There's no link. It used to be necessary to enter the RQ ICAP, but not anymore. If the times and locations you enter fit the criteria for the airport shuttle rate, the discounted prices will automatically appear.

I had a really good rental tonight at LGA. For the first time, everything worked right; got the SMS notification of what car to pick up, it was in the marked On Demand space at LGA and started up with no issues. The car was a really nice YF Malibu with 1,100 miles on the odo and working Sirius/XM. I picked up the car at 8:30 p.m. and dropped it off in the Village around 9. $21 is cheaper than a cab.

It also looks like you can now earn Hertz points for On Demand! I noticed there is now a field in your profile to indicate your desire to accrue points for On Demand rentals.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/attac...onnect-hod.jpg

The most ironic change that occurred in the rebrand from Connect by Hertz to Hertz on Demand was that you can no longer rent "on demand."

Seriously.

The new website (which is otherwise much improved) now won't let you start a reservation less than 15 minutes in advance, which means that there is a mandatory 15-29 minute waiting period (if it's 10:01pm, the next slot you could book would be 10:30pm since 10:15pm is less than 15 minutes away) before you can drive a car after you decide to rent one.

I've called and e-mailed them about this and they tried to tell me it's always been that way. But I have a bunch of reservation e-mails from the Connect days that were made as little as 6 minutes in advance.

For many people this probably doesn't make a difference, but it's all but killed the utility of CBH/HOD for me. We have four cars parked in a driveway outside my building in Manhattan, and they were a great inexpensive alternative to cabs and car services for driving visitors or babysitters home at night. But that doesn't work well if I have to wait up to a half hour to start driving.

HoD will let you pick up the car early for no extra charge. The earliest I've tried is about 12 minutes.

Zipcar's policy is that you can pick up 14 minutes early with no additional charge on their website. If you're 15 minutes early, they charge you a half hour. I imagine HoD has a similar policy based on my experience but it doesn't state that anywhere on the website.

University disconnect
 

There are many universities listed on the HOD website but when I click on Florida Int'l University, I get the following message "We are still processing your recent membership request. Once your application has been finalized you will be able to reserve a car and drive. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you." I have gotten the above message many times.

I reserved an HOD one-way car for next week in NYC and have a confirmed email so it's a mystery that "my membership has not been finalized."

Furthermore, there are no HOD sites in Chicago or Miami. How serious is Hertz in this endeavor? I'm a tad bit frustrated because I would like to use HOD is determined to block my efforts. Sorry for the rant.

Tonight's one-way from LGA into Manhattan was a YF Impala with 6,000 miles on the odo and working XM. There was some scratches on the rear bumper so I decided to call it in to make sure I wasn't charged for it. Traffic in the LES was horrible (too many idiots blocking the box) but I still was able to get from LGA to the garage in under an hour.

I really like the iPhone app for On Demand (although it's still branded as Connect). It allows me to adjust the start/end times of my one-ways very quickly and easily. This comes in handy as I will set the pick-up time a little late to allow for any flight delays and then use the app once I get off the plane to adjust the start time to 15 minutes from then, which is about the time it takes to walk to curbside and catch the shuttle to the lot. There is also a hotkey to speed dial the On Demand customer service.

Hertz On Demand count towards 5* and PC
 

Signed up for HoD but haven't rented yet.

Does anyone know if HoD rentals count towards your qualifiication for 5* or Predisdent's Circle? Looking for something to replace "drive ur self to the airport" which has sadly been discontinued.

Also, since I bill clients for my trips to the airport, how does one go about getting a receipt? HoD website says they bill at the end of the month, is it possible to get an individual receipt before then, online perhaps?

Thanks!!

-A

I can answer the latter; yes, you can get an emailed receipt for OnDemand rentals. It generates seconds after you end your rental.

" HoD website says they bill at the end of the month "

As above - you get an invoice by email within nano-seconds of you placing your smart card on the car window to end the rental.
It's also my experience that you'll see the credit card charge on your card statement in a couple of days - I've never seen them wait for month end.

Hey great! Looking forward to trying it now, as there's a location only 2 blocks away from the office!

Thanks for the quick response guys!

-A

Terrible rental experience followed by even worse customer service
 

AWFUL RENTAL EXPERIENCE:

1. About two weeks ago I had a 6am rental for a 8-passenger car that got switched only 2.5 hours prior to my rental start time (at 3:30 am!) for a smaller model, forcing me to rent an ADDITIONAL car from them and splitting up my travel group into two cars. Since it was so early in the morning on a Saturday and so close to my departure time, I had no choice but to rent an additional car from HOD or risk canceling my trip altogether. And so my initial estimated cost for a 2 day rental went from roughly $600 to more than double of that, for a mistake that was clearly on the part of HOD.
2. During my rental the gas cards for both cars did not work, incurring further out of pocket charges.

