Picking up a car at the Vancouver Port Canada Place.

Think I may have booked the wrong place. On Costco I see one opens at 8am and one opens at 10am.......

I wanted to just walk off with bags and jump in a car and head to Oregon........I seemed to have booked the one that said it opens at 10am............Are these 2 different places with the same address or what?

Vancouver Cruise Ship Location Hours 08:00 AM - Noon

Vancouver Cruise Ship

999 Canada Pl

Vancouver, BC V6C3E1, CA

Vancouver Pan Pacific Location Hours 10:00 AM - 02:00 PM

Vancouver Pan Pacific

999 Canada Pl

Vancouver, BC V6C3B5, CA

They each have different V6's numbers? So what gives?

Jimbo:)

V6 is the beginning of the postal code, like the zip code in US , all addresses have a unique postal code. Pan Pacific is the hotel closest to the port. Few minute walk and I think even an elevator to the hotel from the port. I believe either one will work for you

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So is there 2 different Alamo Counters? Really wanted to be off the ship by 8am and on our way to Oregon. Didn't see that one said Cruise ship and other say Pan Pacific.......I'm worried now if we get there at 8am and we are sitting around waiting for them to open at 10am..........

If I rebook now using the 8am place the price of the rental goes way up?

Not sure what to do now????

Jimbo:)

They're physically at the same location (Canada Place). In cruise season there's a non-hotel desk, but all year round there's one inside the hotel. The hotel hours may look short right now because it's still off-season. You want to book the one that's going to be open when you need it of course, but since it's an Oregon trip be sure to read the small print (Costco do at least list the restrictions up-front). We've looked into one-way drops of a rental from here to Portland several times (we always compare flights for vacations from PDX, SEA, and YVR) and even within the same rental brand sometimes the notes are different - Costco shouldn't show you a rental at all if they won't let you drive into OR, but there may be a charge per km once you cross the WA/OR border so be careful!

Also, the convenience of the pier is great, but don't blind yourself to other offices. ALL major rental companies have a pickup downtown, and anywhere downtown is within a very reasonable walk/very short cab ride from the pier. Some are just a couple of blocks away inside neighbouring hotels like the Pacific Rim, so go with whomever is cheapest unless you are brand-loyal - and even then, compare pricing of other downtown offices... this is where Costco's Only-Show-Four-Locations restriction becomes a little annoying, and why I always check Kayak first for ALL locations, downtown and airport, then once I figure out the best office for me I open up Costco to see if the pricing is better.

Yes, there is two Alamo desks in the same building.... One is at cruise ship level and the second desk is at street level. Both dispatch vehicles from the same fleet.

BTW.... National and Alamo are served by the same staff at the desks.

Costco shouldn't show you a rental at all if they won't let you drive into OR, but there may be a charge per km once you cross the WA/OR border so be careful!

How do the rental agencies know how many miles you drive in Oregon to charge you extra? What if you want to take a trip to Multnomah Falls on the way home. I have a one way rental from Vancouver to San Francisco later this month. My contract says free unlimited miles:).

This rental is for June 4th 8am to June 6th 8am. Canada Place to PDX.. looking for a (standard )large car.............You would think that would be well within when the Alaska cruise starts right? Why wouldn't the rental at street level be open earlier since a cruise ship is in town arriving and departing that day?

Right now I'm booked at $250 US Dollar

I guess I can give them a call once they open up later this morning and see what they say before making any changes.

Jimbo:)

How do the rental agencies know how many miles you drive in Oregon to charge you extra? What if you want to take a trip to Multnomah Falls on the way home. I have a one way rental from Vancouver to San Francisco later this month. My contract says free unlimited miles:).

GPS tracking. If you have truly unlimited miles, you're fine, but otherwise you'd be charged for each klick outside the free area (I've seen free miles restricted to BC & WA, BC & AB, BC/WA/OR/CA, All of Canada, Canada plus Border States).

This rental is for June 4th 8am to June 6th 8am. Canada Place to PDX.. looking for a (standard )large car.............You would think that would be well within when the Alaska cruise starts right? Why wouldn't the rental at street level be open earlier since a cruise ship is in town arriving and departing that day?

 

Right now I'm booked at $250 US Dollar

 

I guess I can give them a call once they open up later this morning and see what they say before making any changes.

 

Jimbo:)

Can't help you with the (in)sanity of rental car marketing I'm afraid! If you booked it at those times, it will be with the desk that's open at 8am - Costco won't let you book a pickup at a time the office isn't open. For what it's worth, US$250 isn't a bad rate for a 48hr one-way to PDX - I've never seen it any lower than CAD$300 all-in for a one day, which meant it's never been worthwhile for us to rent a car rather than take the train if we don't want to leave our own car down in Portland.

Cheapest way to do it is to split the rental - YVR to SEA you can usually find some great deals for a same day drop (NB: check downtown offices and Seatac) and SEA-PDX rentals also tend to offer much keener pricing than from Vancouver. Whether it's worth the hassle of the time swapping cars to save cash is up to you - but someone not that long ago was looking at a similar trip and ended up paying less than US$100 for a 2 day SEA-PDX rental, so you could potentially save up to a hundred bucks total spend...

Just called Alamo itself, didn't bother to call either of the desks up in Vancouver and they modified the reservation for me. Costing me an extra $ 10 US Dollars. I can live with that to get it corrected now and not have an issue when getting off the ship.

This says I have unlimited miles too, so I don't think I will have a problem entering Oregon.

Pick-upSun, Jun 04, 2017 08:00 AM

Vancouver Cruise Ship999 Canada Pl

Vancouver, BC V6C3E1

CanadaHours of Operation:Mon - Fri08:00AM - 12:00PMSat08:00AM - 12:00PMSun08:00AM - 12:00PMPhone: (604)683-4357How to find us

ReturnTue, Jun 06, 2017 08:00 AMPortland Intl Arpt (PDX)9115 NE Airport Way

Portland, OR 97220

USHours of Operation:Mon - Fri12:00AM - 01:30AM04:00AM - 11:59PMSat12:00AM - 01:30AM04:00AM - 11:59PMSun12:00AM - 01:30AM04:00AM - 11:59PMPhone: (844)366-0497How to find us

Car SummaryFull SizeChevrolet Malibu or similarCruise ControlPower WindowsAutomatic TransmissionAir ConditioningTilt Steering WheelAM/FM Stereo and CDPower Door Locks

Rates, Taxes and FeesMore AbPout Rates, Taxes and Fees.

Rental Rate

• 2 Day(s) at 171.00 / Day(s)
  

• $342.00
  

Extras

• Additional Driver
  

• INCLUDED
  

Mileage

• UNLIMITED KILOMETERS
  

• INCLUDED
  

Fees

• Premium Location Charge
  

• $5.00
  

• Prov Vehicle Rental Tax $1.50/day
  

• $3.00
  

• Vlf Rec .90/day
  

• $1.80
  

• Provincial Sales Tax (7.0%)
  

• $21.54
  

• Goods And Services Tax (5.0%)
  

• $15.54
  

SavingsYour Total Savings-$41.04

This says I have unlimited miles too

Even better - you have unlimited KILOMETERS! So you get 1.6x as many for the same price;-)

This early in the season it's likely you'll be in a Canadian spec car, so remember the speedo is in km/hr too, so unless you have a GPS to convert units it's the secondary, harder-to-see numbers you need to be paying attention to for most of your trip.

GPS tracking. If you have truly unlimited miles, you're fine, but otherwise you'd be charged for each klick outside the free area (I've seen free miles restricted to BC & WA, BC & AB, BC/WA/OR/CA, All of Canada, Canada plus Border States).

Are you sure that all Canadian car rental agencies rent cars under the same parameters? And what is the difference between an American car and a Canadian car.:confused:. And another question, are you telling me that all car rentals are now equipped with GPS or just Canadian cars? Sounds expensive.

How many times have you had extra charges when renting a car from Canada to the USA to say that there could be extra costs? I want to learn to avoid these costs. After all this is the first for me.. Booked my car 3 months out for $80 a day for two days. That rate is now doubled:D.

• A US vehicle will more likely get broken in in Canada
  
• A Canadian vehicle will more likely get broken into in the USA. It's also metric.
  

Are you sure that all Canadian car rental agencies rent cars under the same parameters?

 

No - they don't, which is exactly the point I was making above. You need to read the small-print to ensure that an offer of 'unlimited miles' actually applies to YOUR route.

 

And what is the difference between an American car and a Canadian car.:confused:.

 

Different specs - sometimes minimal (always at the very least French manual, primary speedo reading in km/h with secondary in mph rather than the other way around) but sometimes we get different engines and combinations of features (e.g. SMART4TWO diesel engine didn't meet Canadian emissions specs when first sold, so rather than retool it just for our tiny market they simply only sold petrol engine variants).

 

And another question, are you telling me that all car rentals are now equipped with GPS or just Canadian cars? Sounds expensive.

Considering they start at about $20, it's a negligible cost to begin with compared to the price of a car; catch one cheater who drives outside their allowed area and it's paid for itself; finding stolen cars is also easier which cuts back on insurance costs. You can even get one yourself free if you sign up with the right insurance company - lots of them advertise 'get paid for where and how you actually drive' policies with discounts for driver who meet 'good driver' criteria of average acceleration/braking/speed factors. Whether they ALL have them as standard I couldn't say, but it's the most practical way to actually prove where someone has driven the car, so any franchise that does have restrictions by locale on which states you can drive free in either installs one or has to trust their customers not to cheat - there aren't enough toll roads around in most places to catch cheaters that way, even if you ignore the cost of paying staff to check such things.

