Best Car Rental Coupon - Free Day or Money Off?

Chantelle asks:

I'm trying to figure out which is the best car rental coupon to use for an upcoming trip I'm planning.

I've got some Entertainment Book coupons for Budget: free day on a weekly rental, $25 off a weekly rental or a free double upgrade coupon. I want to rent a car at the Norfolk Airport on June 19th, around 130pm and return it on June 25th after 5pm (think that makes it 7 days). I'd prefer to have a larger car, as I'll be driving alot. Is it better to use the free day, the $25 off or just book a compact car and get a free upgrade to a fullsize car? Help!

My Response

Let's see if we can figure this out! We'll assume first that all 3 rent a car coupons are available and apply to the dates and city that you want to rent from. Prices can change minute to minute, but based on today, let's check fullsize car rates for your city, dates and times and find the best car rental coupon for that rental:

Starting with the rental car coupon codes (BCD Code for Budget) for an entertainment coupon and a rate example... (I just made this up - you'll have to check rates yourself of course!)

Base rate for 7 days = $179.99 Assuming no options, equipment or coverages, and plus Taxes & surcharges of $52.35

Total = $232.34

The value of rent a car coupons comes off at the end of the rental, after taxes and surcharges are calculated ... so the free day coupon would have a value of $25.71 (179.99/7days) which would give you a total of $206.63 at the end of your rental.

With the $25 off coupon, your total would be $207.34

Now, let's check the rate on the compact car (if you wanted to use your double upgrade coupon):

Base rate for 7 days = $162.89 Assuming no options, equipment or coverages, and plus taxes and surcharges of $48.55

Total = $211.44

As you can see, your best car rental coupon, in this case, would be the free day coupon. (Even if the compact had been cheaper, always keep in mind that most upgrade coupons will say something like "upgrade is subject to availibility at the time of rental" -- the upgrades are not guaranteed -- only use them if you are ok with recieving the smaller car!) If you've got an upgrade coupon and a coupon for money off... to me the money off coupon is always the best car rental coupon of the two!

Hope this helps and have a great trip!

Pages from this site related to this topic:

How to Find Car Rental Discount codes

Finding Rental Car Coupons

Types of Rental Car Discount Coupons

Free Rental Car Coupon Codes

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