dmitzel

Wondering if someone can make heads or tails out of my credit info? I'm at a loss at understanding how much, if anything, I'm going to lose at the end of this calendar year. I'm at Executive level and actively renting this year - have a reservation at MKE next week and just got back from JAX last week.

When I pull up my record, it shows:

Current Available Balance: 4
Free Days Available: 2

Rental Credits Earned:
Rental # Credits Earned Expiration date for credit
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2037
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2007
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2037
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2007
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2006
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2007
XXXX 8 31-DEC-2037
XXXXXXXXX 1 31-DEC-2037

Now, I'm seeing two free days @ 6x2 credits = 12, plus 4 credits for a total of 16. When I look over the total listing, it seems like I may only lose 2 credits after 12/31, so I'm assuming that the others showing were used back when I took a pleasure trip in October of last year. (Why they're still showing is beyond me.)

Can anyone confirm/discount my "theory," or should I call National and try to find an agent that understands the credit system better than I?

TIA!

gforce

If I'm not mistaken, credits once banked into your online vault (or whatever you may call it) aren't taken away even if the corresponding rental expires. However, there is an expiration date for those 2 free rental days.

EmeraldClubInsider

You are correct gforce, Rental credits themselves do not expire as long as you are renting each year. However, the free rental days that you have earned will. I suggest giving member services a call and verifying the expiration date on your free days that have already been "banked". I hope this information is helpful. Thanks for renting, we appreciate your business!

trader61

This makes no sense to me. Don't 12 of the rental credits expire on 12/31/06 as noted? If so, how can you say they "do not expire" as long as he rents each year? Am I missing something here?

mfox

If there is anyone from National reading this, I'd just like to also add that the way the credits are displayed is very confusing. It should be clear when the free rental days expire.

cjw2001

I find today that my free rental days have dropped from 7 to 4 with no explanation. How are we supposed to manage this when there is no policy and no information given to the customer? I've been so busy traveling for work this last year that I haven't had time for a personal trip. So National rewards me for my extra business by taking rental days away. This is not a way to encourage loyalty among your most loyal (Executive Elite) customers.

trader61

Hmmm, I also lost a rental day today that was awarded from my "Rental credits....that do not expire". I think the EmeraldClubInsider should go back and learn his system better before telling us we won't lose our days.

While I personally only lost 1 rental day today, National has just lost 1 customer today. As an Executive Elite, they don't make a boatload off me each year but I'm currently around 30-40 days annually and have typically been closer to 20 days annualy since about 95.

So much for the new GPS system I was looking forward to using. I guess I'll test it while using up my remaining free days before they steal them from me too.

cjw2001

If you appreciated our business, you either wouldn't expire the rental days, or you would practice FULL DISCLOSURE and have the policy documented on the web site and the free rental days clearly listed in our accounts along with their expiration dates so that we can take proactive action. The current situation is unacceptable.

EdV

This is utterly unnaceptable! I had spoken to a CS agent earlier in the year who had assured me that as long as I was continuing to rent each year that my "Free Rental Days" would not expire. If I were not renting (or earning miles instead ) then the would expire the following year.

EmeraldClubInsider, can you help explain how I lost 6 free days?

deanhig

I sent a couple of emails about the disappearing free days. After the second (first was a what the h#$!) I received the following:

Thank you for your email

I apologize for any inconvenience, however in the terms and conditions of
the Emerald Club it is stated that your free day coupons will expire on
December 31 of the year following issue.

As a one time customer service courtesy I have requested that your expired
coupons be reinstated. Please be aware, in the future, that these coupons do
expire.

If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to contact
us.

Rachel
Emerald Club Member Services
National Car Rental

Have not seen a credit to my account however...

dmitzel

Well, as the OP of this thread I thought it best to post an update. To tell the truth, I really don't know what is going on (with the credits/free days). My account now shows:

Current Available Balance: 5
Free Days Available: 2

I guess my balance incremented by 1 due to a rental last month in MKE. Most interesting is that I didn't lose anything, from what I can tell. My best guess is that my hunch was right - the "expiring" credits were already used during a vacation trip to New England (MHT) over a year ago.

No idea why they (the used credits) would still be showing up on my profile, however. I agree - National needs to clean up how the credits/free days are displayed and accounted for. It is way too confusing now.

EdV

I called National instead of emailing, spoke to a wonderful agent who helped me out. In addition to asking to have some (if not all) of my rental days reinstated, I also was fixing past rentals which I didn't get credit for . Anyhow, she too said she had put the request in but I still haven't seen anything in my account and that was 3 days ago!

sc flier

This is not the first time that this problem has been brought up in FlyerTalk.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416854

I do believe that the T&Cs have been revised since this 2005 thread to help clarify the rule.
However, the National website still does not present any way for all customers to know exactly when each day was "banked" and therefore when it expires.

I might have lost a banked day this year, but I'm not sure.

Also, I'm a little curious about the handful of my rental credits that show an expiration date of 31-DEC-2037. No offense, but I have no expectation to still remain an EC member in 2037. A similar issue was reported in this thread.

sc flier

Followup: I actually learned that I had lost TWO banked days. A five minute conversation with Member Services (phone number is in small print above the Reservations number on the back of my card) got them to agree to reinstate those two days. It was not a difficult argument, but it wasn't something that they offered up front.

The agent did acknowledge that there is no way to clearly tell online how many banked days are ready to expire at the end of each year, but he said that a phone call to Member Services or Reservations can get that information at any time during the year.

Ironically, I couldn't get a straight answer about whether my Exec Elite status will extend beyond 28-FEB-2007. The agent said that yes, I'm "on track." Today, their system simply says that I have 1 rental credit for 2007. It doesn't say how many were in 2006.

I can count in my Rental History that I had only 23 rentals in 2006 -- 2 shy of EE status requirements. But to know the exact number of rental days among those rentals, I would have to add everything up myself from each rental agreement.

I am estimating at least 94 days last year, so I decided not to investigate each rental's details to get an exact count. Seems that I requalified with approximately 9 extra rental days.

For all those rentals, I earned just five free days that will expire at the end of 2007 + a couple 1-2-Free promo days that expire in June. (I didn't travel much in the second half of the year.)

zeazea

I also noticed that I had "lost" 3 free rental days on my National account. My total dropped from 7 to 4 at the beginning of the year. I took the advice in this column and also called National to complain about the lack of information on the website.

My first representative told me she could not reinstate my lost days but offered to transfer me to tech support in order to register my complaint about the website. That tech kept telling me that I should be able to tell from the listing of my rental credits when each free day expired. I told her that wasn't possible because it is an entire listing from 2005 and I don't know which rental credits went towards each free day. She finally admitted that she couldn't see my account on line and transferred me back to an EE rep.

This time I talked to Patty, who said they were getting lots of calls about this very problem and her supervisor said they were looking into it. She said they had no plans to change the website so apparently it isn't high on their list of improvements. However,......she did (without me asking) offer to reinstate my lost days. I thanked her profusely for it and lo and behold,.....they are back in my account the next day!

So if you get Patty on the phone,.....you may have some success.