Looking for advice on 1-way car rental (or any car rental)

[dreamshark]

 Our scary trip to The Keys is coming up in TWO WEEKS and I am still dithering about car rental. Haven't rented a car for years, and I don't think I have ever  done a 1-way rental. We are flying into Miami, driving down the Keys over a period of 5 days, then turning in the car in Key West and flying home from there.

 

I know enough NOT to rent from Hertz (who have developed a reputation for having their patrons arrested for car theft whenever their computer system loses track of where a car is, which happens fairly often). I have lots of credit cards and frequent flyer memberships, some of which offer good deals on various car rentals. Maybe Delta Stays has something? Chase Travel Portal? 

 

Let me know if you have any tips.

 

Comments

[minnehaha]

kayak.com

K.

[spiderplanet]

Usually, the spouse rents the car because he has travel points. On the rare occasions that I do the car rental, I use Costco's car rental, which is fine. It looks like their agreements are with Avis and Budget, I haven't heard horror stories about them - and I've heard about those Hertz nightmares.

[dreamshark]

Sure enough, this is really daunting. It's expensive no matter what because of the surprisingly high drop fee for one-way rental, but prices for the same car vary INCREDIBLY. So far, the best deal looks like booking through Delta Cars. For $649 I can get a Nissan Versa for 6 days. The same car from Costco Travel is $1175!!!!

There are some cryptic and fleeting better deals on Kayak, but I don't understand what Kayak is. If I click on a car it takes me somewhere else, like Expedia, which immediately starts trying to upsell me. Or to some skeevy outfit called Car 8 that wants me to agree to rent a car without knowing who I am renting it from (and I will NOT rent from Hertz!!).

I give up. I'll try again tomorrow.