One of the standard perks of any club, school or affinity group is a discount code you can use on rental cars. The problem is there are thousands of these codes and it's time-consuming to determine what, exactly, the discount is. For example, suppose you priced rental cars with Hertz, one of the biggest and most reputable in the industry. The other big rental agencies -- Avis, Alamo, Budget -- have similar schemes, though Hertz best illustrates this point: The whole affinity club discount code concept is silly.
The rate for a Ford Focus picked up on Friday, 9/17/2004, 10 a.m., and returned on Sunday, 9/20/2004, 4pm, at Seattle-Tacoma Intergalactic Airport, using different organizations is as follows:
I should probably point out that I don't actually belong to all of these groups, but that doesn't seem to be a requirement for getting the super special rate! Comparing eighteen combinations took me about ten minutes once I poised my fingers on Alt-back arrow.
You can see there are essentially three price bands for the same vehicle, location, time and company. I don't have time to do the same exercise with another agency or car or time or location combination, but I'd be willing to bet its results would have bands, too.
Before doing this, if I had to guess, I would have pegged AARP and AAA as the best discounts.
Organization Code Rate Readers of www.jimcarson.com 252 $22.49 Airplane Owner and Pilots Association 10232 $22.49 Costco 336436 $22.49 AAA Missouri 11845 $22.49 Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons 50075 $22.49 National Education Association 50655 $23.48 American Academy of Audiology 1299750 $23.48 National Association of Broadcasters 036477 $23.48 American Pool Players Association 166708 $23.48 Massachusetts Bar Association 7483 $23.48 Divers Alert Network 422420 $23.48 Actors' Equity association 0011891 $23.48 Oral Roberts University 1479651 $23.48 KQED 1042505 $23.48 Academy of Television Arts and Sciences 1141604 $23.48 Marine Technology Society 1420844 $23.48 Australian Vetrinary Association 101902 $24.99 No discount! n/a $24.99
| The results were actually more confusing. Hertz's web site has a box labeled "Quote me the Program my Company has negotiated." If I ticked that, American Pool Players were charged $59.40, Audiology and AARP $56.10, and AAA same rate as normal. I didn't investigate the others, nor are the results included above because ticking the box never resulted in better rates. Confused? So was I. |
You can see there are essentially three price bands for the same vehicle, location, time and company. I don't have time to do the same exercise with another agency or car or time or location combination, but I'd be willing to bet its results would have bands, too.
Before doing this, if I had to guess, I would have pegged AARP and AAA as the best discounts.
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