Hertz - Hertz's Awful Website

First of all I tried searching here for #1 award and the most recent post that came up with 2005? The stickies all seem the be about other topics other than #1 awards.

I was just trying to find a simple list of awards but even this is proving difficult. The closest I can find is this which only provides an 'example':
https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/emember/join/index.jsp?targetPage=clubsBenefitsView.jsp&contentPage=n1Awardslist.jsp

Second of all, it is not remotely clear even if I had a list, how I go about redeeming the points. I can't seem to book a reservation with points as you would a hotel or airline ticket. I'm trying to see about booking a five day trip in Costa Rica (either out of SJO or LIR) but it just seems impossible. One post I did find in 2005 said you cannot redeem points for international stays anyways so maybe all of this doesn't matter.

Lastly, looking at age restrictions, I'll be 24 and 9 months so they might not even let me rent in Costa Rica at all. Frustrating since I've rented thousands of dollars worth of cars for dozens of weeks in the US.

Overall this seems like a huge hassle, should I just convert at the awful rate to AA miles and be done with it?

Award Chart Link (https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/emember/affinity/account/index.jsp?targetPage=whatCanIGetView.jsp) Click "Redeem & Reserve Now" for it to display.

Awards can only be used in US and Canada.

Do whatever you want. You sound pretty whiney and negative about the program already. I find awards to be very valuable, it really depends on how you use them.

Thank you for the tip Tummy, I had found that page earlier, but hadn't clicked the button. It seems like poor design you have to click a radio button to get them to display in line with the page, set on the example page there is no link to the full list. Also the button is titled 'reserve and redeem now' instead of 'display awards' which doesn't help.

I don't want to sound negative, but since I am not very familiar with Hertz, I am concerned I would end up picking the wrong cert and then end up having to pay something. If I am renting for five days from Wed thru Sunday would it be one free week even though it is part week part weekend? I can call always call customer service, but I just don't see why its so convoluted. Are all of the major car rental companies like this?

Is there a reason why they are set up like this instead of airlines/hotels where you select the route and class of service you want then it just tell you how many miles you have to spend? It would seem like that would just be easier and more intuitive overall.

Thanks again for the help.

Daeus, I'm going to go sit with the team responsible for these pages to share your comments about the usability.

Tummy, Don't be too hard on him. I know how I get when websites don't work the way I want them to.... Thanks for your help.

Daeus, I'm going to go sit with the team responsible for these pages to share your comments about the usability.

Tummy, Don't be too hard on him. I know how I get when websites don't work the way I want them to.... Thanks for your help.

I think one thing that makes it more confusing is there are two fly-out menus that simply say "#1 Awards". Both "My Account" and "#1 Club" have that menu option, making it more difficult for people to have a mental note of where to find the awards page since they go to different pages.

I always seem to pick the wrong "#1 Awards" menu option before finding the page I want. I work with companies on the usability of their websites. Having two links with the same name going to different pages always causes confusion.

I don't want to sound negative, but since I am not very familiar with Hertz, I am concerned I would end up picking the wrong cert and then end up having to pay something. If I am renting for five days from Wed thru Sunday would it be one free week even though it is part week part weekend? I can call always call customer service, but I just don't see why its so convoluted. Are all of the major car rental companies like this?

Is there a reason why they are set up like this instead of airlines/hotels where you select the route and class of service you want then it just tell you how many miles you have to spend? It would seem like that would just be easier and more intuitive overall.

Thanks again for the help.

Sorry if I sound abrupt, maybe I was having a bad day.

Believe it or not, the current site is better than the old one from about a year ago.

Customer service is very poor now so I don't expect much help.

If I were you depending on timing, I would pay for one day and use a weekend award for the other days. You would have to switch cars though. Weekends in many locations start Thursday, so you could get Thurs-Sun using the weekend award. Otherwise Wed-Sunday counts as a week rental using awards.

I also save my award points for nice cars from the Prestige collection, or the Corvettes. I would never redeem points for a week long Camry rental for example since a similar amount of points could be worth 3x or more. We rented a Hummer H2 (http://thaitum.com/photos_public/hertz/pictures/dsc07075.html) (several years ago when they were popular) in Hawaii for a week and used 5,000 points saving $3,200 (walk up rate with tax). Without the points, I would have never rented a car like that, and we would have never seen some of the things we did.

mmcdowell, if you're soliciting feedback, I work in web "user experience design" and you need a lot of help. The site also doesn't work properly on an iPhone. Maybe you should make an iPhone App that would help things instead of using the mobile conversion provider that you do. The steps and number of pages involved with trying to make a reservation is infuriating. I haven't been able to make a booking on my phone so had to call or wait for a time I could get on a computer. I hate calling reservations and I'm sure it costs you more.

Daeus, I'm going to go sit with the team responsible for these pages to share your comments about the usability.

Tummy, Don't be too hard on him. I know how I get when websites don't work the way I want them to.... Thanks for your help.

Cool - glad to know someone form Hertz is reading through this stuff.

