Avoiding Young Driver Surcharge
 

I need to arrange car hire for someone under the age of 25. This always means a young driver surcharge.

Does anyone have any information on avoiding this? They want to rent a car from SFO and have a British driving licence.

With the price of the young driver surcharge it is often more than twice the daily rental cost of the car.

My request is not just specific to Hertz.

Hertz underage coupon: PC 144314

or

Hertz Gold Family CDP: hertz.com/goldfamily

This may (or may not) apply... but a note of caution might just be worthwhile.

When you say the under-25 surcharge is "more than twice the daily rent of the car" that would suggest to me a booking made without CDW/LDW.. a booking made as if the renter was American and had such cover from credit card or homeowner insurance.

For us foreigners those options are not available.. (assuming Brits are treated the same as Aussies) so we really need to make bookings that include such cover... (I get all the other Supp type insurances covered through my Travel policy.. but CDW is the problem)

I don't know if that code can be used wih a "foreign residence" booking... hopefully it can... but I'd strongly advise making sure the youngster HAS CDW!!!

Other foreign underage renters have posted here. They said they joined the Gold Family CDP program and/or used both the old and the new underage coupon with no problems. These programs are only good for rentals in the US.

Thank you for your advice, especially about CDW.

I'm not limited to Hertz as I always found them to be the most expensive of the rental companies, does anyone know of any promo codes with the other major US rentals? (Not wanting to cross post).

Enterprise/Alamo/National, Dollar, and Hertz will always waive the underage fee if you have a corporate or association contract that stipulates it. Avis/Budget seems to have fewer such underage fee waived contracts. Before Hertz put up the underage coupon, many Avis locations refused the retail underage business.

If you're a retail renter, Hertz is the only one that offers the fee waived everywhere. Certain Enterprise locations do not list an underage fee when you select ages 21-24, but those are very rare and possibly errors.

Well I think Hertz are going to be my best bet. I was careful about the CDW as Trooper pointed out. I've got a quote of about $500 for two weeks at SFO. Does this sound right? They reassured me over and over that CDW is included and there is NO excess on the policy.

Just one more thing, the coupon will needed to be taken with them. I'm guessing it came from here 'http://ww2.aaa.com/aaa/common/travel/car/Hertz/HertzAAACoupon.html' but it says its valid for Canada?

Hertz have told me I will need the paper coupon to waive the charge, does anyone know which is the right one to print out?

Also, with the Gold Family CDP, can I just make the booking as usual with the membership number in the system. Does it include the CDW?

I was wondering if I use this Gold Family CDP, am I no longer entitled to the discounts offered by airline FFP and am I also no longer entitled to earn miles?

Thanks

I've never had a problem with the young renter PC 144314 i.e. the rate wasn't any higher; it does depend on the location though I think so don't write it off right away because it does work. You don't need a paper coupon to use PC 144314; at the rental desk as the agent to confirm the PC is on your reservation. The Gold Family CDP also works as mentioned; I use the USAA CDP since it's free to sign up, it waives the age differential and you also get one of the largest discounts of any CDP. Many credit cards cover the LDW; I think nearly all Amex cards include coverage, as well as all Visa Signature cards.

Correct, you won't earn bonus miles and stuff. You can still choose to earn airline miles in lieu of Gold Plus Rewards but you won't get the double mile promos or any of that without the airline CDP.

-J.

Something to note about the gold CDP that waives the young drivers charge is that the AAA CDP + just the promo code to waive the young drivers is cheaper than the Gold CDP. Even combining the gold CDP + a promo code, I can't find one cheaper than the AAA CDP.

but you do have to be an AAA member to use their CDP right? Whereas the Gold Family is pretty much open to anyone?

Correct.. You just need to be a gold member or sign up through the gold family link and use the CDP. It seems that it won't save you $ unless there is a new promo code that saves you $10/day

FWIW they don't ID if you're USAA... at least I've never been asked. Maybe they have some system that internally checks if you have a USAA # but I've never been asked nor have I given Hertz my member #. Although it's free to sign up with USAA and their discount is usually as good as AAA (if not occasionally better). Most PCs also work with the USAA CDP.

-J.