Car Rental

[love2fly]

Hello,

I am a new member.

A group of 7 of us will be flying to Las Vegas on July 30th, 2009. We plan to explore Vegas via walking or public transportation most of the time, and will then rent a minivan on Aug 3rd noontime to drive to Los Angeles. We will return the car on Aug 8th noontime and fly out.

Does anyone know if it would be possible to pick up the car from the airport a few days AFTER the arrival date, or would we have to do so at a city location? thanks.

[bbbb]

You can pick up the car on any day you have a reservation. It does not matter if you have a flight that day or not. But hotels in Vegas do not charge for parking and you are going to pay about $20 X 2 each way, to and from the airport. The reason it will be times two is because cabs will only haul 4-5 people max and that is the vans. So it might be cheaper in the long run to just get the car when you get there.

[thereuare]

You can pick up the car on any day you have a reservation.

The post above is correct, but just to clarify the section i quote to avoid any potential confusion (not likely but just dotting the i's and crossing the t's)... while you don't need to have a flight the day you begin your rental, you do have to pick up the car on the first day of your rental reservation. I don't want the above to be interpretted that if you have a car reservation for a week that you can pick up the car on the 2nd, 3rd, etc day of the rental.

So in sum: You don't need to have an arriving flight to rent a car from an airport location, but you do need to pick up the car on the first day of your reservation.

bbbb's point regarding transportation cost is also a factor to take into consideration, and the cost of the minivan will help you make the most cost effective option vs. convenience. If you do choose to pick up the rental after your arrival, you can just take one person (or up to 4) take the taxi back to the airport, pick up the rental car, then drive to the hotel to pick up the others. This can be time consuming as it requires you to 'backtrack' to the hotel, but if money is more important than time, this is at least an option.

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[szymon]

Another option is to pick up in town and return at the airport.

For example Budget.com wants $368 for a pickup/return at the airport of a minivan for your dates.

The same minivan is $360 when picked up at the Stratosphere and returned to the airport.

Szymon