sorry but everyone seems to be so happy that AS sends them their 1st email with a reduced rate, sorry but thats nonsense! no different then booking a Hotel room all everyone simply needs to do is put in say the code for AAA and bingo they will get a reduced rate or Costco's code I understand that some people dont want to be bothered having to keep checking on their own if rates went down , so Id give AS a Pat on the Back for anything after that 1st decrease but its nothing for anyone to get some type of a reduced rate off the reg rates , no different then if AS was HS (Hotel Slash)
There is no nonsense about it. It has been my experience that at least 50% of the time using AAA rates on a hotel room (and often for car rentals) yields a higher fee (YMMV) and, I don't happen to have a Costco membership as I have never found it beneficial (although to be fair, not having a membership, I have never tried using it for travel). My experience with AutoSlash has been quite favorable and I'm happy to continue using them and recommending them to my friends - who are likewise free to do as they wish. My advice to you is, if you're happy doing what you're doing... carry on! ETA: Can't wait to see HotelSlash in action!
1- I doubt hotelslash will ever be able to beat Priceline and there arent nearly as many discounts and alot of people will want to earn Stay credits which HS might not beable to provide time will tell 2- Im happy that AS works for you and thusly you should contnue using them. My pt was everyone is so happy how AS was able to get them a cheaper rate from the rack rate and all I was sayingt thats its no big deal to get a discount off the rack rate where AS really comes into play is when they will keep checking to see if the rate went down and then rebook you at that lower rate. Thats where alot of people dont want to be bothered having to keep checking every so often to see if in fact the rates went down any. I dont mind doing it since Im always checking all the companys not just the 1 Im booked with and constantly find that a different company then the 1 I had a res with is now cheaper, but AS isnt able to do this so AS doesnt work for me since its a very good chance AS will cause me to be leaving $$ on the atble rather then in my pocket 3- I hope that you realize that AS just might be using a Costco or AAA code for your rental in order to get the cheaper rate, the difference is if you did it and were carded youd have to pay the rack rate, if AS booked it and youre carded then they will send you a check for the difference ( Ive yet to hear from anyone that they were ever carded for either of those 2 but Im sure theres always a 1st time) In the mena time enjoy AS and its savings
not surprised but as I already posted Hotels are way different from cars and too many variables for those who want to earn Stay credits and if simplya cheap rate and no credit is wanted dont know how you guys can beat PL name you own price
We never apply a discount code that requires membership unless: a) we know up-front that person is a member of said organization -or b) we check with you first to confirm that you are a member of said organization In most cases, we have plenty of publicly available discount codes that don't require membership that are as good or better than the ones that do.
I based it on a some posts up thread where some folks said there was problems with what AS put down to get the rate and AS in turn told them to email them and that AS will pay them the difference , so I took that to mean that AS was using codes where a person could be carded and when they were and didnt have the proper ID they ended up having to pay Rack and AS then refunded those folks for the $$ over what they were booked for. Otherwise I couldnt understand why any agent would question them about the codes that were used
Fair enough. There was a single mistake one time and our system was corrected, so there should be no further issues (and haven't been any since that time as far as I'm aware).
Happy to hear that, its good for both AS and the renter, AS since if there are too many you guys would have to close up shop, and the renter so that they can be assured that after a long fight they wont have to be worried about being hassled and what to do now
Priceline Name Your Own Price: you're committed to pay for that stay, even if your plans change. If your flights change or you need to be elsewhere, too bad--you're paying for that stay. And many of us care little about hotel points. I know I don't. Sure, there are a lot of variables in the hotel industry that are different from the rental industry (certainly there are many more brands and options and factors to consider), which is why hotelslash.com probably isn't live yet. As for your other points, I'm sure glad AutoSlash is there to automate the code-finding process. I may be able to make my own list of codes, but it's insanely time consuming to try each and every combination possible, not to mention the time spent combing online forums for updated codes. If a site can automate that ultra-tedious process, what's the problem with that? I don't have to memorize codes, spend hours finding the best rate, spend further hours checking multiple times daily for a price drop, and all of that. If a properly-programmed computer can do in minutes what takes me hours, why not let it? Between applying discounts and catching rate drops (some that only exist for mere hours), AutoSlash has saved me probably 30% (maybe more) on my total rental spend this year, and it's certainly saved me hundreds of dollars worth of my time spent looking for and finding those great rates, making it more like at least a 50% savings. I'm a believer. Sorry that you're not. Sure, there are a few things to improve, and AutoSlash has taken note of that and agreed with the things posted upthread that need fixing (and many issues have been fixed), but on the whole, AutoSlash (a FREE, NON-OBLIGATORY service!!) is a HUGELY useful tool to those of us who have a life and can't spend hours checking rates for every single rental car we need to book.
