With two destinations we’d need two rental cars. One would be for 4 days on the Big Island and the second for 10 days on Maui. Given that we’d have multiple large bags plus several smaller bags, we felt we’d need to get an SUV to make sure we had room for all our stuff. From our previous trip to Maui we were very happy we got the SUV last time so we’d restrict our search to that type for this trip even though we usually get the smallest/cheapest car we can.

Big Island

We found that renting a car over the Fourth of July in Hawaii is not cheap. I pride myself on being able to find good deals on rentals but I was struggling this trip. I originally used the website Auto Slash which will go out and find the best deals on rentals for you based on published rates and including any membership programs and status you may have with various companies. I found a reasonable rate for National for a mid-size SUV that was a pay-at-counter rate so I could cancel at any time so I booked that rate and hoped to find a better rate later.

Since rates can change dramatically I periodically checked for rates. A few times I found rates that were a few dollars lower, but due to one of my credit card benefits I have status at National and would potentially get an upgraded vehicle because of that. It was worth the few extra dollars so I kept my original reservation.

Around February I tried looking in the travel portal for my Chase Sapphire Reserve card after reading that sometimes you can find lower rates there. On our previous trip to Maui that is where I had booked our rental and had gotten a fantastic rate on an SUV. When checking the dates for the Big Island I was happy to see a rate that was about $100 less than what I currently had booked. I booked the new rate, which was at Dollar, and canceled the other reservation at National. It was definitely worth the effort for the savings, even though at Dollar I wouldn’t have any real status.

Maui

The Maui portion of the trip would be 10 days and it was going to be expensive. I tried all my tricks to find a “cheap” rate similar to what I had found the previous trip but had no luck. It was looking like it would be close to $900 for the 11 days. Then I tried AutoSlash for these dates and found a rate at National for just over $600. It was still more expensive than I had hoped but a lot less than the other rates I had found so I booked it, hoping I might be able to get something cheaper as the trip approached.

At the same time I found the cheaper rate for the Big Island, I checked the dates for Maui, but unfortunately it was more expensive than what I had already booked. As we came closer to the trip the price kept rising. At one point the lowest I could find was almost $1800 so I guess $600 wasn’t all that bad.

With our airfare, hotels and rental cars booked, we were set for our trip to arrive!