Reward Program
 

Budget gave up the best reward program for the worst. It gets worse as they don't have online access to your account, only give statements out twice a year, and don't answer e-mails. Still the service is usually good for fastbreak members.

I've started renting with them on a weekly basis, and am wondering if anyone out there has actually cashed in the points for the vacation packages? The amount of money I'm spending ($300/week) should get me there in a hurry, and it looks better than the typical 50/100/500 FF miles with every rental. I hope it's not a bait and switch, like the typical "save-up-your-points-and-then-we-cancel-the-program" program.

I really liked the old program, you get one sticker for each rental, and then after two stickers you get an upgrade and after four stickers you get a free day rental of a full-size car. Nice and simple. Of course my company switched back to Hertz after switching to Budget, so no big deal for me anyway ...

I was actually looking at a couple of awards, which didn't look too bad: for 1500 points (5 rentals for me) you get up to a 4-day weekend rental, and for 4400 points, a 3-day vacation at places like the Luxor or the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

For short-term rentals, though, I'll admit the old system was incredible. I was just looking for any info on how much of a bait-and-switch runaround you get when trying to cash in the points...

makes me think of about 12 years ago when they were running a luggage promotion--I was traveling 100% of the time and had oodles of the certificates--I remember getting about 3 leather portfolios. Still is a joke among my friends doing that job--I spied a piece of that luggage hanging around when they came for a visit--we had a good laugh!