I’ve written about a lot of absurd fees in travel, but maybe I came across the strangest one?
There’s a $1,000 destination fee for a short-term rental, $20 to use the bathroom mirror at a Hyatt, $6.95 at a Holiday Inn in case the elevator breaks, and a Marriott with a $50 fee per dirty towel.
But I came across National Car Rental at the Jacksonville, Florida airport charging a $3 security fee.
It’s an airport authority pass-through, so it’s all rental car companies there. Basically, the rental company is serving as tax-collector, with a fee ostensibly for guards and cameras.
The Authority airport authority says it covers “security” but also broad “operational and maintenance” costs in the baggage claim and garage areas (i.e. overhead). The fee was also recently raised, and they don’t provide an accounting to show how revenues match up with expenditures.
It’s also a separate fee from other mandatory fees, which really should all be added up. But by breaking it up into smaller bits and multiple fees (CFCs, concession recovery, etc.), it looks small. So the government here is being maximally deceptive.
Rental car extra fees are some of the most egregious rip-offs. Here are some of the fees I’ve seen rental car companies charge:
- Tourism Commission Recovery Fee: Why does a tourist need to pay a tax, perhaps 3.5%, to… encourage tourism? They are already tourists, and taxing tourism literally does the opposite!
- Concession Recovery Fee: Your rental car company has to pay the airport to operate there, and you pay an extra charge for their right to sell to you (isn’t that what the price of the car is for?).
- Customer Transportation Fee: the free rental car shuttle bus isn’t actually free, and you pay for it whether you use the shuttle or not.
- Parking Recovery Fee: when you’re not renting the car and they’re not renting it to someone else, it has to be parked and parking is expensive. This is literally a fee that covers time when you aren’t renting from them.
- Premium Location Charge: This covers the rental car company’s rent. Usually that comes out of a company’s general revenue. But since the airport rental facility is convenient (although if it’s an off-airport rental center it isn’t that convenient) they call it a ‘premium location’ and add a charge for that. But it’s really a fee for rent.
- Energy Surcharge: this may cover utilities (on top of rent at the facility, there might be a power bill, though that’s probably included in their rent), fueling rental cars (but you either have to return it full or pay for gas!), or fuel for the shuttle bus (but you already pay a fee for that). Some hotels have tried to add energy surcharges but the chains have found those too scammy and crack down on the practice when it creeps up. There’s nothing too scammy for a rental car company, though.
- Vehicle License Recovery Fee: If you’re renting the car, doesn’t it need to be licensed? Why are you paying this as a separate service? “Yes, I’d like to rent the car but it doesn’t need to be licensed. Ok, thanks.” If it is mandated by law, then it goes in the price. It’s not an upcharge.
- Air Conditioning Recovery Fee: A car manufacturer pays an excise tax on air conditioners. In theory the car company charges the rental company more for the vehicle as a result. And the rental company charges you an add on fee because the price of the car is higher. Of course more expensive cars tend to mean higher rental rates, also. Double dip!
- Seasonal Tires Fee: this one seems unique to Quebec, where snow tires are required in winter and rental companies charge for it year round (because tires have to be both installed and removed as well as stored).
Junk fees often add 50% – 100% to the cost of a car rental. The good news is that many of them are specific to airport car rentals, and in particular to rentals you pick up at the airport.
You can avoid most of them by taking an Uber or cab (or have someone pick you up and drive you) to a car rental location away from the airport, and you can still return the car to the airport if you wish. For a one day rental this often doesn’t make sense, but for a longer rental it certainly can.
With an airline the rule is simple: an add-on fee must be optional. There has to be a way for a customer to buy the product without paying the fee. That’s how airlines like Spirit and Frontier can charge ‘online booking fees’, there’s no booking fee if you ticket at the airport. Meanwhile, hotels at least pretend that resort fees benefit the customer. With rental car companies there is literally zero consumer benefit to mandatory add-on fees.
And you can look around for other renters in the destination city itself. In Phoenix everyone got off the plane and lined up at the rentals. I took an Uber a short distance and skipped the airport fee, almost halving my bill.
Spot on, Gary ! Regarding the ‘ol “city car rental location away from the airport” trick, most readers know, National and Enterprise are the same company. What’s nice here is that you can both earn National awards with Enterprise rentals, and also redeem them that way. One thing to be careful of, some airports are also wise to this, and have amazingly managed to force Enterprise City Locations near the airport to charge Airport Rates (with all the fees). This is the case in Milwaukee (MKE), the Enterprise City Location behind the airport (on Layton Ave) charges Airport Rates.
Simple solution — whenever possible, just use uber or lyft and don’t tip. This approach will minimize hassle, scams, time and cost. The only situations where it makes sense to rent a car is 1) a long drive (> 100 miles or 2) the need to make many trips with the rental car (more than say 5 one-ways per day). In the cases where a long drive is necessary be sure to 1) avoid thw scam scanning machines when selecting your rental location and 2) drive ALOT to maximize your use of the rental car.
I’m fine with it. 90% of these are expensed to a corporation in the end. And Corporation can pay more tax. I thinks it’s crazy when o go to an airport and they Don’t tack on fees. They are losing out.
