Off-Topic

find a USAA member to hook you up with a decent discount.

Oh, this is (imo) a good thing to use credit card rewards on.

This is what we use for work. They are easy to deal with but I don't know how efficient they are cost-wise.

Random: They gave me a brand new 2012 charger with 181 miles on it a few months back... I almost feel bad giving it back to them with over 20,000 miles on it.

Anyone can join USAA to use their "shopping" services for car buying, car rentals, travel insurance, etc...and it is free. Need to provide you ss# though.

If you have a Costco membership, try them. I've always found them to be the cheapest option.

http://www.costcotravel.com/

I've had luck using priceline in the past (select on airport and there is no mystery of where you will get the car), but I haven't used them lately. Kayak is a good start - some of the company sites will have their own 'special deals' that don't show up on Kayak.

If you don't need to pick a car up at the airport, you can avoid some of the 'pay for our stadium' type taxes.

I've seen some decent deals for rental cars on hotwire.com :shrug:

Nevermind, double post.

carrentalsavers.com

Priceline. Put in like half of what it says is the lowest available price for your bid. It's much cheaper than anything else.

Costco definitely has the best prices fro longer rentals. Otherwise it's hard to beat Kayak. Finding the best price is not hard, especially if you're renting from an airport location-I think it's more important to double check with the credit card you're using to make sure they offer insurance on your rentals. This is where you'll save money imo.

Also consider when you'll pick up...if your destination is popular and you're picking up on a Sat or Sunday night, there's a good chance you're not going to get the model you think you're getting. If it's a minivan or SUV, good luck. It's like the Seinfeld episode:

Agent: I'm sorry, we have no mid-size available at the moment.

Jerry: I don't understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?

Agent: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.

Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the
reservation.

Agent: I know why we have reservations.

Jerry: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to
take the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation and
that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody
can just take them.

that's true but that comes with some risks, first of which I don't want any accident while on vacation to hit my record. the ultimate cost could be much greater than the $30/day the rental company is charging you or the lesser cost through your credit card. There are some other costs your auto insurance doesn't cover...think it was loss of use for the car company.