Admittedly I haven’t looked for a rental car since the Cornavirus Pandemic put a halt on my Road Trip planning and my quest in visiting the missing six states that I am yet to visit.

On the encouraging news that President Joe Biden has opened up America to vaccinated UK and European visitors I thought I would do a very soft search into a visit in 2022.

I think the most I ever rented a car for a weeks’ rental was well under £150 including additional driver and a tank of fuel. Boy, was I taken aback when I used my go to search site Rental Cars for January 2022.

There wasn’t a single compact car for under £580 and the cheapest rental with additional drivers and a tank of fuel was nearly £630. 

There is a shortage of stock with all rental companies and this is being blamed on the production of micro chips in new car production and it is reported that there won’t be any return to normality until mid 2022. 

Fuel prices are currently over $3.00 a gallon which is much lower than over in the UK where pump prices are around £1.36 a litre which equates to over £6.00 a gallon.

Looking at flight prices (I was searching Dallas Fort Worth) in January the cheapest direct flights are around £700 with a 24 flight with one change around £450. Another soft search on Hotels.com and prices are much higher than two years ago.

Now nobody could have predicted the impact of the pandemic to global travel nor the longevity of the crisis but be prepared for a price shock on your next trip to America. I don’t have a crystal ball into the future but perhaps in six months as more travellers are allowed back into America prices might start to move in the right direction.