I learned long ago when traveling for business it makes no sense to rent a car. I use Uber and Lyft and save my company bundles of cash. The only time I’m trapped renting a car usually is when I’m on holiday. And more and more I’m doing holidays at a single resort so even then I avoid it.
Rental companies are pricing themselves so far out of the market that they will be responsible for their own demise.
…or simply boycott destinations that require you to rent a car to get around.
Ahh, JAX… not much going on around that airport. @Gene, you can try rideshares, but, it’s not NYC/SFO/LAX. You really do need a car to get around that region.
While I completely agree that a lot of these mandatory add-on fees have gotten ridiculous, most of them have little to do with the rental companies and everything to do with the local airport, municipality, state, etc.
The $3 fee in question here is charged by all rental companies operating at the airport and is NOT optional. It is collected and remitted to the Jacksonville Aviation Authority under its airport concession terms. National and the other rental companies receive exactly zero of this fee–it all goes to the airport authority.
Per the Jacksonville Aviation Authority’s rental-car concessions Q&A/addendum, the Security Fee was increased from $2 to $3 per transaction because airport security costs have risen, and it had been held at $2 since 2008. The Authority states the fee is intended to help cover security-related costs for the rental car operating areas, including (non-exhaustively): airport personnel, police, security guards, equipment/vehicles, video surveillance systems, gate systems, and also certain operational and maintenance aspects of the rental-car operating areas in the terminal baggage claim and garages. While you can call BS on any or all of this, blame the airport authority–not the rental companies.
And as for the airlines being better, there are quite a few non-optional fees besides tax, including, but not limited to:
US Passenger Facility Charge (XF)
United States Passenger Civil Aviation Security Service Fee (AY)
United States Flight Segment Tax Domestic (ZP)
In fact, airlines often have a carrier-imposed surcharge (YQ) in many cases, which is NOT mandated by any authority, yet can’t be removed, so which is worse?
I have taken a taxi or an Uber to get to an off airport car rental at significantly lower cost. Sometimes off airport car rental is within walking distance. With the new camera inspection systems, getting to the right rental place may require being a bit creative.
This is a ripoff! Why doesn’t someone do something about all these bs fees?!
Rental companies are rapidly running out of cheap Stellantis and Nissan vehicles for their fleets, which does not help things.
Safety first. To help reduce area carjackings, the $3 security fee at the National Car Rental location at the Jacksonville, Florida airport should be the optional surcharge for a loaded rental gun including six complimentary bullets.
Additionally, renting off-airport may not help in some cases. Try pricing out a rental at DEN vs. downtown Denver. You’ll find that you pay all the same fees. This is because Denver bureaucrats have determined that local customers renting within 20 miles of the airport *may* have landed at the airport in the past 24 hours and thus should pay the same fees that folks renting at the airport should pay.
125.02 “Airport Customer” means a customer of an On-Airport Rental Car Company
who has arrived at the Airport within 24 hours previous to either entering into a vehicle rental
agreement at the Airport or taking delivery of a rented vehicle from an On-Airport Car Company
location within zip codes 80010, 80011, 80012, 80016, 80019, 80022, 80207, 80238, 80239, or
80249, regardless of where the vehicle is returned.
Source: https://cdn.flydenver.com/app/uploads/2023/09/14083411/125_car_rental_cs.pdf?_gl=1*wdt0ge*_gcl_au*MTkwNDU1OTguMTc2NzkwNTQ2Nw..
And lest you think that Denver is an outlier:
Here are other airports/cities have have something similar — PHL, ATL, SEA, DAL, DAY, PHX, SYR, OKC.
If you are comparing bottom line – whether for air travel or hotels or rental cars, why do you care what bin things go into? It’s when the price I rent at or am sold at isn’t what I pay that I get upset.
So, I usually rent vehicles through Costco. And when I have a rental car problem, Costco usually advocates well.
@Ken A — ‘Safety first. Always.’
Years ago I took a taxi to an off site rental agency (Tampa) and saved mucho dinero even with the taxi fare.
@arturo S. — Fortunately, there’s a beautiful new rental car center at TPA these days (not sure about extra b.s. fees, but at least you can take their tram to it.)
@ 1990 — TPA’s relocation of its rental cars from just steps from the terminal to the far away rental center is a giant time waster for customers. On our recent trip to TPA, we followed my advice and just used uber/lyft.
@Gene — Eh, you do you, but, that tram is wicked fast, though. Let me put it this way, I wish we had a tram like that from LGA to the subway/AirTrain, etc.
What sort of psycho would leave the competency of airport rental car locations for the clown show that is every other rental place on earth?
@Gary, I’m guessing you know Richard Thaler’s work. This sounds like something he’d investigate. I freely admit that a $70 rental that turns into a $100 rental after 10, $3 fees p!$$e$ me off. But, would I be bothered my a $100 rental with no fees? Probably less. The grand total IS all that is important, but, yes, this nickel/dime stuff does bother me.
@This comes to mind — I enjoyed Thaler’s cameo in The Big Short with Selena Gomez at the casino explaining collateralized debt obligations. ‘Hot hand’ fallacy! (“How could I lose?!”)