rental car, pickup in one city drop off in another, help?

[DaveL]

Ok, here's my issue. flying into charlotte at end of the month, and flying out of Charleston a few

days later.

currently I have a nice hotwire price of 16.95 a day if I do charlotte and charlotte BUT, if I search on

a charlotte pickup and charleston drop off it's like 139 a day.

any tips, this pricing sucks.

[Steve Haynie]

One way pricing can be based on supply and demand in each market. If too many cars are in an area it is cheap to leave and more expensive to go there. If there are too few cars in an area it is expensive to leave and cheap to go there.

The $16.95 might be a local daily rate with a limited number of miles. The one way price is accounting for the mileage.

There are some HFC'ers in Charlotte. I am willing to drive up to say hello.

[Tres Aardvarks]

There's a built in surcharge for a different destination. When we've looked at it with Hertz it was an extra $50 at least.

[BTMN]

Find a bus from Charlotte to Charleston or take a lil puddlejumper flight from Charlotte to Charleston. Cheaper than the rental difference.

[aknapp]

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g49022-i291-k3098485-Charlotte_to_Charleston_transportation-Charlotte_North_Carolina.html

Check out reply #3.

If it fits your schedule, this would save some money.

[cynic]

As Steve Haynie pointed out, it's all a matter of how many cars are in / needed at a particular location. U-Haul does the same math. I tried to rent a U-Haul to be picked up in Detroit and dropped off in San Diego. Not many U-Hauls headed TO Detroit these days, but San Diego is always a popular destination. Their quote was very cost prohibitive. Had I been doing the trip in reverse they'd have probably offered to pay me.

I've paid as little as a $25 flat fee (Enterprise, Portland, ME to Boston, MA) and have been quoted prices totaling hundreds more for a week-long rental.

eta: Try this.....Make one reservation to get a rental in Charlotte for the duration of your stay. Make a second reservation to pick up a second rental at the same time you're dropping off the first, with this one terminating in Charleston. This way, you maintain the low daily rate in Charlotte and may end up with a reasonable one way fee.

You can also save money by steering clear of airport locations if possible.

[DaveL]

thanks for the advice everyone. I might just get the charlotte deal and return it and rent another car for the last day.