My brilliant, frugal friend is at it again…
A few weeks ago, I wrote about a friend of mine who had inspired me to cancel my cable TV service. With Roku and Hulu and Netflix, he reasoned, who really needs cable? He was right: we canceled our service months ago and haven’t missed it for one second. And we’re saving almost $1,000 a year.
Well, my friend is at it again. This time, he’s targeting airport car rentals. I got an email from him today. “I’m DOING IT!” he wrote. “Free airport parking for our week away. It’s going to save me like $100 in airport parking fees at SFO! I get a full car wash and vacuum, and if someone rents it I get an extra .10 per mile they drive. Killer. I love the sharing economy! (Pray for me).”
He’s talking about FlightCar.
FlightCar lets people parking at the airport rent their vehicles out to other travelers. This is a concept that totally freaks me out, but it seems to be catching on. Clearly, if my friend is doing it, it’s worth doing (he’s kind of an influencer, this friend).
Every rental is insured up to $1 million, and every renter is pre-screened. If someone rents your car, depending on the type and model year of the vehicle, you can also make up to 20¢/mile in cash. The service picks you up and drop you off curbside (at the airport) AND gives you a free car wash.
If you rent a car from them, they throw in a free GPS and free insurance.
Right now, FlightCar is in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston. So theoretically I could try it…but I’m still not convinced. However, I like all of their “Trust and Safety” terms, including the fact that they run a driving record check on every renter and limit mileage to 75 miles per day.
I also like that if you rent to them, you get free parking, guaranteed, regardless of whether your car is rented.
However, the car wash is the part that might push me over the edge and convince me to try this service 😉
What would it take for you to rent out your car while you were away?
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Wow, totally intrigued here. Like you I’m afraid my insurance company would have apoplexy. But as a frequent traveler I hate coming back and owing $100-200 for parking. And since we love to travel we are cheap with other parts of our life, including cars. So I’m wondering if anyone would even *want* to rent our cars, a ’99 Ford Ranger and an ’05 PT Cruiser.
Hmm, maybe that’s the solution, bring in old beaters and no one will want them.
Anne – I think you figured out a way to “maximize” this one!
This is an interesting idea for my vacation rental property, which is near an office I need to visit occasionally. I’ve always just rented a car when I visit because, if I owned one, I wouldn’t be able to get to and from the airport. I’d have to look at the sums but it could well be more profitable to buy a modest car and borrow it back from Flight Car for the 10 or so weeks that I need it.
NB – That IS a great idea!
Not for me! My car is my personal space, it’d be like letting strangers use my house when traveling. Nuh uh, no way, not gonna happen. 🙂
BTW – I’m totally on board with the no cable – I let it go about 3 yrs ago and very happy. No longer is the TV on just to be on (can’t stand a loud TV background when I visit ppl!). If I want to watch a show I just pull up Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime video to watch. I’ll have to check out Roku, not familiar.
Rebecca – That is kind of how I feel!