 

 

How many times have you had extra charges when renting a car from Canada to the USA to say that there could be extra costs?

 

Never had charges - because I read the small print! But on average every time I've costed a rental from Costco or Kayak, I'd say that about 1 in 4 of the rental options I look at have restrictions about where you can drive the cars or where you can use your unlimited miles, so if I'd rented one of those without checking the small-print I'd have incurred fees.

 

 

I want to learn to avoid these costs. After all this is the first for me.. Booked my car 3 months out for $80 a day for two days. That rate is now doubled:D.

$80 a day for a one-way to SF sounds like a very good deal - provided you do have unlimited miles and there isn't a hefty drop fee on top (i.e.it's $80 per day including all fees & taxes). While no rental agency should have allowed you to rent a car that isn't allowed to drive between the pickup and destination points you entered, or the most direct (by state/province) route between them, it's quite possible to get restrictions of 'only BC/WA/OR/CA' for unlimited miles (so you could drive to Multnomah Falls - which is gorgeous, and don't forget Vista House on top of the escarpment - just for the price of your gas but would have to pay extra for deciding to pop across to Reno NV for an evening's gambling).

$80 a day for a one-way to SF sounds like a very good deal - provided you do have unlimited miles and there isn't a hefty drop fee on top (i.e.it's $80 per day including all fees & taxes). While no rental agency should have allowed you to rent a car that isn't allowed to drive between the pickup and destination points you entered, or the most direct (by state/province) route between them, it's quite possible to get restrictions of 'only BC/WA/OR/CA' for unlimited miles (so you could drive to Multnomah Falls - which is gorgeous, and don't forget Vista House on top of the escarpment - just for the price of your gas but would have to pay extra for deciding to pop across to Reno NV for an evening's gambling).

I got out my magnifying glass and I think I am good. It did say if my billing address is New York there would be an additional $9 charge. I live in CA. I booked my rental through Priceline.

How does the Alamo work at the Cruiseship Terminal Vancouver when picking up your car ?.................Is there a way to save time and "Skip the Counter" like you can do in most US Airports, walk directly to the parking lot and pick out a car or is there a different procedure as to how it is done?

Jimbo :)

How does the Alamo work at the Cruiseship Terminal Vancouver when picking up your car ?.................Is there a way to save time and "Skip the Counter" like you can do in most US Airports, walk directly to the parking lot and pick out a car or is there a different procedure as to how it is done?

 

Jimbo :)

I guess no one has used Alamo from the Cruiseship desk...Interesting?

Jimbo:)

I used Alamo, but that was prior to the skip the counter service. As the cruise terminal fleet is so small... that option may not be available.

Perhaps the only thing I would have done differently when I debarked at 9:15 is to check the counter one floor up had a shorter line. Then again the vehicle keys were at the cruise level desk.

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I guess no one has used Alamo from the Cruiseship desk...Interesting?

 

 

Jimbo:)

You'll have to wait for more fellow-tourists to respond on questions specific to how they run the desks/fleet at the pier Jimbo - since I can walk home from the pier I've never needed to actually pick up a car there. Every time I've rented a car I've always gotten the best price at non-pier locations.

What level is he cruise ship Alamo counter at when getting off the ship. An upper level or at ground(street level)?

Jimbo:)

It is the CS level when coming off the ship.

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Are you sure that all Canadian car rental agencies rent cars under the same parameters? And what is the difference between an American car and a Canadian car.:confused:. And another question, are you telling me that all car rentals are now equipped with GPS or just Canadian cars? Sounds expensive.

How many times have you had extra charges when renting a car from Canada to the USA to say that there could be extra costs? I want to learn to avoid these costs. After all this is the first for me.. Booked my car 3 months out for $80 a day for two days. That rate is now doubled:D.

the difference is in the marketing as they come from the same plants. cars are sold for less in Canada because it is a poorer country which is why it is so difficult for Americans to buy Canadian cars.

I just got back from my Alaskan cruise that included a car rental from Canada Place. I used Alamo and they are located on the same floor you exit from the terminal. Car was located two levels down in the garage. Just use the elevator and customer service helps you find your car. One way rental from Vancouver to San Francisco. Two days. With extra driver taxes and fees my total $191 CAD. They even gave me a car with California plates. I bet Alamo has been trying to get rid of this car since they couldn't use it in Canada with US plates.:D

We rented a car at the terminal and drove it to Seattle a couple years ago. The only downside was that the line took at least a couple of hours. Part of the reason was there was two (or maybe even three) ships arriving at the same time, and only one person at the counter for much of the time.

Hopefully that was just an abnormality, but just beware...

(And the border crossing was really slow too... Barely made our 5pm flight out of Seattle!)

Confused about the speedometer. All of our cars either have both km/m on the dial or there's a button to switch the computer screen.

But do know which country you're in so you know which to look at. ;)

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