When booking a car rental two common membership discounts you may qualify for are either AAA or AARP.

While Hertz is AAA's official car rental partner (and offers a number of special deals and extra benefits to AAA members), Budget also provides a AAA discount.

As for AARP members, Avis, Enterprise, Budget and Hertz all offer discounts. If you quality for both AAA and AARP, then you should compare them but at Hertz usually AAA will trump other discounts.

Here are the codes you need in order to check the rates on-line or with a call center:

Maybe the next time you need a lift to an airport you should rent a car instead of taking a shuttle.

I am a believer in using the Chico airport as much as possible and one of my fondest hopes for transportation in the area is to see additional air service in Chico.

But that may be a long way off. In the meantime the reality is that most people use the Sacramento airport as their main domestic departure point. And in the case of international travel many others start their trip from San Francisco.

The advantages of using a rental car to get to another airport from Chico can include both cost and flexibility.

Hertz, the world’s largest car rental firm announced on 16 December 2008 that it is entering the car sharing market with its new Connect by Hertz division.

The first cities served by Connect by Hertz are New York, London and Paris, with expansion to an additional 20 cities in North America and Europe planned for 2009 according to an article in the travel industry magazine Travel Weekly.

Why is Hertz’s announcement significant?

I saw an advertisement in the front section of today’s San Francisco Chronicle for a remarkable deal from Hertz.

The car rental company is offering a free weekend day through the end of March. This is not a buy one or two, and get one free type of deal. It is simply one free day.

All that you have to pay is the applicable tax, which for car rentals in California is very low, although airport imposed concession fees can be higher, depending on the individual airport. (Hertz has many non-airport locations which are not subject to these fees and, unless you're flying in, they are usually more convenient anyway for local rentals in big cities.)

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