FlightCar is now operating at 14 airports in the US (Photo: FlightCar)
Parking at the airport is a pain. And an expensive pain at that! How would you like to avoid it, and maybe even make a little money instead of spending it during the peak summer travel season?
If your car is less than 13 years old and has fewer than 150,000 miles, here’s what you can do:
Two years ago, three college kids created FlightCar, which now operates at 14 airports across the US– up from just three when we wrote about it last year. The company now has more than 70,000 members and employs 120.
Current FlightCar airport locations
The basic idea behind FlightCar is this: Instead of driving to an airport parking lot and paying to park your car, you drop it off at the nearby FlightCar lot instead.
While you are away, FlightCar will try to rent your car to an inbound traveler. If it does, you’ll get paid. If it does not, you’ll get free parking and a free car wash! How does that sound?
Here’s how it works.
First, you’ll make a parking reservation online by filling in some basic information about your departure/return dates and your car.
On the day of your trip, you’ll drive your car to the FlightCar parking lot near the airport. There they’ll make copies of your proof of insurance and title, and a black car will drive you to the airport.
Back at the lot, FlightCar posts your car for rent on its website. You’ll receive an email advising you whenever your car is rented.
When you fly back, you call for for an airport pickup back to the lot.
If your car was rented while you were away, you are notified that you will receive a check in the mail based on the number of miles your car was driven, in addition to your car’s age, make and model. Since most rented cars are driven less than 40 miles, the bulk of the money you’ll make doesn’t come from rental fees, it comes from not having to pay for airport parking. If your car was not rented, well, then as always–Parking is absolutely free, as is the mandatory car wash.
Here’s a video that describes how it all works.
For this post we are only highlighting the parking side of the program, but if you’re on a tight budget, you might also look into the rental side of things— FlightCar rentals can cost half as much as you’d pay for a standard rental car.
Another company called Relay Rides offers a similar rental service, as well as airport parking at LAX and SFO.
Certainly, if you have a new or expensive car that you don’t want a stranger driving, FlightCar is not for you. But for some others, it can be a viable option.
Have you tried FlightCar? Would you?
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Not sure how it’s breaking the law to rent a car without paying a fee. Perhaps if FlightCar operated on airport property, but they’re not. Also, unclear why a customer always needs to pay a fee to the airport. They already pay fees in the plane ticket.
Does Flightcar charge the mandatory fees for car rentals at the airport? No… in other words, they are breaking the law. Funny how many of these schemes that are so popular on TravelSkills involve deliberately breaking the law, potentially leaving their customers liable…
Haven’t used Flightcar yet, but this is a great concept. We have used relayrides for rentals, and we’re pleased with the service and cost savings, though it does take some research, and there are a few quirks to the system. With relayrides, if the car lists “airport pickup” make sure it’s the airport you’re flying into! One recent experience was when we were flying into SEA but the “airport pickup” was in YKM! Didn’t rent that one.
You gotta love the way the free market violently reshapes the pathways of supply and demand in our economy. I would not want strangers driving my car, but if the nice people at FlightCar can make this business model work, then bravo to them.
I remember the days before BART went to the San Francisco airport, and airport parking lots would fill up during the holiday season. If I had an early flight before the buses ran, I would actually take a bus to the airport the night before my flight and rent a car for 1 day and drive it home. The next morning I’d simply return the rental car at 5:00am or whatever and that was my transportation to the airport. It was cheaper than paying for airport parking for a week, and I didn’t have to take a chance that the lots would be full.
Those days are long gone. I just checked a major car rental website and got a quote for a one-week rental in San Francisco for August. The prices started at $543 for a Chevrolet Spark. You could also reserve a luxury Mercedes S550 for one week for only $2489, but with taxes and fees the total leaps to $3190. So who knows, maybe companies like FlightCar can bring some competition to the car rental market, which would be good for everyone except the other car rental companies.