Travel plans?

[Brent B3B]

Well here is a new twist. Julie and myself have done a little traveling around. Our favorite thing to do is fly in somewhere, rent a car and explore different parts of different states. 
this year, (next week) we planned a short trip to Alaska. Fly into Fairbanks, rent a car, drive to Denali, Anchorage and fly home. We booked everything from the flight, motels and a few excursions.  

usually after we book a flight, we get emails from rental car companies offering deals..... the same was true for this getaway, until we went to book a vehicle. Nothing available!! We made several calls and it appears because of COVID, rental car companies sold off a lot of their cars and now they can’t get their supply back because of production. 
 

Kinda a bummer for us but I mention this in case your thinking of traveling the same way. Don’t wait for the deals, they could change your plans.

LOL, I even looked into renting a u-haul 

 

oh well ?

[TodFitch]

We have been planning a trip in July and found the same issue with rental cars. In our case they have some cars but the cost per day is astronomical. Fortunately, where we are going we only need the car to get us to and from the airport and we have found that Lyft or Uber can do that for a lot cheaper than a single day’s car rental much less rental for the whole time we will be there.

[Los_Control]

Makes perfect sense ... a lot of people or business owners going out of business.

I actually have a friend in Fairbanks ... Alaska such a funny place, you better off not going there.

My buddy works for FAA, he would be in charge of the guys tracking the flights coming in.

Interesting guy. For years he worked for FAA and was sent out and dropped off in the Alaska bush country and repaired satellites, electronics. Camped out in the snow for a week, then they would send a Cessna  airplane back to pick him up ... Now he is the manager of the office and sending others out to work, while watching the air space.

 

Just saying, going to Fairbanks is like going to Seattle ... with more snow & bears, elk running across the road. Go to the North pole and see what you can there.

[cheesy]

I travel for work every week and the last month has been costly, with the exception of Puerto Rico, regarding rental cars. Because I rent so often, I can always get a car but it’s pricey. One of my co workers spent 10 days working in Hawaii and was socked $700 per day. Not our money, but still…

 

 

 

[Young Ed]

Ran into a guy at a car show a few weeks ago that ran into the same thing when be got to Florida. He had reserved a car but there weren't any when he got there. He got a ride to the nearest Chrysler dealer and bought a decent used car. Drove it for a week and then drove it home

[Sniper]

Last month I rented a Chrysler Pacifica for three weeks, $800 total.  My work truck was in the shop getting hail damage repaired.

[keithb7]

I am seeing supply issues in almost every business sector. Businesses are all screwed up from the results of covid. 

Parts manufacturing is a big mess. I am hearing stories of electronic parts being hoarded and becoming very hard to source. Supply ships are sitting off our coasts for weeks on end, waiting to be unloaded compounding the problem. 

 

Try building a house right now. I am told you will see extensive delays with acquiring everything. From lumber to appliances. Costs are soaring too. Look at lumber prices!
 

It does not surprise me at all to hear about rental car supply problems. Its going to take a while for businesses and supply chains routes to recover from the past 16 months.  We’ve been boarded up in our garages for some time now. Finally we are coming out to see the results. 

[Merle Coggins]

I've heard that much of the supply issue with many things is due to a lack of shipping containers. The major ports that handle container ships are backlogged, and with staffing issues due to COVID it doesn't help. Also, because so much of the focus is on managing the incoming containers, the empty containers aren't going back to where they need to go. I've been hearing it from our suppliers too. Some of the delays are due to it sitting in port waiting to be delivered, and some of it is due to waiting on available containers so that it can be shipped.