From Sea-Tac to the Ship: When a Rental Car Beats Link, a Cab or a Transfer

At $52 the SEA car lands near $83 for the day, our arithmetic, fuel in. A metered cab to Pier 91 is about $48 for the whole car — the ride wins for two and for four.

Pier 66 barely changes the sum — the facility is about 14.6 miles from it, and the same day comes to roughly $83.

What the calculator can’t show is the return.

We found no desk at either pier, so a car collected at SEA either goes back to the airport or to a downtown counter, followed by a second ride to the ship.

Rent here only when the car has a job after you land — a Rainier day before the sailing, say. The day trips are priced on their own page.

The rental car facility at 3150 S 160th St in SeaTac, about 2 miles from the terminal, reached by a common shuttle from baggage claim (doors or carousels 1, 2 or 15) roughly every 5 minutes.

Avis gives the exits: door 2 or door 15 from baggage claim, then the common shuttle that all the brands share.

Enterprise says the shuttle runs around the clock — and warns of construction delays on the way, so allow for them on a tight sail-day schedule.

Avis is open 24 hours; Hertz 5 AM to 1 AM; Enterprise 5 AM to 11:45 PM; National’s page lists no hours but takes keys in a drop box after hours.

Landing after 1 AM? Avis is the only counter on our list that’s open, so book there or wait until 5.

Alamo, Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Hertz, National, Sixt and Thrifty all show up on Discover Cars’ SEA page.

Hertz has no city desk near either pier, so for Hertz, SEA is the place to collect.

Pier 91 sits about 11 minutes farther than Pier 66 on these numbers, mostly because it’s north of downtown, not on the way.

The port’s directions to Pier 91 from I-5: take the Mercer Street exit (167), go 1.7 miles, turn right on Elliott Ave W, then right at the W Galer Street flyover (the Magnolia Bridge).

You don’t need the SR 99 tunnel for either pier — Alaskan Way is free. The hub has the toll table if your route takes it.

Treat every time here as the quiet-road version. Leave double on a weekday morning.

SEA’s customer facility charge was $6.50 a rental day from Jan 1, 2021, per a 2022 Port of Seattle audit report; the port’s current rates page was closed to us, so it may have changed. Over a two-week rental that’s $91 — if the rate still stands.

The port takes 10% of a rental company’s gross revenue; companies pass that on as a concession recovery fee whose rate we didn’t find on a brand page, so we assume 11%. Your quote’s own line replaces our 11% — look for a concession recovery fee.

Two weeks at SEA cost about $211 more than the same car downtown — on these assumptions, anyway.

The tax gap between SeaTac and Seattle is tiny — the airport lines do the work, not the tax.

Avis SEA lists a $27-a-day surcharge for renters under 25 and $13 a day for an additional driver.

We didn’t check the downtown desks for the same lines.

What SEA buys for the money is hours, not a better car. Downtown desks close by 4 to 7 PM, and the hub’s checker shows which.

Discover Cars showed SEA “from $52/day” (economy from $51.80 through Budget) on Oct 2, 2026; an earlier site read on Sept 26 recorded “from $31”, so prices move.

A from-price is the floor of one search, not the price of your trip — your dates, your class and your return place will move it.

An economy car rarely fits a cruise family’s luggage. Enterprise’s own figures put a midsize car at three suitcases:

Count bags before seats. Seven days of Alaska layers for four people is a minivan’s load, not a compact’s.

Deposits and Discover Cars’ Full Coverage are the other moving parts, and our Discover Cars review covers both.

Paine Field (Everett) lists Avis and Budget, Alamo, Enterprise and National at the terminal, but no hours or counter location; Hertz isn’t listed.

Bellingham’s airport page says only that several rental companies are “located in the area”, with no names or hours.

We didn’t route either airport to the piers, and we won’t guess a time — both sit well north of downtown.

If your flight lands at Paine Field, call the counter for its hours before you plan a sail-day pick-up.

If a car belongs in the trip at all, it belongs to the days around the cruise, not the ride to it.

Search SEA for those dates, then a downtown desk, and compare the totals with the airport lines in. The after-cruise page covers collecting the morning you dock.