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.