Exorbitant price of rental cars in Alaska!

[prish]

We just booked a rental car with Hertz for our pre-cruise land tour, pickup at Anchorage airport and return at Seward. The cost for 9 days is $4500! I knew that it would be expensive but this is absolutely unbelievable!!!

 

Is this the usual price or am I doing something wrong? Any way I can work around to get a better deal?

 

Our itinerary is Anchorage - Denali - Girdwood -Seward. How about if I return the car at Anchorage after Girdwood and take a train/bus to Seward. Then maybe rent for two days in Seward? 

 

Please let me know how you guys go about this, the price is putting my whole costing out of gear. Thanks in advance...😊

Edited December 6, 2018 by prish

[rma2001]

Google around for coupon codes. I am doing 6 days or rental and a car seat, Anchorage to Seward and back to Anchorage for under $600 (Enterprise) with taxes and fees. Second stop in Anchorage is where we are picking up the land tour with Princess up to Denali. 

Edited December 6, 2018 by rma2001

[joyful34]

It's b\c your doing a 1 way car rental. Pick up and drop off at the same location and it will be much more reasonable. We have a car rental for 7 days from Anchorage airport for $634 through Enterprise. Unlimited miles, 2nd driver for free etc. We are using a shuttle service to get to Whittier for our cruise. $60pp for the hour ride south after we drop off the rental car. 

[Northern Aurora]

Irish:  I suspect the cost issue is that Hertz is the only national company with a Seward office.  You need to ask yourself if you really need a car in Seward.  It is a very compact community.  A number of the hotels have shuttles and there is a for-fee shuttle out to Exit Glacier.  The idea of returning the rental back to Anchorage and then taking alternate transportation to Seward will save a bundle.  

[Hitchens97]

Even $600 seems high. I got a full size from Avis (Anch Airport pick up/return) for $285 for 6 days (I expect a week is not much more if not the same) last week of June using my company's discount (which I'm allowed to do for personal). Plenty of discount codes available if you look.

 

 I did try doing a one way drop to Whittier. I was willing to pay the drop fee which was $100 or $150, but interestingly not only was there a drop fee, but the rate went massively up (which I think is a bit bogus), adding $500 on top, so we are just doing the train instead from Anch to Whittier.

Edited December 6, 2018 by Hitchens97

[consmarci]

We are booked in May and for 4 days, it is 294.00 from Anchorage and back to Anchorage with Hertz. Then we will take a shuttle down to Whittier to catch the ship. We booked 3 months ago...now, the price has almost doubled for an SUV. It still seems high, but what can you do? Try Auto slash and see if you can do better....they email me almost daily. 

[prish]

Many thanks to all of you for taking the time to comment. As I suspected it’s the one-way drop off fee and charges which are killing, also the fact that Hertz is the only operator in Seward. Have now decided to do an Anc-Anc rental and go carless in Seward. We can take a taxi to the cruise terminal on the day of embarkation.

 

One more question. Our itinerary is Anc-Denali-Girdwood-Seward. We will need the car in Girdwood, won’t we? So will go back to Anchorage after Girdwood and return the car, then take the train or bus/coach down to Seward. Does this make sense?

 

Thanks again for your suggestions...😊

[AKStafford]

5 hours ago, prish said:

We will need the car in Girdwood, won’t we? So will go back to Anchorage after Girdwood and return the car, then take the train or bus/coach down to Seward. Does this make sense?

 

Thanks again for your suggestions...😊

It may seem like a hassle to go back to Anchorage after Girdwood, but you'll need the car for Girdwood.

[cruisin'mama]

Definitely return the car in Anchorage.  The train ride from Anchorage to Seward is beautiful and highly recommended!  In Seward they have a trolley/shuttle that goes around town. If you're a Costco member, check out their car rental prices.  I got my car rental for about half the price thru them, but YMMV.

[prish]

Yes, we will definitely return the car in Anchorage after Girdwood and take the train down to Seward.

 

cruisin’mama, thanks for the tip about using Costco, will price them too and compare with the others...

