When I’m unimpressed by the regular retail car rental rates, and can’t get Priceline or Hotwire to make me a deal I can brag about, I check the Euro-centric rental car consolidators — even for rentals in the U.S. (See here for an earlier post on this trick.) I’ve been a fan of sites like AutoEurope, even for non-European rentals, for fallback situations.

So I was interested, at first, when I learned that AutoEurope would start offering vacation packages, in addition to car rentals.

I had never really thought about this before, but car rental companies don’t really sell vacation packages. Airlines and hotels do, of course, and agencies have long offered them, of course, but since rental cars have always been an afterthought — after the flight and hotel, at least — the rental agencies haven’t really pushed the vacation package angle from their own sites.

And to be fair, even with this announcement by AutoEurope (a consolidator), the car rental firms — the ones handing over the keys — are still not in the package game.

But my interest in combining a discounted car rental with a discounted hotel room was quickly quashed when I saw how the site actually works. For starters, you can’t search for packages up front. You search for a car, and then they offer a hotel as an upsell. Lame.

But even worse, since offering packages, some rental rates aren’t even bookable anymore. For example, I searched for an upcoming trip to Atlanta, to test-drive the feature. A car rate (and not even a great rate…) popped up, with caveats:

Of the two search results, both featured the caveat. Car-only wasn’t even an option.

I thought it was a fluke. Then I ran other searches — different dates, different cities, “any class” car … it happened every time, for every car. Lame, lame, lame.

Why not let the consumer choose to just rent a car?

Sorry, AutoEurope, but what could have been an upgrade is a serious downgrade instead.

Reader Chris forwards us the confirmation e-mail he received for a car rental at the Abu Dhabi airport, booked on Orbitz. I’m not sure which amuses me most: the base rate, or the extra-hour charge.

Makes the drop charge look like a great deal!

——————————-

Car Information
Trip Name: Abu Dhabi 06/23/10
Driver: ****************
Rental car company: Budget
Confirmation number: (redacted)
Car type: Midsize Sport
Pick-up date: Wed, Jun 23, 2010 9:00 AM GST
Drop-off date: Fri, Jun 25, 2010 7:00 PM GST
Pick-up location:
Budget
Arrivals Hall Terminal 1
Dubai
UE

Drop-off location: Abu Dhabi International Airport
Abu Dhabi
AE

Base rate $29,999.97
Taxes and fees $27.00
DROP CHARGE @ 27.00 USD
________________________________________
Total car rental estimate $30,026.90 USD*
Amount paid at reservation $0.00 USD
Amount due upon rental $30,026.90 USD
Base rate and taxes and fees
Unless otherwise specified, all costs are provided in US dollars.
* This amount is based on information available at the time of reservation.
Mileage and rates**
Unlimited
Daily base rate: $9,999.99*
extra hour: $3,333.34
extra day: $9,999.99
Minimum rental: 3 days
Maximum rental: 4 days

Thanks, Chris!

Chicago O’Hare is expanding. And if you’re renting a car at O’Hare in August and beyond, you’ll be paying for it.

[Chicago's city council] today approved without dissent a measure backed by Mayor Richard Daley to charge [at least $8 more per day] on rentals at O’Hare to cover the cost of a consolidated rental-car center needed to accommodate two new runways that are to be built as part of the O’Hare Modernization Plan.

City Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino said earlier this week that the fee will likely be around $8 each day on cars rented at O’Hare, but said she could seek to raise it considerably if the cost of the rental facility ends up being higher than anticipated.

The new fee, which should be in place by August, would go on top of an existing $2.75 flat fee and an 8 percent tax on O’Hare rentals.

How might this look? Here’s a sample rental today, before the fee kicks in. You’ll see the current $2.75 flat fee and the 8% tax in there, but obviously no $8 fee (yet):

This is a rental with National, on a base rate of $42.90, fyi.

Adding $8 to that menu would make the total fees $20.32 on a $42.90 base rental, or 47.3% in taxes and mandatory fees.

But hold on, there’s more… This comment from the city’s aviation commissioner, which partially justifies the fee: “The per-day rental fee at LAX airport in Los Angeles is $18.”

Why, if LAX charges $18 on top of their other fees, then Chicago charging $8 would be a veritable bargain! Except that LAX doesn’t charge $18 a day.

Here, see for yourself. Same car rental company, same car class, same base rate of $42.90 a day, but at LAX:

I don’t see an $18 charge in there. I see a bunch of charges, yes, including a $10 charge. And these fees are steep — 49.1% of the base rate, to be precise. But if Chicago is going to point to LAX as an example of high fees, they should try to be more honest about it.

