Hertz - Anyone Else Having Trouble with the New 30 Minute Grace Period?

So, I went to return my car yesterday (59 minutes late, as usual) and was very unpleasantly surprised to learn that they had changed the grace period from 60 minutes to 30 minnutes. Particularly so when my extra hour charge in NYC turned out to be $52! Luckily the counter employee knows me well from my many rentals and he was nice enough to remove the extra hour charge. As someone who always pushes rentals to the last minute, this new policy will significantly impact me. Anyone else in this boat?

Yep, me too. In spit of my wrath over the $9.50 fuel surcharge at Budget, looks like I'll be opting for Budget (or better yet Alamo/National) over Hertz when I plan to cut things close. Especially when I pick up in city (and have control over my pick up time) I tend to want to get as much as I can from the rental.

BTW, I wouldn't mind so much if extra hour charges were reasonable, say 1/8 of the daily rate, but they tend to be 1/2 to 1/3 of the daily rate which makes them fairly exorbitant, and as a result I'll jump through hoops to avoid paying it. That said I guess most business travelers don't pay attention.

See this. :td:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=514204

I haven't had any troubles with it yet, but I personally think it sucks that they dropped it down. Side note - one thing I'd love to see Hertz do is offer 1/2 day rental pricing after the first full day. I hate the fact that on a trip where you arrive Day 1 at 3PM & then on Day 2, you leave at 7PM, you're charged for 2 full days & when you only had the car for 28 hours.

Depends on what you mean by trouble. Have I been caught unaware? No, since I found out about the change here on FT. However, having pushed it plenty of times in the past, I'm now finding myself killing extra time at the airport waiting for flights after being forced into an earlier return than I would have liked. Yes, it is only 30 minutes, but I value my time.

Hertz says this change in policy brings them in-line with the competition, which is partially true. However, I think bhatnasx's idea of half-day pricing would be a GREAT idea and a strong competitive advantage to encourage people to rent 1.5 days with Hertz vs. 2 days with the competition. Hertz doesn't really seem to care what we, the customers, want so I'd be surprised to see that happen.

There's another interesting change related to this. In the past I could book a rental picking up at, for example, 2 pm, and returning at 2:45 pm, and the reservation would be for 1 day. Now, even going over 15 minutes generates a quote that includes an extra hour charge.

There's another interesting change related to this. In the past I could book a rental picking up at, for example, 2 pm, and returning at 2:45 pm, and the reservation would be for 1 day. Now, even going over 15 minutes generates a quote that includes an extra hour charge.
I wouldn't necessarily call that "another interesting change", it's a direct outcome of the grace period dropping from 59 to 30 minutes.
Has anyone done a rundown of the "competition"? -- I'm pretty sure Avis and Budget still have 60 minute grace periods.

I wouldn't necessarily call that "another interesting change", it's a direct outcome of the grace period dropping from 59 to 30 minutes.
Has anyone done a rundown of the "competition"? -- I'm pretty sure Avis and Budget still have 60 minute grace periods.

I know Thrifty is not in the same league as Hertz. After a fender bender with my personal car, I rented from Thrifty because it was half price of Hertz. I asked what the grace period was & they said 0 min. I reserved the car for a certain pickup time & showed up about 40 min late. They would have started my time from the reserved time but the counter lady allowed me to start the clock when I got the car. I booked a mid size & got an 2006 Altima. ^ Ended up renting that for 2 weeks. :D ^ Paid $228 all in for 2 weeks! :)

Bottom line: If the price was just a little less, I would have gone with Hertz. With Hertz being double, I went with Thrifty. Overall, decent rental. I can live with zero minute grace if I know ahead of time.

I can live with zero minute grace if I know ahead of time.
I can live with a zero grace period too, if my flight schedule dictates that I don't need it (e.g., a 5pm arrival and then a 3pm departure the next day pretty much guarantees that I won't need the grace period). But there are enough times when I do want/need that extra 30-60 minutes, in which case Hertz becomes more expensive, by a factor of roughly 33% (extra hour charge). Particularly when renting for a day/weekend in Manhattan.

Their grace period policy also works in reverse too. For instance, I rented a car last week for 3 days and returned it in 2.5 days. They only charged me for 2 days plus a couple hours - can't remember how much exactly, but it was definitely less than the 3 day estimate they provided me.

So for those people who rent a car for 28 hours and get an upfront estimate for 2 days, your actual charges might potentially be 1 day plus an hour penalty or so.