• Welcome to the new Commander Owners Group Forums. Please bear with us as the kinks are worked out and things are tweaked. If you have any questions or issues with the new platform, please post them here.

Post COVID traveling (or almost POSTCOVID)

Commander91gm

Commander91gm

Moderator
Supporting Member
Glendale, AZ
Aircraft Type
112TCA
Reg Number
N91GM
Serial Number
13184
We are on a month long trip with the plane and have found things very different in the Covid world. (your experiences might be different)

- Don't expect courtesy cars.
- Hotels that list airport shuttle probably won't have them (may still be running in the bigger cities but not in medium to small)
-You will rarely find rental cars sitting around at the FBO waiting for you.
- Rental cars in a lot of places are sold out (plan ahead)
- Rental car prices are through the roof - compacts $110 to 130 a day.
- Uber, Lyft are no longer reliable options.

I have to admit that some of these stops were in cities that are tourist destinations and seeing high demand.
At One Stop in a medium-sized town in Texas we found no Courtesy car, no rental cars, no Uber or Lyft, local taxi services telephone was rolling to voicemail.
It was late in the day and I considered getting back in the plane and going somewhere else.
Took a couple hours to figure out how to get from the airport to a hotel (an Uber finally became available)
The saga continues!
 
Joel,

Thanks for the update. We have a wedding to attend in SE Pennsylvania and will make a rental car reservation ahead of time. Most of the rental fleets have been sold off and until travel picks up I think the rental companies will have a hard time replacing inventory.

Mary and I are planning on a trip out to the ABQ balloon festival in the fall and I am giving strong consideration to booking way in advance for the reasons you listed. We plan a stop in Waco Texas and a few other smaller towns on the way out west and on the way back east. I can honestly say I have never used uber or lyft, I'm an old school guy stuck in my ways.

FYI we had no problem securing a car for when we flew into Fort Pierce, FL. However, I canceled the day before our flight since my brother said he would pick us up and he had an extra vehicle available for us to use on our condo search.
 
We flew to the Bahamas last month and decided to not stop at the small airports (cheap fuel) for that very reason. We stopped at the Millionaire and Signatures and paid a higher price for fuel, but were able to travel from Oklahoma to the Exuma's with a few stops in-between and find rental cars at every location (even during spring break). The higher price was worth the convenience to us. I think stopping and overnighting at the cheap fuel stops will be a problem until this whole pandemic issue calms down. :eek:
 
Last edited:
I have never stopped flying or traveling in my airplane over the past year. With that being said, most of that traveling has been throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri. I can't really say that I have run into any problems past around last June or July. Rental cars ARE expensive NOW, but last summer that were crazy cheap.

I always masked up and social distanced and never had any worries or problems (and never caught COVID). Now that I am vaccinated, I am really not worried.

My wife and I are planning a trip to Madison WI in two weeks. That may be a little different - I believer that they still have alot of restrictions.

I am glad to live in the USA and glad to live in the part of the USA that I live in!
 
Hertz has filed for bankruptcy and has sold 300,000 cars of the 500,000 they had a year ago. They wanted
$1480 for a Malibu for 8 days in Fort Meyers. We found an unheard-of-to-us rental car agency called SIXT with an Equinox for $980. Since more people want to travel, availability is scarce.
Good luck on your trip, Joel. Have fun and be safe!
 
SixT is common in Europe - I have rented from them in the past - no issues.
Only saving grace on the rental car front is that if I can book it in advance they will honor the corporate rate that I have access to. $32 a day with CDW.
Thanks to the weather virtually every one of our stops changed on this trip as we've been chasing sunshine. Made it kind of hard to plan in advance. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for the Bahamas portion of the trip.
 
Last edited:
We encountered the same issue with high prices and scarcity of rental cars in our trip to Mississippi and Louisiana a few weeks ago. At some point paying $150-$200 a day for a rental car starts to outweigh the convenience of flying GA to get there....our rental car fees outweighed our fuel and FBO fees - I have to think this will eventually start to seriously affect GA travel...
 
It sure seems like a lot of the convenience's that makes GA flying fun might be gone.
Hopefully competition will bring them back at some point.
 
Different experience. I flew to Washington,DC for Easter weekend. Booked the rental car on Friday, Apr 2 for the next day, $49/day, Enterprise. I have no idea if it was a special FBO rate, though I did book it via the FBO using my Enterprise account number (personal account, not a corporate account, so no special treatment there).

I also booked with Enterprise directly for an upcoming (commercial airline) trip to FL. Only $81/day for Mother's Day weekend seemed like a bargain. Less expensive than both Hertz and Avis.

... oh, and forgot to mention, you can still go to enterprise.com/ga to find FBOs where they will drop off cars.
 
I believe that we have just turned the corner to higher rates because of this late season surge in travel. This theory is purely my opinion from watching airline ticket prices increase in the last week or so. Your mileage may vary...
 
So I just tried making a reservation with Enterprise or either next week or the week after in Fort Myers where I am now. Didn't use my account or any corporate pricing and here's what I got.
Screenshot_20210416-214550.jpg
 
Wow in Hawaii and rental cars were 800 to 1k a day or I could not get one! I was lucky I was able to borrow my 1st wife’s car! Crazy regulations going from island to island. Heading to NC to pick up N1049J and head to Massachusetts.
 
So we're on our way to the Bahamas-currently in Florida and jumping through all kinds of Hoops to get the required covid test. Wouldn't you know that they just announced that as of May 1st proof of vaccination will be accepted in lieu of getting a test. A little too late for us since we're going over on the 25th but for anyone else that's considering going over it removes a huge burden from the trip.

Screenshot_20210422-171008.png
 
I am finally scheduled for vaccination on Monday. Just became eligible in PA 4 days ago. My flying has been mostly local since last yr. Looking forward to putting some miles on the plane ..

May consider getting a fold-up electric bike for the plane.
 
Last edited:
Should have gone to Sun ‘n Fun, Moazzam. There were a few exhibitors there with fold-ups you could try out and ride. I saw a handful of AC11 aircraft there but only had 2 days there to cover lots of ground so maybe you were there. What kind of bike you looking at?
 
Jaybird said:
Should have gone to Sun ‘n Fun, Moazzam. There were a few exhibitors there with fold-ups you could try out and ride. I saw a handful of AC11 aircraft there but only had 2 days there to cover lots of ground so maybe you were there. What kind of bike you looking at?
Click to expand...

I keep on watching reviews. No experience first hand. Naturally portability (weight and collapsed dimensions) will play a lot into this.
 
Moazzam .. checkout Jupiter Bikes (www.JupiterBike.com). They also sell refurbished bikes for folks on a budget. I have their first generation bike (which they have discontinued). The Discovery X5 weights 40 lbs, is electric and has peddles. I test drove the prototype in 2019. Great bike. The non electric folding bikes are much lighter.
 
N1049j said:
Wow in Hawaii and rental cars were 800 to 1k a day or I could not get one! I was lucky I was able to borrow my 1st wife’s car! Crazy regulations going from island to island. Heading to NC to pick up N1049J and head to Massachusetts.
Click to expand...

Well hell ... for those rates, just go to a used car lot and buy something for $2K. Use it for a week, resell it for $2K~
 
things are still a bit crazy if you don't arrange in advance. Flew into Clearwater Florida and Hertz wanted $100 a day plus tax.
 
N4843W said:
Well hell ... for those rates, just go to a used car lot and buy something for $2K. Use it for a week, resell it for $2K~
Click to expand...

Haven't you heard that due to the shortage of cars- Hertz is now buying up used cars:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top