I think this is buzz-worthy because some folks may not check the rental car forums too often even if they rent cars.

National and Avis both have excellent promotions going on that you need to sign up for and be an Emerald Club member (National) or have a Wizard Number (Avis) to take advantage of.

National One. Two. Free. Promotion

National's One. Two. Free. Promotion will give you a free day rental for every two rentals of two days or more. You must be an Emerald Club member to take advantage of this promotion. If you are not an Emerald Club member, you can sign up for free through this link. The offer also includes a code for one free day rental with a minimum two day rental that can result in some very good deals.

To make the deal even sweeter, you can earn credit for your first rental just by submitting or confirming your email address after signing up, meaning you only need one rental to get your first free day certificate.

Qualifying rentals must be made between September 1, 2003 and December 18, 2003 while free day certificates may be redeemed from January 2, 2004 through June 20, 2004. There's no limit to the number of free days that can be earned. Free rental is good for intermediate to fullsize car.

The existing Flyertalk thread on this promtion is in the National forum here. Big thanks to Canarsie for finding and posting this promo first in the National forum!

It appears that Avis followed the lead of National and kicked off their own promo then ...

Avis DriveFree

Avis' DriveFree Promotion will give you a free weekend rental (two consecutive weekend days) for three rentals of two days or more. To take advantage of this offer you must have an Avis Wizard Number which you can get for free by becoming an Avis Preferred member through this link.

Qualifying rentals must be made between September 1, 2003 and December 31, 2003 while free day certificates may be redeemed from October 2, 2003 through May 17, 2004 (there are some blackout dates). A maximum of three free weekends can be earned from this promotion. Free rental is good for class B (compact 4-door) through class E (full-size 4-door) car.

The existing Flyertalk thread on this promtion is in the Avis forum here. Big thanks to apirchik for finding and posting this promo first in the Avis forum!

Beckles-

Thanks for this relevant cross-post. Since I never go into car rental forums, your taking the initiative is appreciated.

I believe this is a good example of a well-thought out use of discretion on cross-posting. While moderator may lock the post since the key info has already been articulated by Beckles, I'm pleased that I got the chance to be exposed to it.

What if you are already a Emerald Club member? Can I still take advantage of this offer and get the credit for giving the email address as well? I have been a member for a number of years and this is news to me.

Jon

Never mind I found it.

Thrifty also has a nice one (1) for triple miles. Two (2) day rental will net 750 miles with such programs as NW World Perks
and HP Flight Fund. Expires 11/14/2003.

As usual, Hertz is MIA.

I just received this Hertz offer on my USAirways statement and took advantage of it for an upcoming trip to SEA.
Receive a free day from Hertz on all qualifying leisure weekly and leisure weekend rate rentals of three days or more. For details visit:

http://offers.hertz.com/airlinefreed...?uniqueid=3863

The rate for the paid days were discounted too.

Jay

I like the Thrifty promotion for quadruple miles (1000 miles) per rental with America West. Till Dec. 31. No minimum rental.

Sweet!

Thanks Tom.

Hertz isn't doing too bad: they ALWAYS have good weekend specials going on, including free days and usually something like double ZE1 points (which, used properly, are worth far more than the FF miles you can from renting cars).

You are very welcome!

Everyone has different values, but I honestly don't think the bonus mile offers listed here are anywhere near as valuable as the free days National and Avis are giving out.

In particular, with National offering not only a free day after every two rentals, but also a free day on a two-day weekend rental (all the offers for free days I've ever seen from Hertz require a three day rental, which I usually don't have on weekends anyway), I think National's offer is pretty hard to beat.

As an example, I'm going to Florida twice in October, two day rentals each time. My total for the rentals using the coupon National has with this promo is under $70 ... that's including taxes and fees, so for under $70 I'm getting two two-day rentals (Emerald Aisle, so minimum of mid-size car) and a certificate for a free day rental for use later (and 200 AA miles too for the rentals ...).

Of course, it doesn't hurt that I haven't been able to get Hertz, Avis, or even Thrifty to price less than National recently regardless of coupons/promos used, so they already start with an advantage.

I also think Avis' offer is good, it's just I haven't been getting nearly as good of pricing through Avis as I have National as of late.

Hertz usually has $20 off of a 2-day weekend rental. Not quite "one free day", but close enough when you consider weekend rates are always in the low $20's and Hertz is usually pretty liberal with the weekend upgrades.