Hertz - Getting miles in a "blocked" account

My company has negotiated a deal with Hertz so that I don't accumulate miles and they save money. Is there a way around this system whereby, I can fax in my receipts to an airline or even Hertz to receive pts?

You must work for the same company I do. I have had luck with asking the car return person to input my airline frequent flyer number...this worked a year or two ago, anyway. I quit doing it because it just wasn't worth the hassle.

The legal way around it would be to not book with the company CDP code, but then you wouldn't get your companies benefits (typically insurance or LDW) either and you would probably violate your companies policies. On the other hand, you may not have too much to worry about if you could use a Diners Club card for the primary rental car insurance, but it would probably still violate company policy, particularly if the rate turns out to be higher than the negotiated rates.

It's a shame they did it that way, but you aren't really missing that much anyway. The miles on rentals are slim, and the ZE1 points take a long time to earn. Rven so, I can understand why you might not want to leave them on the table.

-David


[This message has been edited by LIH Prem (edited 05-21-2003).]

Since this is part of the negotiated deal, any miles that you get by sending in a request would constitute fraud on your part. The better option is probably to inform your company that unless they pay you additional money to compensate you for the miles you lost, you will quit.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sbrower:
The better option is probably to inform your company that unless they pay you additional money to compensate you for the miles you lost, you will quit. </font>

Excellent idea, that is definitely what you should do ...

Thanks for the input guys. I don't think a few Car Rental pts would cause me to either negotiate with my employer for more money or cause me to quit. I don't think that it would be considered fraud either if a different company gave me pts for using a partner of theirs.

It is near impossible to make arrangements outside of the specified travel company since they monintor how you book your travel.

I am nervous about the trend, though since my company does not allow either Amex pts or car rental pts. They could certainly begin negotiating with the airlines to disallow pts. When you travel a lot even the small pts add up to a rental here, a golf club there. Just trying to maximize my pts.

Just a couple of questions...

On the Amex points, do they require you to use a corporate card (sounds like, probably, yes) for your car and air travel bookings through the company's travel dept?

I'm wondering because some corporate Amex cards DO allow your accumulating points, but many do not. Check this out. You might be able to earn Membership Rewards points.

I don't know a thing you can do with the Hertz deal, though. Only thing I can suggest here is try t get Neverlost included in your cars...this can really pay for itself in strange places as it gets you where you are going withought spending hours and hours lost. No kidding, before Neverlost, I would on occasion spend several hours wanering around, and at the rates my company charged, they lost enough in one hour to pay for Neverlost for the whole week! Just a thought.

Hopefully, you DO get to keep you airline miles, though you rightfully did not address this off-topic issue, but I hope you do.

And, yes, FWIW, the Hertz points are slow to earn and if you don't get them, I'd think this a minor point compared to airline miles and hotel frequent stayer points.

And, yes, the "small" points do add up if you travel enough...but keep in mind that you earned them through you blood, sweat, tears, cancelled flights, stranded weekends, rebookings, and weather delays ten times over.

Good luck, and don't threaten to resign over Hertz points, OK?

[This message has been edited by hnechets (edited 05-26-2003).]

Sounds like I belong to the same company as sasafrass and BoulderFlyer. I'm sure there are a bunch of others here at FT. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

What BoulderFlyer posted does indeed still work. It is a little bit of a hassle but those points really do add up over time. I asked if it was possible to add the code to the profile and was told 'No, you have to request it every time' by a Hertz employee who was familiar with our company.

For business travel, I always book using our corporate code and I always use our corporate card. As far as I know, we pretty much HAVE to use our corporate card for car, hotel, and airfare charges. For airfare, I book through our travel agency (a little easier now with the online option) but for hotel and car rentals I book it on my own (hotels - usually online, cars - using the 800 number).

And as far as a I know, we don't get any credit card points (with Diner's previously or with Amex now).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sbrower:
Since this is part of the negotiated deal, any miles that you get by sending in a request would constitute fraud on your part. The better option is probably to inform your company that unless they pay you additional money to compensate you for the miles you lost, you will quit. </font>

That's what I'd do - you need to lay down the line with your employer. We're talking 50 AAdvantage miles per day here. In fact, I'd probably hire a team of lawyers to fight for my rights. This is just another case of The Man keeping you down.

Seriously, just take the ZE1 points and be happy. Hertz lets you accumulate those even on CDP codes where FF miles are banned.

I actually have grown to like ZE1 points better than the few air miles I'd otherwise get. I always seem to need a single-day rental here and there (for which no cheap rates or normal discounts apply). 600 points takes care of what would otherwise cost me $50-60.