Over the last year, I’ve had several different experiences with rental cars and receiving military discounts.
For example, in June, I moved from West Phoenix to East Phoenix. I used U-HAUL to get a moving truck. When making the reservation I noticed that they didn’t have any discount written on their website when I made it online. After finishing, I decided to call them and ask. After a short conversation, she connected me with someone that gave me a 15% off. They also gave me 20 extra miles.
BOTTOM LINE – A lot of these places have discounts not advertised on their website so you must call to take advantage
Here are some rough estimates but it varies from location to location
This morning, I called Budget, Enterprise, and Avis to see what their military discount rates were. What I learned is that most of these places do NOT offer a flat rate of 10% off (for example). They will give you a rate over the phone but sometimes that rate is not as good as other discounts that you can find online. I WOULD RECOMMEND that if you find a better deal elsewhere and you make your reservation to still call the rental car company after your reservation has been made and ask if they will discount your rate even further because you are military. That’s how I did it with U-haul and it may work elsewhere also.
Another experience I had recently was with Enterprise. They offered a discount to USAA members of up to 20%. USAA also has a partnership with Avis, Hertz, and Budget. If you are not a USAA member then you may still qualify for a discount but it differs from local branch to the local branch.
While on the phone with Avis this morning, because she said they don’t give a flat rate discount to military members, I asked her to make if she could get me a rough estimate of what the discount would come out to. She said she could make me a reservation and then compare it to what the military rate would be. For the trip that I had her look up, the military rate was $163 and the non-military rate was $286
IN CONCLUSION: If you have the time to do your research, compare rates using sites like expedia.com or hotwire.com and use sites like coupons.com or retailmenot.com to get additional discount “codes”. If those are better than the military rate then try calling the rental car company after you have made your reservation and see if they will discount your rate even further because you are military.
Military members can also enjoy 10% off GREYHOUND and AMTRAK
- GREYHOUND – Active duty and retired military personnel and their dependent family members are eligible. Another great benefit is that you can travel anywhere in the United States for a maximum round trip fee of $235. Click HERE to learn more
- AMTRAK – Active duty personnel and their dependent family members are eligible. Click HERE to learn more