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Um, I just earned exactly 36 Hertz points for a daily rental. Don’t let this happen to you.

a black car with a windmill in the background

The other day, I wrote about how my family spent the day walking through San Francisco. It was super fun, highly recommend, yada yada yada.

But here’s what happened when we got off the ferry and piled back into the car: the engine light clicked on. SIGH. Talk about bad timing: it was now 4:30 pm on a holiday. We were all tired from walking all day, my son had to pee, my daughter was sooooo thirsty, and Josh had to get home for a work call. (Did you ever see the Seinfeld episode where they are lost in the parking garage? It was kind of like that, only we weren’t lost. Just guaranteed not to get home for at least another hour).

Josh and I quickly pulled out our phones to do some triage. He called the car dealership while I found a rental car. We clearly were on borrowed time, so I did the best thing I could think of and searched on Priceline and Hotwire, ultimately finding a rate of $32 for a day. For convenience and timing, we were limited to two locations near the dealership – one Avis, one Hertz.

Fine. $32. Whatever. I booked with Hertz, we drove to the location, Josh rented the car, yada yada yada.

But I have to admit my stomach dropped a little when I logged into Josh’s Hertz account this morning and saw this:

Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 9.03.46 PM

 

Ugh…36 points?! Really? At this rate, it would take 16 rental days to earn a one free weekend day. Unacceptable.

Here’s what I could have done:

Normally, my strategy for renting a car is that I find the best rate I can through VroomVroomVroom, then enter this rate on Autoslash to see if they can beat it. Normally, they can….but it takes them a couple of weeks to find a better rate.

So, in cases like my situation today, when you just need an emergency car for a day or two, it could be worth your time to simply rent directly through the car rental site (even if it’s slightly more expensive…sometimes time is money), then apply a code manually to earn some extra points.

In my case, the rate I got on Hotwire and the rate I found directly on the Hertz site were exactly the same. (Probably because I was picking up the car within the hour!)

For these situations, here’s a site that I recommend bookmarking. It’s called Frequent Flyer Bonuses, and it is awesome. The site lists all of the current bonuses for all of the airline/hotel/car rental programs. The bonuses are categorized in an easy-to-read manner so you can quickly find exactly what will meet your needs. Here is a small snapshot (there is much, much more on the site):

Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 9.44.36 PM

Simply decide which points currency you’d like to earn, cross reference with the number of days that you will need, double check the date, and you’re good to go.

From the options above, I could have earned quadruple miles with Alaska Airlines. I missed out on 144 miles! Dangit.

Anyway, it’s something to have in your back pocket. Just in case.

What’s your strategy for last-minute rentals? Do you have any good tips to share?

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28 Comments

  1. The care rental companies (Hertz for sure) charge a daily fee when you choose to earn ariline miles. Make sure you compare that fee against the miles you are earning before selecting miles.

  2. Actually, I’d rather have 36 Hertz points. I have gotten $100 of value from one Hertz rental day in Calgary and New York City. 1/16th of that is $6. 144 Alaska miles are not worth $6 to me. Plus, as Ms. M mentioned, if the daily fee is $0.75 (or more?) for miles but free for Hertz points, the points look even better.

  3. Yes, most car rental companies do charge a fee (Hertz is a $1/day, from what I remember), but I believe you can get around the fee by crediting miles to a non-US based airline.

  4. Since Hertz earning rates are quite clearly 1 point per dollar spent excluding taxes and fees, I’m not sure what part of this surprises you.

    On another note, FFB is clutch. Nice find

  5. Ms. M – Good point, thanks for adding.

    Adam – I was being a little flip regarding the Alaska miles 😉 My point was that you can take a look at the chart to see if there is anything of personal interest to you.

    missydee7 – Also a good tip, thank you for adding.

    Jake – Not surprised at all, just used to earning more points per rental. Glad you liked FFB.

  6. I pretty much use Avis exclusively, consistently great rates either Corp, Corp-Leisure, or Amex, and rentals go towards status and rewards

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