One way car hire - USA - how to avoid the charge for dropping it back somewhere else

[Green]

I'm taking a road trip early next year so will be collecting a hire car at Point A and dropping it back to Point b rather than the usual same point. All the sites charge a premium for this, has anyone any tips in getting some cheaper here or any experiences they wish to share? Thanks

Sorry thread title is wrong - should be One way car hire

 

[Leo]

I've never found one, or heard of a way to do so. The car has to make it's way back to point A, and there are costs associated with that.

 

[dub_nerd]

I remember (more than 20 years ago) being charged $300 extra to pick up a car in Denver and drop it back in San Francisco. They showed me a picture of the car in the hire place and said "it will be like that one". It was ... just with California reg plates. In effect I was bringing it home for them and paying $300 to do it. If it was now I'd tell them I wanted a discount for anything without Colorado plates.

 

[Cervelo]

I came across this problem last year when planning a west to east coast road trip, the hire company wanted to add what I considered a huge charge to return the car to the original start point
We ended up doing two road trips, west coast into the centre and back out again and this year east coast into centre and back out again, which for us we believe ended up been far better than doing it all in the one trip
IIRC there are some hire companies that do allow this but normally it has to be within the state of hire, there are also some flydrive packages that allow you to do this as well which if suited you could be tailored for you.

Where are you intending to fly into and out of ??

 

[dub_nerd]

Similar here, ever since getting ripped off once have done circular trips without completely retracing my steps. Next year thinking of doing the east coast from Cape Hatteras to Maine and then back down inland by the Appalachian Trail.

 

[Cervelo]

Similar here, ever since getting ripped off once have done circular trips without completely retracing my steps. Next year thinking of doing the east coast from Cape Hatteras to Maine and then back down inland by the Appalachian Trail.

That sounds like a nice trip with lots to see and do, I presume it will be around October time to make the best of the leafwatch
The trip we did this year was Boston up to Maine across to Detroit and Chicago down to Indianapolis and Cincinnati then across to Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,New York then back to Boston
At this stage we've done four big road trips and have either driven in or through forty states

 

[myate]

Have you tried pricing it so you drop off the car mid-way or somewhere around that, and get a new car? I've done that before (Salt Lake City to SF dropping off/picking up at Vegas), small bit of a hassle switching cars but avoided a massive $300 fee - still had a small fee to pay. But it depends on the trip, sometimes you can't avoid the big fee as per our last trip SF to Denver.