All the attention has been on the Continental-United merger, but that’s not the only M&A action in the travel space. To wit:

• Hertz made an offer to buy Dollar/Thrifty for $41/share. Avis subsequently signaled interest in making a higher bid. Bottom line: The car rental market is about to shrink.
• Google is reportedly in talks to buy ITA Software, which provides much of the functionality for sites like Orbitz, Kayak, TripAdvisor Flights, and others. You can’t just google a ticket today, but you may do so soon.

The battle for Dollar/Thrifty between Hertz and Avis is largely about consolidation and elimination of the competition (much like the “Continited” merger). At the same time, buying Dollar/Thrifty would give Hertz or Avis a larger presence in the comparatively “downmarket” leisure travel segment.

The speculated deal for ITA Software is perhaps more interesting. What will Google do if it gains the technology and software engineering human resources to run better fare searches? Will they offer a search-of-searches, pushing traffic to airlines and online travel agencies, but putting Kayak and their metasearch ilk out of business? Will Google challenge Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, et al. themselves and build a Google travel agency? Will Google continue to sell the powerful ITA engine (which ITA lets anyone test drive on their beta site — login as guest) or will they let contracts expire and keep the technology for itself? Plenty of theories, but no answers.

So in the past week, the competitive landscapes for flying, driving, and booking travel have all potentially changed, with minimal visible benefits to the consumer. After all, less competition breeds higher prices.

All we’re missing is a hotel deal and a cruise line merger, and we’ll be all set. (The week is young.)

Reader Thomas writes:

I rented a car with Alamo last week. My scheduled pickup time was 2:00pm. My flight didn’t get in until 3:30, and I picked up the car around 4:00. When I returned the car three days later (at 3:00pm) they charged me for an extra hour’s rental. And that one hour cost more than the daily rate.

I complained that I hadn’t actually picked up the car until 4pm, so it was less than 3x 24-hours, so why were they charging me for 3 days plus one hour? They insisted that the reservation started at 2:00 pm. What gives?

This issue has come up before, in a discussion of the decline of grace periods from a few years back. There was one comment in particular, from a reader named Jason, which is particularly prescient, and bears repeating:

A little tip for renters from someone who’s been on both sides of the rental counter. Make sure the rental agent updates your pickup time if you arrive after your scheduled pick up time (i.e. scheduled to pick up at 2pm and you don’t arrive until 3pm). If you arrive early, the computers will likely set your pickup time to the actual time you pickup the car, but if you arrive late it’s up to you and/or the agent to update your pickup time. This little trick has caught a lot of renters who return at the same time they picked up the car, but still get the late fees.

There you have it. Once you drive it off the lot, the timestamp on the contract is the time that counts. So be sure to verify that the time is the time you actually rent.

(Of course, with some companies, you can be handed a contract but still wait… and wait… and wait for the car… If that happens, let the exit gate agent to mark and initial the contract with the accurate time, as a last resort, if you can’t get it updated in the computer.)

As an added heads-up from Jason’s comment, advice for tail end of the rental:

One other nasty suprise of Alamo, if you return the car more than 24 hours early you may be subject to a $15 early return fee. It’s stupid, but it’s on the contract the renter has to initial. Don’t try to argue with the agent, we couldn’t take it off and we never could figure out why it only appeared on some rentals and not others.

Forewarned is forearmed: Watch the clock, and watch your contract.

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Upgraded: Wine you can bring onboard a flight
It’s not the original intent of winemakers, and I’m sure the airline industry doesn’t advocate this, but 50ml wine sample bottles may soon be put into regular production. 50ml? 50ml is certainly below the TSA’s 100ml cutoff…

Downgraded: Continental exit row seats
Starting March 17, exit row seats will cost you extra money, unless you’re a Continental OnePass elite member. (United elites get it for free eventually, too, but not yet.) No big surprise, given the industry as a whole. But as David Jonas argues, this is actually a meaningful shift by Continental, whose management had been more resistant than other airlines’ leadership to charge fees for things that were previously free.

Downgraded: Luggage scanning at Denver
For a few days, thousands of checked bags were not scanned by TSA at Denver. No further comment.

Upgraded: All-you-can-drive toll payments for Bay Area rental cars
If you’re renting a car in the Bay Area from Dollar or Thrifty, you’ll be able to buy a “Pass 24″ add-on for $9.95 per day or $39.95 per week (5-7 days) that includes unlimited use of all tolls in the region. The service is run by Rent-a-Toll. I guess it’s a deal if you’re crossing a lot of bridges. Just be sure to use the FasTrak lanes.

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