The Hertz reservation system in general is full of glitches. Look at this:

A few weeks ago, I booked the FL one-way special, MIA to NY HLE. RQ 1WAY, AAA CDP, and underage PC. For the week, $22 plus $10/day airport tax, with a "guaranteed" total of $62 and change. If I weren't underage, I could have used the $35 off a weekly rental PC and cut the total for the 5 day rental, airport tax included, to a "guaranteed" $35 and change.

The Internet took the reservation without a hitch. The Central Booking phone agent and online chat agent confirmed multiple times there should be no problem whatsoever. They did hint I might not get the subcompact I reserved, since those frequently get overbooked and it's not the end of the world if they do. The gas mileage is still good. I was satisfied. I booked my plane ticket, arranged for a hotel, packed up my EZPass, and was all set to come to Miami for an affordable vacation driving up the coast.

I arrived at MIA to find the most incompetent people I have ever encountered. One looked at the $22.48 and said, "Impossible- to go to New York?" Another agent had to remind him there is a one-way special to NY. Then the agent said his counter computer wouldn't let him enter my combination of promotions. Multiple times he tried handing me a contract with a much higher rate and an underage surcharge. I said if they don't want to honor my supposedly guaranteed rate, they can buy me a plane ticket home and pay my expenses to come to Miami for the roadtrip. I said if I can't trust the Hertz system to honor what I booked, there's no sense in reserving.

After 2 hours of arguing, the staff finally called the 800 number. There was definitely a language barrier. The staff huddled in the corner, whispering in Spanish and working on the computer. The central booking agent told them to do an adjustment to bring the rate down to what I agreed to. I then went out to the parking garage. There were plenty of freshly detailed compacts and large gas guzzlers lined up in adjacent rows, with no tiny cars. In my slot was a tomato sauce red Cobalt full of paint chips, scratches, scuffs, smudgy glass, interior stains, and sand on the doorsills. I went back to complain about the junk they pre-assigned me. The staff admitted they always give the worst car for one-ways because they want to get rid of it.

I asked the counter staff to make a copy of the original "pre-existing damage" report, with a paragraph written on the state of this car. I called NY to inform them of the junk heading their way. I also reconfirmed, for about the fourth time, that I could return the car early and avoid a day of accruing airport tax. The NY branch seemed eager to get the car and happily agreed.

Upon returning the car one day early in NY, the very friendly agent viewed the arrival as a Christmas present. He then sat down at his desk to spend what turned out to be half an hour cleaning up the big mess Miami had made in the computer. The rental correctly appeared on their screen as an inbound from MIA, but the rate information was all screwed up. Because of the "adjustment," the agent was unable to remove one day's charge and airport tax from the total bill, so I was charged the full $62 anyway. The kind agent offered to give me back the car for one more day. But I didn't need it anymore, it was already cleaned and parked nose out, and I realized they had just offered the car to another customer waiting patiently for the agent to close out my rental. So I let them keep it. Sure enough, the keys immediately changed hands to the elderly gentleman. A midsize car was also returned and re-rented within a span of 10 minutes. This branch is quick.

I soon found another big computer glitch. I had booked another one-way to NY, this time from another HLE in CA. At that time, the Internet took my AAA CDP and underage PC with no problem. I was satisfied with my rate and booked the plane and hotel in SFO. I later realized the same weekly rate applies for 5 days as 7, with a few dollars extra because of the local tax. But this time the computer said I couldn't modify the rental and keep the underage PC. I checked, and the computer would now not let an identical reservation be made using the underage PC.

I asked the online chat agent for advice. She was able to change the rental to the 7 days and keep the underage promo. The agent also promised the good rate I was quoted will be the rate I get. Just to be sure, I printed the chat as documentation. Upon investigating the problem, this nice agent said that their computer has a programming glitch regarding the addition of the underage promo code. So, Hertz is essentially trying to capture a customer market and pushing them away at the same time.

Auto Enthusiast, I'm going to look into your comment about a glitch with the underage PC online. Sorry about the counter problems.

Auto Enthusiast, I've gotten a response on your Underage PC issue. It turns out the SFO is one of a short list of locations being used to pilot some new backend software. Unfortunately, the website only gets to point to one version, in this case the new one, so when it encountered the glitch there was nothing it could do. The agent on the chat, though, has more manual access to the various systems and as a result has the ability to get around the glitch using the older software. I'm told this is being worked on at the present time. Again, sorry for the issues.

I am actually really happy that the chat staff was able to help you. This is exactly the kind of thing that drove us to get that feature online in the first place.

I also called the CA HLE, who confirmed there should be no problem with my reservation. The only caveat is due to the CA emissions law, they will need to find a car registered out-of-state, or they will have to pay a fine for sending a CA-plated car to another region. So the agent said another upsize at no charge might be in order. The Cobalt got 35 mpg, which was pretty good.

Thanks very much for your help. I'm persistent, but some people might have gotten impatient and not bothered.

When I try to book a car online with my gold club using the underage PC, it comes that Hertz website does not eliminate the uunderage fee in the step 4 - reservation. I tried to call Hertz in Brazil (where I am) and in the US and both agents told me to not worrie, just make the reservation WITH the underage fee and then the reps in MIA would certainly remove the fee manually. Would you believe in that "worry-free" procedure in MIA?