With 12 rentals totaling 162 days, and an unknown amount of revenue (likely ~$5k), I called Hertz Gold Customer Service about upgrading to Five Star or President's Circle. The gentleman quickly looked at my account and upgraded me to Five Star, but said that while he couldn't reveal all the President's Circle qualification criteria, I was "not even close."

I had several other questions concerning Gold service and international rentals, and, as we proceeded to talk, I kept mentioning that looking only at number of rentals isn't a good way of determining elite status. With airlines, I can qualify for elite status using either miles or segments, and with hotels I can qualify using nights or stays. Why should Hertz be any different? I rent for months at a time, with my rentals automatically "re-started" every 30 days, capping my possible rentals at 12-13 even if I rented 365 days per year.

With that comment, the CSR looked up the number of days I had on a different screen, and remarked that, hey, 162 days should be enough (apparently he hadn't paid much attention to my comments about number of days when he initially said I was "no where close"). The rep said he needed to talk to his supervisor, and then came back and upgraded me to President's Circle on the spot. He mentioned I may be automatically kicked back to Five Star in February when an audit is done, but he'd annotated my account and I could call back to have President's Circle status reinstated.

Overall, a friendly, knowledgeable representative, and, while requiring some somewhat lengthy but pleasant discussion, I was able to get upgraded to President's Circle while being far shy of 40 rentals. Be persistent, and you too may succeed in getting President's Circle status (for whatever it's worth).

-m