We’ve updated the pricing for all of the San Jose Airport shuttle listings. At least five companies went out of the business, and several have significantly lowered prices with the current economy. We rated phone service (which varies widely) for all of the shuttle companies. The page is a great comprehensive resource of airport shuttles from SJC to surrounding areas of Silicon Valley.
Lego Photo by Tom Pierce
SoCal folks – why drive to San Francisco when you can see the city built from legos – right near San Diego? Check out photos of San Francisco in legos. Legoland was awesome for our kids and they are still building – a year later.
Airplane Car Seat Straps
The straps are approved for kids 22 pounds to 45 pounds (typically 1 to 5 years old), and weights a grand total of one pound in a very convenient small bag (smaller than most purses). You can check through your car seat (free of any baggage charges on all airlines) – to have it for the car at your destination.
In San Francisco, you can make a choice to use a cab that is better for the environment at the same price as any other taxi. Green cabs use hybrid Toyota Prius or CNG (natural gas vehicles) before dispatching any other cabs. It’s a great advantage for San Francisco taxis and being seen in many other cities such as Phoenix. The cabs are better for our environment, and help reduce operating costs (fuel) for their operators. Try a green cab and let us know what you think!
San Francisco Hybrid Taxi Cabs are Green
I love renting cars, but hate paying up for rental cars. Over time, I’ve found a method which is very effective in reducing the cost of rental cars. It takes some time and patience – but can be very much worth it in a large cash savings. This method focuses on analyzing the data for rental cars, and bidding smartly on Priceline for your car. I have found the Priceline always offers “Opaque” rates far below the rental car companies – even with good online coupon codes.
Step 1 – Set Your Base Price: Use a travel site such as Expedia, Orbitz, or Travelocity to create a matrix of travel prices for the car you want. Write down the best price, for the type of car you want. Being willing to be a little flexible on the car type can be helpful, but is not required.
Step 2 – Hit Hotwire: Go to Hotwire.com, and search the same place, dates and times. Write down the price this gives you – it will likely be lower – but not always.
Step 3 – Look in the City: Are you flying to an airport and then transferring into a city center? Ie flying to San Francisco Airport SFO – then headed for downtown San Francisco? Search the same prices in #1 and #2 above at the City destination – not at the airport.
Tip: Airports charge big, big taxes on rental cars. By renting away from the airport, you can save significantly just on taxes right off the bat.
Step 4 – Costco: Are you a Costco member? Go to Costco.com and click on Travel. Check coupon / discount prices from 3 major rental car companies. I would suggest focusing on Avis, Alamo, and National. They aren’t #1 and they do try harder. If you find anything you’d consider – lock it in – there is no penalty for cancellation unless you choose a prepaid option.
Step 5 – Get Info: Go to biddingfortravel.com to check out prices that folks are getting approved and rejected at priceline.com. Try to match the rough period you are traveling by 1-2 weeks and guess from the car types that are winning. Ie if a midsize is winning at $25/day, a compact is likely to win at $20 per day. The info for your savings contained in this site is very important to bidding smartly.
Step 6 – Priceline: Priceline is your friend, and time is your 2nd best friend. Every day, you can bid for every car type on Priceline, and bid all over again in 24 hours. Don’t be pressured into a poor choice. The economy is weak – and cars need to get paying renters. Use all the data you compiled to bid at least 30%-50% off the Hotwire or best other price you found. Start by bidding the biggest car you’d take, and go down from there. You might get a bigger car for the cheap price you bid. Only bid one car type at a time. If all your bids fail – go up by ~$3 the next day and see how you do. Note that Priceline does charge fees which are above your normal government taxes. Make very sure you are saving at least 30% from your “best” price above before locking into a Priceline deal. Priceline is non-cancellable, so make sure your trip is locked too.
Backup Plan: Always hold a cancellable reservation from the standard companies. Use Priceline to try to improve your price, and don’t even bid if it isn’t a 30%-50% savings – including the Priceline fees. Here is a real life scenario we found with real results yesterday:
San Francisco Car Rental - July 2009 – Compact Car
Orbitz – Alamo is lowest at $724/week (SFO Airport)
Costco coupon brings Alamo down to $564 at Alamo’s site. (SFO Airport)
Hotwire at $452 (SFO Airport)
Enterprise – City downtown pickup at $277
Priceline accepted bid – $190
Our savings by going city downtown pickup and Priceline bidding was 74% versus our first search on Orbitz, and even 30% under the most comparable bid from Enterprise downtown (which is the savings % Priceline estimates).
Do your homework, and save serious money renting a car.
New for 2010! Take 15% off SuperShuttle in every major city they serve (confirm details) until March 15, 2010. Online use discount code GSALE at suppershuttle.com/garagesale.
Check out our San Francisco airport shuttles here for full pricing and service reviews.
It’s basically a Craigslist for parking spaces. You can make a quick buck renting your driveway or garage, and big parking lots downtown list too. You pay on the site, and then print out a voucher for your parking.
What we like about Gottapark is that it reveals a lot of “underground” parking that wouldn’t normally exist. The guy who lives next to Union Square, who rents out his garage; a big empty lot; and many other very weird options. If you want to be a little planful in a place where it’s smart too (very crappy parking) – it can make parking in San Francisco a little easier.
When we searched for parking spaces around “very popular” locations like Fisherman’s Wharf, Union Square and Embarcadero Center — the ease of comparing prices *BEFORE* you go is amazing. GottaPark makes it super easy to figure out the best price / location before you are driving around in traffic. Check it out – especially if you are headed to a popular spot like Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.
If you use airporter type shuttle vans at San Francisco airport, the airport commission wants to change this business radically.
Today – eleven companies offer airport shuttle service at San Francisco airport (SFO). In December 2008, the airport commission proposed eliminating the permit for seven of these companies, leaving you only four to choose from.
This would likely mean higher prices from less competition, and less competition bringing lower service quality. We aren’t big political activists, but this plan concerns us and the need to ensure that visitors to San Francisco can get economical, good door-to-door service outside of the primary BART transit lines. We use the San Francisco airport shuttles, and recommend them highly to our readers – a cut of 75% of the permitted companies would radically change pricing and service levels.
Zepplin Airship over San Francisco
A new business expanding from New York to San Francisco allows airport riders to be matched with companions for their airport shuttle to SFO. The company promises two benefits:
1.) You’ll save money by splitting the fare.
2.) Two in a cab or limo saves carbon emissions and helps the earth.
It’s a clever concept, but it has some risks. First off – you may just not like who you are paired with. Even the most easy going person when randomly matched with “anyone” may find out they just aren’t a good match.
Second – what if the gal is a flake? Now you’ve paid for a San Francisco taxi or limo and are footing the entire – not half the cost. If you view the second rider as a “bonus” – you’re ok, but the assumption of a 2nd rider may have influenced your choice of transit.
The transit match service Hitchsters - has a business model of a revenue share of San Francisco limousine and town car airport shuttles. By referring you to a specific limo or towncar — they take a cut of your fare. We applaud the clever idea and hope it catches on to some degree. But its in no way a magic 50% off sale — it comes with both risks and potential.