Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Hanger-on Luke wanted to make sure I had explored all possible rental car options, including in-town locations of the various rental car agencies, especially the Enterprise location on Sheridan Road that's fairly close to Levi and Stacey's place.
Yes, I did, and the problems are that, as far as I can tell, Enterprise's "unlimited mileage" is only good in the five states nearest Chicago; various others, including Dollar, Thrifty, and National, prohibit taking their cars into Canada (and they don't seem to have any convenient city locations in Chicago anyway); and, believe it or not, Hertz and Avis are more expensive at their in-town locations than at O'Hare...but less expensive than Midway. Seriously, someone needs to investigate the Midway rental car situation.
Luke also wondered about perhaps picking up the car on the 20th and dropping it off on the 31st to possibly save some money. Also as far as I can tell, there wouldn't be much price difference between that and the current plan of picking it up on the 19th and dropping it off on the 1st.
And, importantly for me, by getting the car on the 19th, I'll get a chance to spend the day of the 20th at the Illinois Railway Museum, which I've never been to before and which is supposed to be a very nice place. (Yes, a non-baseball activity. I'm sorry, but I like trains, too.) And then on the 31st I can go play pinball at one of the semi-secret locations in the suburbs where Stern puts their new pinball machines out for testing, to see if they need to do any last-minute tweaks. Or Levi and Stacey can go buy stuff at Ikea in Schaumburg. Whatever.
In conclusion, I think we're getting a pretty good rate from Hertz, considering how many miles we're going to be putting on one of their cars.
(P.S.: If Southwest really was charging negative $100 for Burbank-to-Chicago round trips, I would be there for breakfast and baseball tomorrow morning, and maybe every morning. But no such luck.)
mr. troll: Yes, we're all sorry that you like trains, too.
Jim: Shame on you, leaving this comment on the date of Amtrak's 33rd anniversary.
Yes, I did, and the problems are that, as far as I can tell, Enterprise's "unlimited mileage" is only good in the five states nearest Chicago; various others, including Dollar, Thrifty, and National, prohibit taking their cars into Canada (and they don't seem to have any convenient city locations in Chicago anyway); and, believe it or not, Hertz and Avis are more expensive at their in-town locations than at O'Hare...but less expensive than Midway. Seriously, someone needs to investigate the Midway rental car situation.
Luke also wondered about perhaps picking up the car on the 20th and dropping it off on the 31st to possibly save some money. Also as far as I can tell, there wouldn't be much price difference between that and the current plan of picking it up on the 19th and dropping it off on the 1st.
And, importantly for me, by getting the car on the 19th, I'll get a chance to spend the day of the 20th at the Illinois Railway Museum, which I've never been to before and which is supposed to be a very nice place. (Yes, a non-baseball activity. I'm sorry, but I like trains, too.) And then on the 31st I can go play pinball at one of the semi-secret locations in the suburbs where Stern puts their new pinball machines out for testing, to see if they need to do any last-minute tweaks. Or Levi and Stacey can go buy stuff at Ikea in Schaumburg. Whatever.
In conclusion, I think we're getting a pretty good rate from Hertz, considering how many miles we're going to be putting on one of their cars.
(P.S.: If Southwest really was charging negative $100 for Burbank-to-Chicago round trips, I would be there for breakfast and baseball tomorrow morning, and maybe every morning. But no such luck.)
Original comments...
mr. troll: Yes, we're all sorry that you like trains, too.
Jim: Shame on you, leaving this comment on the date of Amtrak's 33rd anniversary.
Labels: brpa, luke seemann, planning, road trip
