Has anyone booked a car rental through Southwest before? I know airlines don't typically give good rates but I have found some good Southwest deals off their promotions page that also have credits for Rapid Rewards(http://www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards/rr_promotions.html). I am wondering if anyone knows their cancellation policy at all? Is it like with their flights where you can cancel it and at least be able to get credits towards a future use? Or do you lose your money or a % of it?
Also, does anyone know of any hidden fees that you might incur with booking a car rental with Southwest? I'd hate to show up and find out that the price I signed up for is actually way higher than what it was supposed to be. Any info. would be appreciated!
RuckusG said: Has anyone booked a car rental through Southwest before? I know airlines don't typically give good rates but I have found some good Southwest deals off their promotions page that also have credits for Rapid Rewards(http://www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards/rr_promotions.html). I am wondering if anyone knows their cancellation policy at all? Is it like with their flights where you can cancel it and at least be able to get credits towards a future use? Or do you lose your money or a % of it?
Also, does anyone know of any hidden fees that you might incur with booking a car rental with Southwest? I'd hate to show up and find out that the price I signed up for is actually way higher than what it was supposed to be. Any info. would be appreciated!
1) You can sometimes get the best deals from Southwest ... and other times, better deals can be found elsewhere. Always check multiple sites to get the best day. Using the Southwest and Spirit Airlines codes will generally score your a good deal.
2) Generally, unless you use a noncancellable site like Hotwire or Priceline, there are no penalties for canceling a car reservation. As a matter of courtesy, you should always cancel a rservation you will not use.
3) There are generally NO hidden fees in rental cars. There are TONS of taxes and fees that are assessed for everything from stadium construction and rental facility fees and the like (5-30%) but MOST sites are disclosing that at the time of reservation.
Unless something has changed, you do have to prepay for your cars thru SW. It was my understanding that you had 24 hours to cancel and get your $ back if you booked thru their site (which surprisingly showed better prices than using their codes thru another venue, unless there was some info missing of which I was unaware.) They have occasionally had some great deals but I have never followed thru with them because of the prepay. If this has changed, I'd be very interested to know.
OTOH, using the SW code directly with Dollar can sometimes show great deals. Whether you get the extra RR points in that case, I am not sure. Keep us posted!
cire1184
Member
posted: Dec. 16, 2009 @ 1:21p
If I've already got a good reservation through the car rental company itself can I give them my RR number at the counter and they can apply some sort of rewards to it?
I have never been charged in advance for a car rental through Southwest and I have used them dozens of times.
myadvice
Senior Member
posted: Dec. 21, 2009 @ 8:45a
cire1184 said: If I've already got a good reservation through the car rental company itself can I give them my RR number at the counter and they can apply some sort of rewards to it?
Generally yes, but it doesn't always work out that way and sometimes you have to beg to be credited after the fact. Also, be sure to check out the southwest section on flyertalk for current rental car RR promotions. Depending on the company that you are renting from and the type of car you are getting, with the right code, you may be able to get up to 4x the normal 0.5 credit (2.0 RR credit total). Sometimes the extra RR credits come at a greater cost though so they are not always worth it (unless you absolutely need the extra credit to get an award ticket.)
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