GrizShel

Just found out that apparently an email went out in mail announcing the change in policy (You MUST cancel more than 24 hours prior to your pickup time); had a really difficult time getting points back for a reservation that I apparently didn't cancel in time from a few weeks ago. Supposedly I will now get them back, as a "One Time Courtesy". There is now fine print on new confirmations stating this policy - and they really mean it!

Also, I couldn't figure out where the points were restored to my account from a reservation with points from last December, Hertz Gold Service refused to even look at it saying that was their policy to not review under any circumstances account activity questions older than 6 months. They were very firm on this.

I'm shocked by all of this. I previously thought Hertz was among the best in Customer Service.

I think I am going to go back to only accumulating 3rd party miles or points for Hertz rentals, I don't want to take any chances and will just use up the points I have as of now for rentals that I am absolutely sure I won't need to cancel. And I probably will be using Hertz less overall from here on.

Hertz also makes it hard to track points with specific reservations as they don't list the points used in the reservation, in the confirmation email, and the Account Activity online doesn't associate any transaction with a specific rental.

holodoc

I fell foul of this too. lost 600 points for a rental in St Thomas - cancelled due to change of plan but just less than 24 hours notice - thought I was being nice cancelling instead of no showing

mr_burdell

When did this take effect? I did this on the 13th and my points appear to have been refunded, although I think it took several days for the correction to show up.

doctor15

As far as I know, this has always been the case. It happened to me about a year ago.

jerry305

(I'm not a Hertz regular but...)

On reward reservations at other car rental companies, I've made the reservation as normal, and then changed the reservation to use rewards points, or a free day, or what not, at the counter.

Certainly, if I was a no-show for my normal reservation, I wouldn't suffer any consequences.

Is this switcharoo doable with these rewards?

goldenbear

Thanks for the information - I had never heard of that policy even if it was in there somewhere. Was bound to get tripped up by it at some point I'm sure.

Now is there any prohibition of just booking with points the day of? Unless you want a specific car, a well in advance reservation on points doesn't buy you much. Seems like one can get around this by cancelling a reservation 24+ hours out and making a new one the day of. Obviously that is a royal pain, which is why this is a bad money grubbing policy to start with.

Or could one change the reservation on the day of pickup to a future date, then cancelling now that it's not in the 24 hour window.

GrizShel

Two different Hertz Representatives on two different phone calls told me that an email notice went out to members in May of this year regarding the change of policy (i..e, you lose all of your points if the reservation isn't canceled within 24 hours of pickup.) Maybe someone can find that? I haven't been able to and they said they were unable to resent it to me.

I won't be making any points reservations from now on unless I am extremely confident I won't have to change plans. Still, if something happens less than 24 hours before, I guess I am so out of luck.

This whole experience definitely has taken Hertz off the top of my preferred rental car companies. I've seen the dark side of this company now; not sure now that they are much better than the scum companies of the car rental world (I think most of you know who those guys are). At least they still don't constantly try to upsell me (Gold service usually helps prevent that.)

This could possibly be a workaround, but I worry that at that point they would refuse to change the reservation.

Also note that I had a reservation cancelled more than 24 hours in advance and the points didn't go back to the account - I had to get a manual adjustment. So that's also an issue.