AWFUL RENTAL EXPERIENCE FOLLOWED BY EVEN WORSE CUSTOMER SERVICE:

1. Since my return, I have repeatedly called the HOD customer service line, waited through their long and ineffective hold system, only to be met with agents were mostly unhelpful and rude.
2. When I finally got a hold of the manager to dispute my charges, after the initial conversation the manager disappeared for 2 weeks and did not have the courtesy to return my multiple calls asking for a simple status update.
3. Today the manager finally called back only to offer reimbursement on only one day of rental (nevermind the taxes and tolls etc I had to incur because of the extra vehicle). When I tried to reason with him, saying that unavailability of the car was not my fault, the manager even told me that since it is a car-sharing program, its members will sometimes have to bear the burden of logistical problems (ie. missing cars, other member's late returns)!

From the rental experience to the follow-up communications with its member care staff I have been thoroughly disgusted by this ordeal. I'm truly disappointed by this service and strongly advise others to consider carefully before signing up and using this service.

Quick question: if it was a two-day trip, why not rent a car through the usual means? Car sharing is much costlier if you need a car for more than a few hours, and that's typically made quite clear in the sales literature.

I did my first one-way from JFK tonight. The on Demand cars are parked in a seperate bank of stalls from the Gold Canopy (but is clearly marked with signage). When you exit the building, make a hard right and the on Demand cars will be in front of you.

Tonight's car was a YF Impala with heated leather seats, a moonroof, and working Sirius/XM.

I picked up the car just after 4 p.m. and despite the heavy traffic going into Manhattan, I was able to return the car before 5, so it was only $20 for the rental.

Hertz on Demand? What a Joke.
 

I had very frustrating experience with Hertz on Demand (HoD) on 11/24, which happened to be my first HoD rental. I reserved a mid-size car for 2.5 hours (11:15 to 13:45) from 66th street in Manhattan to JFK (one-way use). My plan was to pick up a car, pick up our luggage at the hotel and 3 of my family members at upper east then to drive to the airport.

We arrived at the location 10 minutes early and asked for the car, only to be told that the car did not exist. Confused, I checked my email, and realized that I got one from Hertz, saying that HOD cannot honor my reservation at the 66th street location and my car (black Chevy Impala) was ‘moved’ at 23rd street. Obviously, there were two problems: 1) those two locations are two-mile apart, even there are 10+ “Hertz on-Demand” and several HLEs in between, and 2) the email was sent 15 MINUTES (at 11 o’clock) before my scheduled pick up. STRIKE ONE.

We needed a car anyhow, so we decided to pick up wherever it was. We had to take a jam-packed subway (two rides) and arrived at 23rd street. When asked for the car, the superintendent of the lot showed us a Chevy Malibu, not a Chevy Impala, with different plate number. He then tried to ignite the car with our card with no avail. I explained him that we were assigned with Impala, but his answer was “this is the only Chevy in this lot”. I did even check the entire lot and confirmed that. Wow, HoD assigned me to a different car a lot at two-mile apart, which did not even exist? STRIKE TWO.

Even more confused, and started worrying about my flight schedule, I called HoD customer service. As usual, I was on hold and asked to leave call back number. After waiting 10 minutes, I received a return call and explained the rep what was happening, but his answer was “I don’t know, the car should be there”. I tried to let him talk with the superintendent of the lot, but the customer rep put me on unresponsive hold and finally hung up. I called again, but was not able to reach customer service. STRIKE THREE.

Time was already past noon. Worried and frustrated, we decided to go back to the hotel (another subway ride for 2), picked up our luggage and took subway and airtrain to the airport. Other 3 family members had to take a taxi to JFK. I called customer service two more times and left my number again, but didn’t get any return call.

…And a day later, I got email “we have had to charge you $41.98 since you didn’t cancel the reservation”. I can’t say anything but WOW. (By the way, I have to explain one more thing-my bill should’ve been $17, not $42, since I signed up with $25 sign-up promotion)

This is my first time to use Hertz on Demand and the result is an epic fail. My family had to pay $45.5+tip (total $52) for taxi ride (for 3 of my family), plus two subway-airtrain trip (total $15.50) in addition to four (66th to 23rd to hotel for two people) ride of subway. Total $77, instead of $17 I was supposed to be charged). Not even considering my inconvenience and time loss, Hertz did incur us a financial damage of $60!

What kind of business are they running?!

Sorry to hear that experience man. I definitely would send a letter to Hertz CS so they can know about this.

Maybe even get on twitter and let them know as well...