Dave Cortesi
On our latest AZ trip we were, if not exactly
burned by Thrifty Car Rentals, at least lightly
singed by them. We'd used Travelocity months ahead to reserve a "premium" car at a very reasonable $35/day. But when we returned the car the rate had somehow ... swollen ... into a bottom line of $424 for four days. I'm going to break this down and then suggest how to avoid some of it. (And,
please don't be shy about adding your comments at the end!)
The Bill
Here's the bill, slightly expanded from the indecipherable abbreviations of the computer printout, based on the explanation from the nice young man at the counter (large blank space courtesy of Blogger)
| Item | Cost |
| Rental fee $35/day times 4 | $140.00 |
| Loss Damage Waiver $19.99/day | 79.96 |
| Customer Facility Charge $4.50/day | 18.00 |
| "Tripsaver" at $4.99/day | 19.96 |
| State car rental tax | 36.84 |
| State tax 5% | 17.39 |
| County Stadium Tax (3.25%) | 11.62 |
| "CONCRECFEE" aka "CONCFEERECOV" | 32.98 |
| Prepaid fuel | 65.78 |
| Total | 424.00 |
Kind of amazing, huh? And not pleasant to find out that your $35/day car had turned into a $106/day car. Now let's take some of those items in detail.
The Infamous LDW
The Loss Damage Waiver is a special insurance policy that protects the renter from owing the rental car company for lost revenue. Suppose the car is damaged, doesn't matter whose fault. Your own, or the other party's, insurance would kick in to cover the cost of repair. But typical policies do
not reimburse the rental company for the loss of income while the car is off the road being repaired. So in theory at least, they could come after you for the value of the rental for every day it's in the shop.
Or you can kick in $20/day up front and they'll promise not to do that.
I have a query in to our insurance company (CSAA) about whether I needed this. Certainly Thrifty did not explain it up front and I feel I was mislead by a deceptively-worded "explanatory" sign at the counter. Normally I'd decline all coverages; now I'm not sure. But certainly this fee, $20/day, ups the original $35 rate by almost 60%.
Customer Facility Charge
At PHX, you take a shuttle to and from the snazzy new Rental Car Terminal. This fee is what it cost you for those shuttle rides and the privilege of using this fine new building. It does seem strange, however, that it is charged per day of rental. So the longer you stay
away from the rental terminal, the more you pay. I strongly suspect that if you rent your car in downtown Phoenix, you'd avoid this charge.
"Tripsaver"
This is a flat fee to cover roadside assistance in case of a breakdown. It is useless if you have AAA already.
I was fooled into this by that same deceptively-worded sign at the counter. I thought by opting for the "Basic" contract I was declining everything. In fact I was accepting LDW and this. Absolutely needless if you have an AAA card; and in any case, since I didn't know I had it, I wouldn't have known to use it, or how to use it, if I had needed it. Shame on me for being hasty, and on Thrifty for not being more explicit.
State Taxes
AZ apparently levies both a %10 tax and a separate, 5% tax on all car rentals. This is over and above the normal sales tax, which is already included in the $35/day base fee.
County Stadium Tax
The county in which Phoenix is located (Pinal?) is building a stadium and one way they are paying for it is a 3.25% tax on rental cars. All three of these taxes are levied on the
total contract including LDW, Tripsaver, and Facility charge. Sheesh.
The Mystic CONCFEERECOV
I have no idea what this is. It is CONCFEERECOV on the contract, and CONCRECFEE on the bill. Concert fee recovery? Concrete Recreation fee? But it came to 11.11%, effectively another day's charge.
Prepaid Fuel
No problem here; pre-buying the fuel in the tank means you don't have to return the car fueled-up, which is convenient, and the amount charged was at or below the street price for gas.
Bottom Line
Be very, very suspicious of offered rates at PHX. Check with your own insurance company to find out if LDW is a good idea or not. Pick up the car in town if possible to avoid the $18 facility charge.
Be suspicious of offered rates in general. At Travelocity, they claim their "TotalPrice" is guaranteed. That would be a guarantee of the $140 price of my reservation. Oh, well, except, "Charges for optional services, fuel, insurance waivers, etc. are not included." So the Travelocity TotalPrice Guarantee isn't worth very much.
