with some chains offering no grace periods whatsoever.

Perhaps even more importantly, some companies reserve the right to retroactively change your rate to a higher level — for the duration of the entire rental — if you return the car late. If anything, Peter was lucky they didn’t change his rate for the earlier days as well!

The policies of each major U.S. chain, with key points highlighted, after the jump:
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Following up on yesterday’s French rail speed record, reader Randy offers this challenge:

That’s a fast train, but is it too fast to surf it?

Huh? That’s right: trainsurfing. Extreme transportation!

Check out this video of a kid who rides caboose on an ICE high-speed train in Germany. He actually rides on the sloped back of the train as it speeds along. (Cheesy soundtrack, but quite a video.)

Madness!

(Thanks to reader Randy!)

The SNCF, France’s national rail company, set the record for the fastest steel-wheel train (i.e., not magnetic-levitation train) in the world, with a high speed of 574.8 kilometers per hour (357 mph). Quite a way to break in the new Paris-Strasbourg line!

Watching this, I’m struck by the excitement of the French announcers as they give the play-by-play of a train zipping through the countryside.

I’m also impressed by the closeup of the train’s wheels on the rails. So smooth and straight. Then I think of poor, pathetic, underfunded, unloved Amtrak. Or worse, the Chicago Transit Authority’s blue line, as it chugs along to O’Hare, shaking back and forth on its rickety tracks. Sigh. American rail is hardly a source of national pride.

It would be great to have a rail alternative for short- to medium-length flights. With speeds like the new TGV, rail service would be a viable alternative between American cities, but, regrettably, I just don’t see it ever happening here.

Click to view the video. (en francais) They hit the record speed in the last minute of the tape or so.

Your newspaper smells delicious, did you stay at an Omni?
Hotels’ “scent programs” and aromatherapy trends may have just jumped the shark. In a cross-promotional marketers’ fantasy come true, Omni Hotels have started slapping berry-scented stickers advertising Starbucks muffins on copies of USA Today. And the Wall Street Journal is considering adding scents to their advertising pages. Hopefully these odors won’t interfere with the whiff of lemongrass and green tea that’s being pumped into lobby spaces at the chain. What’s next, pay-per-view Smellovision?

Predict the next threat? A TSA-inspired contest
Bruce Schneier is running a contest to conceive of an absurd, fictional terrorist plot that would cause the TSA to start banning yet another product from airports. The more ludicrous the product, yet oddly plausible the threat, the better. Why? “The purpose of this contest is absurd humor, but I hope it also makes a point. Terrorism is a real threat, but we’re not any safer through security measures that require us to correctly guess what the terrorists are going to do next.” Partially-digested food, tooth-fillings, and zippers are front-runners in my book.

Enterprise Rent-a-Car buys Alamo and National
Enterprise is buying Vanguard Car Rental, the parent company of Alamo and National. The combined company would have over a million cars on its lots. Will rentals at Enterprise become more automated, like at Alamo/National? Will Alamo/National start doing the long walkarounds, hard-sells on CDWs, and secretly-negotiable rates?

Wi-fly
After the shutdown of Boeing’s Connexion satellite-based inflight internet service, other companies have been slow to start up service, which was promised nearly a year ago. Scott McCartney checks in with possible providers, and we’re still not there. But it’s coming “early next year.” And rest assured, Skype calls won’t go through. They’ll be blocked, so your fears of cellphone conversations can be kept at bay. Onboard wi-fi — which is already approved for service by both the FCC and FAA — will cost around $10 per day, and packages that link with existing services like T-Mobile HotSpot, Boingo, and iPass will be available. No word on which airlines will be the first to bite.

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A common question from readers of this blog is point conversion. How do you convert points from one airline to another? ATA and Southwest just made it a little easier.

In most cases, point conversion is a losing proposition, if it’s possible at all. (Try moving miles out of your Delta account! I dare you!)

As I’ve posted before, you’ll almost always lose points in a transfer, either through a clearinghouse like Points.com, or by moving balances from one account to another to another to another. (See Webflyer’s conversion guide to see what sort of hopscotch your points would need to play.)

So having an option for easy transfer is good news for ATA’s customers. The airline already works closely with Southwest by codesharing. Now, ATA customers can cash in 7,250 Travel Awards Points for 16 Southwest Rapid Rewards credits, which equates to one Southwest Airlines roundtrip. No partial conversions.

But is it a good deal? A roundtrip on ATA costs only 6,000 points.

In contrast, Southwest Rapid Rewards customers have been able to cash in their points on ATA for some time, at the same rate (16 credits) as redeeming points for an all-Southwest trip. (Flights to Hawaii cost double.)

So ATA customers are being charged a 20.83% premium. For that premium, they’re freeing their points from capacity controls — the “limited seats available” jargon which most airlines use for their frequent flyer programs, but which Southwest eschews. For some folks, that premium may still be worth paying.

Related:
- Reader mail: Can I transfer points from one airline to another?

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