Edited December 8, 2018 by prish

[montgomeryfamily]

On 12/6/2018 at 12:26 PM, Hitchens97 said:

Even $600 seems high. I got a full size from Avis (Anch Airport pick up/return) for $285 for 6 days (I expect a week is not much more if not the same) last week of June using my company's discount (which I'm allowed to do for personal). Plenty of discount codes available if you look.

 

 I did try doing a one way drop to Whittier. I was willing to pay the drop fee which was $100 or $150, but interestingly not only was there a drop fee, but the rate went massively up (which I think is a bit bogus), adding $500 on top, so we are just doing the train instead from Anch to Whittier.

I've tried different discount codes for Avis Alaska, including AAA, AARP, and the discount code given to my company by Avis.  None of them worked and I was told by Avis Alaska employees that the Avis Alaska  company didn't give the  same discounts as Avis does for the rest of the country.  I found it interesting that apparently Costco has a discount rate, but there is no Costco in our region of the country.  Can you tell me what other discount codes you found that worked?

 

 

[cruisin'mama]

15 hours ago, prish said:

Yes, we will definitely return the car in Anchorage after Girdwood and take the train down to Seward.

 

cruisin’mama, thanks for the tip about using Costco, will price them too and compare with the others...

Hopefully it's not too late.  I booked my large SUV a couple of month ago through Costco for about $600 and now it's $1500  :0

[Coral]

I did love taking the train from Anchorage to Seward. It is more than the bus but I think worth it.

[wgeo]

I've just booked one day rentals for minivans in Juneau and Skagway - not happy with the price, but can't find any coupons that actually work in Alaska and Costco won't even price those cities for me.

[Bubbs33]

The prices go up with demand and the closer you get to cruise season. I have a booking for Skagway that I booked Aug 2018 for July 2019. The price has since increased 6 fold.  Book early. You can always cancel.

[wgeo]

Seems like if you can book the summer before, when the offices are still open you may get a decent price.  But I tried booking at the end of September and coulnd't get anyone to make a reservation as the offices were all closed for season.  Just finally got them to reserve this week and the prices are higher.  Pretty crazy that you have to book things almost a year in advance to get a decent price.

[SuperCrewBear]

One should check to see if they company they work for  (if they work for large company) has a contract rate with one of the rental companies.  Who I work for does and I've rented in Anchorage with a healthy discount that included included extra drivers plus the extra insurances.  It doesn't matter the time of the year.

[stacyh270]

Have you checked into RV rentals from Anchorage?  We've found that we can rent one for our party of 6 for less expensive than booking a large SUV and paying for lodging, especially since you can pull over about anywhere and sleep if it's in the Park system 🙂 We are doing our land portion pre-cruise and will fly into Anchorage, pick up RV, explore 5-7 days, return RV, transport to Whittier.  

[#1packerfan]

On 12/5/2018 at 7:50 PM, prish said:

We just booked a rental car with Hertz for our pre-cruise land tour, pickup at Anchorage airport and return at Seward. The cost for 9 days is $4500! I knew that it would be expensive but this is absolutely unbelievable!!!

 

Is this the usual price or am I doing something wrong? Any way I can work around to get a better deal?

 

Our itinerary is Anchorage - Denali - Girdwood -Seward. How about if I return the car at Anchorage after Girdwood and take a train/bus to Seward. Then maybe rent for two days in Seward? 

 

Please let me know how you guys go about this, the price is putting my whole costing out of gear. Thanks in advance...😊

Keep watching the prices. We did that same thing this past August/September and only paid $365 for 8 Days!!  We picked it up at the K street location in Anchorage and dropped off in Seward.  It was WAY cheaper to pick up at K street than the airport.  

 

And the Hertz location on K street reimbursed us for our cab from the airport to our hotel and then the hotel to their location which was totally unexpected.  So, maybe look at that option instead.  I think I cancelled and rebooked 3 or 4 times due to price drops.  

 

We had a Toyota, midsize car, very nice and plenty of room for the 2 of us with our luggage.