Originally Posted by
Jeeves
Most of my rentals are one-day, midweek in California. I typically pay $30-40 as the base rate, throw in taxes and $10 airport fees and I'm up to $45-55 per rental.
Thrifty is consistently cheaper than the competition but it's nothing like a weekend rental of $17+.
Even in a worst-case scenario for you, though, you're still getting in effect 4.5% cash back ($880 to earn 16 credits worth $40).
Contrast that with earning airline miles on your rentals. Thrifty will "sell" you 50 AS miles for 95 cents. That's 1.9 cents per mile. (Note that AS will also sell you those same miles for 1.9 cents per mile.) Let's say you value your miles at 1.5 cents per mile (i.e. a normal 25,000-mile award will buy you a ticket worth $375, the current cost of a SEA-PHL transcon on dates there is saver space available). By buying your miles at 1.9 cents per mile and redeeming them at 1.5 cents per mile, you're actually seeing a negative return of -21%! It would actually end up cheaper for you to tell Thrifty you don't want any miles at all and just pay cash for your $375 ticket to PHL.
So, it would be a far better return on your money to collect Blue Chip credits, "earn" $40 on your $880 spend, and then take that $40 and put it towards the $375 ticket to PHL. Your $40 will actually earn you 1,025 RDMs (as an MVPG with 100% bonus on that SEA-PHL flight at 3.9 cents per RDM) plus 512 EQMs versus only 800 RDMs for buying the miles from Thrifty.
Or take your $40, put it towards a well-constructed mileage run on which you earn RDMs at 1.5 cents per mile, and earn 2,666 RDMs instead of 800.
And that's assuming you'd use it to redeem on one of your mid-week California rentals. It's even better if you save that free day to use for a minivan for your family in ANC in peak season ($200 per day). Then your "cash back" jumps up to 22%, even if you're not earning the credits on $17 weekend rates.