Hertz - Rent 5 days and return a day early?

I am sure this has been asked somewhere, but no search.

Hertz has some great FRDM weekly rates for MSY over Memorial Day weekend, but I only need it for Wed noon - Sun noon. The 5-day rate is significantly cheaper than 4 days.

I want to pay for 5 day rate at return. How do they deal with a 5-day rental that I would return a day early?

I am sure this has been asked somewhere, but no search.

Hertz has some great FRDM weekly rates for MSY over Memorial Day weekend, but I only need it for Wed noon - Sun noon. The 5-day rate is significantly cheaper than 4 days.

I want to pay for 5 day rate at return. How do they deal with a 5-day rental that I would return a day early?
You need to keep the car for 4 days, 1 hour and 1 minute in order to get a weekly rate.

I was afraid of that.

I can't do the extra hour+ at the return end, but could make my pickup 1:15 earlier than we actually do arrive, since that's the time that's printed on the Gold receipt hanging in the car. I could then call them from the airport and tell them I'll be late so they don't release the car.

But then, I suppose I risk them re-printing my rez with the new pickup time and I'm hosed again. Decisions, decisions... :confused:

I just dealt with the same issue in MCO and probably would have missed my flight because of it, but my flight ended up being delayed.

I kept my car just over 2 hours beyond the 4 days: 1 hour for the free hour they give you, and 1 hour because I was concerned they would change me from the weekly rate to a daily rate at 4 days + 1 extra hour. I tried calling Hertz at MCO to see how they would handle a return at 4 days and 61 minutes, and the guy said I could bring my receipt to customer service for an adjustment if I returned early and the rate changed. But I wasn't convinced he understood what I was asking and didn't want to take any chances.

I had also put the reservation time earlier than what I needed, without my flight info, but the rental wasn't ready when I got there and they had to put the current time on it.

Lets say someone I know has done this several times.

Reserved Sunday-Friday, but return Thursday. The receipt has a note that says something like, "There was a rate change, but you were given the lower rate".

I can't remember the exact wording.

Now that's interesting, Tummy... maybe I'll be OK after all!

Lets say someone I know has done this several times.

Reserved Sunday-Friday, but return Thursday. The receipt has a note that says something like, "There was a rate change, but you were given the lower rate".

I can't remember the exact wording.

I've found Hertz is pretty good about giving whatever is the lowest rate, so you might get lucky. At the same time, I know that if you rent in a major city on a Friday using a weekend rate for two days and then return the car the same day, they'll recalculate at a higher rate under the assumption that you were doing a business-related rental and trying to beat the system.

Hertz will not cancel a reservation for 24 hours after it's made, so if they assign you a vehicle and you show up late, it's not as if they won't have a car for you.

Another trick on return to stretch the time of rental might be to put they keys in the drop box, as I'm sure it usually takes Hertz several hours to go through everthing in there and enter return info into the computer.

Lets say someone I know has done this several times.

Reserved Sunday-Friday, but return Thursday. The receipt has a note that says something like, "There was a rate change, but you were given the lower rate".

I can't remember the exact wording.

Interesting timing on this thread- I had just posted a thread on the National board about them charging me the more expensive daily rate since I returned a car early.

I routinely return cars a day early when I'm on the weekly rate. (It's not too unusual for work at my client's site to finish early.) Hertz has always charged me the cheaper weekly rate that I was quoted in my reservation. I vaguely recall a few times when the returns person mentioned that I was still getting charged the weekly rate because it was cheaper.

YMMV, but Hertz has always handled this in an honorable way for me.