how much of AS do you own? it works for you great it hasnt for me! and I in the past emailed AS what code to use in order to get the price down to what I got it down to. never said no one should use them only that if a person wants only say Hertz will it workout otherwise theyd have to make a differnt res for Avis,National,Alamo,Thrifty,Hertz,Advantage,Fox,Payless++ and CX everyone except the 1 that ends up the cheapest. If you dont do that and stick with just 1 res then its very possible you can end up overpaying $$ for the same car type since Hertzs cheapest was $195 while Dollar went down to $105. the fact that AS got Hertz down to $195 from $258 is worth $0 to me if theres another company that is alot cheaper in the end then Hertzs $195. Id rather keep checking as Ive been doing then to maybe get Blacklisted from a company for having made x reses and always Cxing them If the rental isnt out of your pocket and you dont care good for you all my travel expenses are out of my pocket, so yes if Shearton is $135 and Marriott is $95 I will be staying at the Marriott that night Im sure As will have a nice mkt out there but that mkt will only consist of those people who dont want the absolute cheapest rates but instead would rather book with only 1 company due to earning pts or free Upgrades, thats great and they should avail themselves of ASs help and potential savings. Buta s I already said the 1st rate drop is a joke its sort of how many people do you know pay the 1st price they are told in the markets be it in China or HKG etc etc I would never ask over there hear the price and walk away and when they tell a new price simply grab the money out of my pocket and pay that and then go on the web and post how I saved $$ , since you have to be a fool if you paid the opening price and the same with a car or hotel there are plenty of public and not public codes that will lower the prices
Um, none. 100% of my travel is leisure. I'm on a limited budget. That's why I don't care about hotel points. Actually, I stay at Days Inns and Super 8s and Motel 6s and roadside 1960s-era motels and even hostels. I rarely stay at chain properties. Well, then the vast majority (as in 99%) of the world's rental car bookers are fools. And I think there are a lot of those folks out there. Another 0.9% are like myself, experienced travelers who know not to pay rack rates but dread the thought of booking a rental because it's an overwhelming, monumental task (combing through FT and MP and FW and SD and wherever for codes and trying them all). You're the remaining 0.1%. As for me and the other 0.9% like myself--well, every time I think I've got AutoSlash beat with my own list of codes, I'm proven wrong. I have never been able to beat AutoSlash. Sometimes I've been able to match AutoSlash's rates, but I've never beaten theirs. Maybe my code-finding skills suck or I don't have enough patience to try every possible combination, but I don't have the time for a second full-time job. If you can make booking rentals a full-time job and save a couple more bucks, more power to you. As someone with experience in the industry, I'll call you on your red herring. Not sure where you got the idea that someone would be blacklisted for changing or canceling reservations. It doesn't happen.
Can some real studied experts willing to invest the time do as well or even better than an automated Autoslash process? Certainly seems so. For most people, they aren't experts and wouldn't even know to reprice, Autoslash is a huge advance. For folks who are time constrained or forgetful, avoiding the need to re-price reservations regularly while still capturing most of the savings is really valuable. Some folks will do better manually doing what autoslash does. Most will appreciate that autoslash does it for them, no expertise or effort required.
Ive sent numerous people to AS. some were able to do better others not, those who did better on their own simply CXed their AS res there are numerous examples where AS will win out no matter what, eg a person is flying JFK-LAX and either was able to score a bump or missed their flight and ended up flying into a different LA airport. There will be no time to wipe out the laptop and try and find the best rate. Hello AS and with a 5+ hr flight most likely AS would have gotten back to them with more then 1 rate drop, but even 1 will be helpful, dont expect this on a short haul flight personally I know no one who simply books a car w/o using any type of discount whatsoever or they did a PL or HW res, also I dont know anyone who simply pays Rack rate on a car rental or for that matter nor a Hotel room
I know A LOT of these people, I send them to AutoSlash and they think it's the Greatest. Thing. Ever.
and thats all Ive been saying that AS is good for some people and not so for others 2 people I sent to AS CXed their res as they ended up being able to do much better, 1 had a 1 day and a 7 day rental which till now was cheaper that way than 1 8 day rental. Today it came out alot cheaper as 1 8 day rental. They made the 1 day with AS, what are they suppose to do make a res for 1 day,7 day and 8 days with AS and for each rental company to make sure they end up with the cheapest way to rent? they simply kept checking back every so often with the companys (turns out they CX a Fox rental and ended up 8 days with Hertz who till now wasnt in the ball park at all). could be AS would have also found that 8 day rate beat it??? but it would mean making tons of reses with AS. AS is best for those who arent looking to save every Buck that they can and arent paying out of their own pocket or who even if paying it themselves dont have the time or patience to constantly keep checking. Its simple if aperson spends even an hour checking thats 1 hour less they can bill out or do something that might bring them in some $$. To a person who doesnt run into that then it pays to stay on top of things if they know what they are doing is all Ive been saying all along 10pm another person I sent to AS today just called, AS ended up getting the exact same price as he did using his 1st code and PC w/Hertz & he booked he said with another company on his own that he used 2 codes for and it was just over $24 or $4+ less then what Hertz wanted. I didnt tell him anything and he was surprised that AS didnt come back and find and offer him Advantage (which happens to be owned by Hertz) I then told him in order for that to happen he had to also book with AS Advantage. He said then in order to ever know who ends up with cheapest rate a person has to book a car with every Vendor via AS, I said thats the way it was told to me he said too much of a PITA. I told him to CX anything it doesnt plan to keep with AS
As with all automagic systems, for some they work, for some they don't. I posted earlier, that for an AVIS rental in BWI, I got a better rate, including several waivers, by utilizing some US Airways codes and being a Dutch resident. That's an outlier for a system like autoslash, which got the Hertz rate down to an equal price, but without the waivers. AutoSlash is another tool for us to peruse. Just like we sometimes stumble upon a deal which a tool didn't find, it's not the end-all, but it can help people figure out there's a lot to be saved.
Hello, Autoslash, My doubt is: Should I reserve the minimum needed, to have higher chances to lower the cost? I need a mini/Van for our trip to Frankfurt, Germany in a few months. We are 5 persons. I checked with the site and found that “Dollar” is the cheapest and it has the same price for a minivan, a standard van and a Full-Size van. With this info, I could go with the Full-Size, but my concern is that it lowers the chances of a cheaper cost until the picking date. If I take the Mini-van then probably other companies will offer a cheaper deal in the future. But if they don’t beat the price, then I miss the oportunity to have ordered a Full-size for the same price. Should I generate 3 reservations and cancel two of them shortly before the picking date? Is there any way to make a reservation that will give me the biggest car if the prices remain the same or will move me to a smaller one if it is worth the saved money? Thanks for your help, David
Autoslash just saved me about 30% after it rebooked my Hertz reservation! It even retained my USAA cdp code so I won't get charged under 25 fees. I am very pleased, and will definitely use it for my next Hertz reservation. Thanks! EDIT: It's now re-booked several times, for savings of over 50% of the original booking rate!
I just made a reservation via AutoSlash for Thrifty in late Jan. Will AutoSlash only check Thrifty for me, or will it check other companies, too? If it won't check other companies, does that mean I need to make a reservation via Autoslash with every company available at my location (MIA). Thanks.
I'm under the impression that it only checks whatever company you made your booking with (in your case, Thrifty).
That's my impression, too, but I 'd like to know for sure. I searched the website, but could not find an answer.
Well, since no one from Autoslash seems to be checking this thread, I did a search on FT and found out that Autoslash does indeed check across multiple companies for lower rates. Of course, some companies, like Alamo don't let Autoslash check their rates.
