Hertz - Be Careful With Your "Discount"

I can't believe it!

I wanted to rent a car in PBI for 6 days in May. I entered my Gold membership number, and the "discount" number for belonging to the Israeli Business Club.

Price (with loss collision damage, tax, etc.): $422.

I took out the "discount" number and still got Gold service and the same LCD et al. Price: $217.16.

I then tried, one more time, using my AirTran CDP number and got the reservation for $197.42.

I saved $224.58 by refusing to take my Business Club "discount"!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Dovster:

I then tried, one more time, using my AirTran CDP number and got the reservation for $197.42.</font>

Can you clarify? There is an AirTran discount number? Who is eligible? I am AirTran Elite.

http://www.airtran.com/aboutus/news/aplus_hertz.jsp

This is not an unusual occurrence. A lot of club "discount" codes result in very high rates. (Put in a Costco code if you really want to see some funny rates!)

Those airline 5% off codes are all pretty nice because they work on top of weekend rates and other discounted-type rates.

With any booking, you should always compare rates for all of the CDP/PC combinations available to you, as well as a quote with no codes.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pinniped:
With any booking, you should always compare rates for all of the CDP/PC combinations available to you, as well as a quote with no codes.</font>

If you make your reservation far enough it advance, it also helps to check the rates occasionally. I recently rented a car in PHX. When I made my initial reservation, it was over $400. I checked every few weeks and eventually it went down to $250. Seems like rates start out high, then they drop about a month before, then they go up again.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Razzle-D:
Can you clarify? There is an AirTran discount number? Who is eligible? I am AirTran Elite.</font>

When I got my AirTran Elite card two months ago there was a second one in the envelope for Hertz. It gaves the CDP 1259680. I think anyone is eligible for it as it did not have my name on it nor did it say "Elite."

I have since arranged with Hertz Israel to make this my default CDP.

Incidentally, I wrote to Hertz asking why my "discount" from the Israeli Business Club gave me a price more than twice the cost of not having any discount at all.

I received a one-sentence reply:

"A Corporate Discount Program number is a contract set up with a variety of
Companies and Hertz. At that time they set up the rates."

Not even a "Dear Sir" or "Sincerely yours". Is Hertz always this complete and courteous in its customer service letters?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Dovster:

Not even a "Dear Sir" or "Sincerely yours". Is Hertz always this complete and courteous in its customer service letters?

</font>

Almost always!

Anyone know how AAA rates compare? I usually use that because it's a 10% discount.

In my experience, AAA rates are almost always the best. Once in a long while, American Express Platinum is better.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by johnky:
Anyone know how AAA rates compare? I usually use that because it's a 10% discount.</font>

I've used my AAA rates for certain 1-day rentals in the past. I haven't yet found a situation where AAA was the best for weekend or weekly, but on short, mid-week rentals where ALL rates are high, AAA works fairly well.

Of course, my 1-day-free ZE1 certs work even better. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif