DAILY GETAWAY DEALS - CAR RENTAL

Daily Getaways are brought by American Express in partnership with various Hotels, Car Rentals, Amusement parks and City Pass vendors. There are various points purchase and pass purchase deals which are discounted from 20% to 50% of their actual purchase value. On top of this discount if you make your purchase using American Express Credit Card you get 10% additional discount on the purchase price. The details of the deals are revealed one to two week at a time in advance. This year the Getaways will start on June 10th and the first 2 weeks are already up which you can preview here. My focus of this post is on the car rental deals in Week1 and Week2 which would be a good bargain depending on where you use them. 

Week1 : Alamo Car Rental Certificate of $50 value for $25
The Alamo Car Rental deal on June 11th is good one for your if you typically rent for 2-3 days on average. Since the value can only be applied to BASE Rate and not the entire car rental cost and cannot be combined with any other discounts including the "Alamo Insider" discount, the best bet would be to use them at places where none of the other available discounts work or are not worth. Of course if Alamo is not your preferred car rental company this deal is NOT FOR YOU. One of the best uses of the Alamo Car Rental Certificate is in Alaska and Hawaii where most other discount codes does not work and sometimes does not give significant discounts. Below I have listed some of the "Pros" and "Cons" w.r.t. maximizing the value of this deal.

Pros:

1. There is no expiration date for this certificates
2. You can combine up to 3 certificates for your car rental. Thus you can redeem for $150 in value for $75. (Think Premium Car such as SUV and Convertibles).
3. Single certificate can be redeemed online at Alamo website.
4. Although it mentions limit of 3 per person. You can have 3 more bought by your spouse or friend as rarely the certificate is being verified for the "name of the person" who purchased it.
5. You can still earn airline base miles but cannot use any bonus promotion codes. The good option are Virgin Atlantic (1k miles/ rental) and South West Airlines (600 miles/ rental).
6. There is no black out period for using this certificate.
7. The certificate is a "email code" and thus no need to take care of any physical certificate.

Cons:

1. Can only be used in USA at participating locations only ( in my experience most of the locations are included).
2. The value can be applied only to the BASE rental rate and cannot be use for One way rentals or other additional costs like taxes, fees including airport fees. Also the remaining value gets forfeited so only useful if you BASE rate comes close to $50.
3. Cannot be combined with Any other discount code, including Alamo Insider discounts.

Week2: Avis One day Car Rental for $33
The Avis One day Car Rental on June 21st is good deal if you regularly rent premium cars from Avis. ( of course their service is good and they have good cars on rental). Generally premium cars are sold a good price and so getting such cars at fixed BASE price of $33 is good value in my opinion. Of course the terms of the deal reduces the shiny deal it could be as it is capacity controlled and any location can refuse to allow it to be used on a specific day. You need to pay additional fees, taxes, including additional service such as GPS, car seat etc, which you purchase separately. Also you can use the certificate in Canada, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands. Below are the important "Pros" and "Cons" in my view.

Pros:

1. Can be used in USA (except New York Metro area), Canada, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands.
2. Can be used for Car of your choice. Up to premium (Group G).
3. Can purchase up to 7 per person. 
4. You can still earn airline base miles but probably cannot use any bonus promotion codes. The good option are Virgin Atlantic (1k miles/ rental) and South West Airlines (600 miles/ rental).

Cons:

1. Expires on March 31st, 2014.
2. Lot of restriction's including black out dates.
3. Cannot use for Luxury car rental.
4. Physical certificate and needs to be submitted at the rental counter at the time of rental
5. Only BASE value is covered with the certificate. One way rental's are not permitted.

I personally like Alamo Car Rental deal better than Avis as you can rent the car you like and have lesser restrictions in terms of usage of certificates and black out dates. So what's your take on it? And yes, do not forget to get 10% additional discount by using your AMEX Credit Card.

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