Flights + Car Rental Packages: When You’re Getting a Deal & When You’re Not

I’ve heard that you can save quite a bit of money when booking your flights and car rental together for Cayman, so I decided to look into it. My research showed that sometimes you can get a great deal and sometimes you can actually end up paying more! So how do you know when you’re getting a deal and when you’re not? We’ve laid out tips for the top 3 travel booking websites below.

Orbitz, Travelocity & Expedia

From my research I found total savings around $200, but I also found that you can pay up to $200 more for a car rental if you choose a car that doesn’t note a savings. You will find slight variations in savings offered, but all three websites work exactly the same, so the tips below apply to all three.

• I never found significant savings on flights-maybe a few cents here or there, but from my research all of the savings was found on the car rentals.
• Once you get to the Car selection if there are any savings available there will be a green check mark with a message that reads “Save up to $___ when you book your Flight + Car together.”
• However, make sure that the car you select has an actual savings because they show you all cars not just ones with savings. If there is a savings, the original price will be marked out and your savings will be noted in green text right above the Select button for that car.
• By default your car selections are organized by Price, but if you want to see Package Savings first you can click to sort by that option.
• Finally, when you are finalizing your booking you should see a line item for “Savings for booking together” in your fee summary. If you don’t see this line item, then you are most likely not saving anything and quite possibly paying more.

If you have a choice in airlines and/or departure airports check out package deals with all departure options. I found the car rental savings vary depending on which airline you use and where you’re coming from. Flights with Cayman Airways had some really awesome car rental deals.

I couldn’t figure out their exact algorithms as results changed slightly depending on so many variables, but hopefully the tips above will prevent you from over-paying on “package deals”. The good news is that either way, you will still end up chilling out with us on Seven Mile Beach where all your worries can fade away.