Hertz Spring Bonus 2016
 

Got the email from Hertz Gold Choice:

Not a bad promotion. Will rack up some points that would normally go to Avis.

I am with you on this one ..... I will be changing over to Hertz for the next two months. Plus, Hertz points are worth so much more than Avis. I guess I will have to put up with slightly lower service and fewer upgrades.

Hmm... SirrusXM is $4/day when using the AA rate, or $8 without. EverLost is $7/day.

So for a one-day rental, that's 400 extra points (almost enough for another one-day rental) for $11 with AA, $15 without AAA.

No experience with Avis Preferred but this intrigued me. How much is a 1 gold point exactly worth in $?

Was bored on the flight so I looked at the base rental charges for one weekend day across 15 airports: ATL, ORD, DFW, LAX, DEN, CLT, PHX, SFO, LAS, IAH, JFK, BOS, EWR, MIA, IAD, at a range of booking times (1 month, 3 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week, next day) for the base rate for a PCAR, MVAR, FRAR, LRAR, and STAR. Using standard rewards, a PCAR is 550 points, the rest 825. I divided the rates by points required, and found a mean value of 10.4 cents, median of 10.1 cents, standard deviation of 2.25 cents, min of 4 cents, and max of 30.5 cents, with an approximately normal distribution. Large values were for regionally popular vehicles, like a convertible out of LAX and SUV out of Denver. The lowest values were surprisingly for a minivan one week out. Obviously, the best value of Gold points are for dates with very high prices that Hertz doesn't blackout or charge AnyDay rewards

This is by no means comprehensive but I think 10 cents on the dollar is a good baseline for deciding when to use points.

It can be much better for one-way rentals (which only cost double points). I have a two-day one coming up that cost 2200 points + $ 40, which I think would have been about $ 450 without the points.

Value also depends on where you use them. I routinely get 15-20c/point by doing weekend rentals in NYC in summer (even after they moved all summer weekends to 2x points). That's likely to be a very high-end valuation, however.

Thanks for posting. I wouldn't have noticed this promo otherwise.

Thanks for posting! I, too, would've missed on that!

Avis points are worth 2 cents on a dollar at the high end. They are utterly useless. I rented for 6 months straight, and had enough for a 3 day F rental.

I get far far more value with Hertz. I just redeemed a 2 day rental on an Escalade, cash price was $592, but it cost me 3300 points + $80 (ouch) in taxes.

For me they're not off to a good start. I registered successfully for the promotion last week; had a rental from FLL this past Monday and Tuesday and didn't get the double points. They say the bonus points may take some time, but with past promotions the bonus points have always posted along with the regular points.

The T&C say: "Bonus points will be added to member's account up to 10 days from the rental return and can be redeemed immediately."

This is different from the winter promotion, where the points were only added after the promotion was over, in one big chunk.

Also, keep in mind, it is only valid on rentals made AFTER registering. If you had an existing reservation before registering, it is not eligible for double points.

I was registered for the promotion last week. I reread the T&C and it states that it is valid for rentals between May 1 and June 30, it says nothing about when the reservation needing to be made after registering or during the promotional period. As said a couple posts above, the T&C do say that it can take up to 10 days for the points to post, so I'll check again at the end of next week. I will be interested to see if people have issues with this promotion.

To clarify, as I read the T&Cs, if you made a reservation on May 1st, registered on May 2nd, and picked up the car on May 3rd, the rental would qualify.

flyertalk comes through again
 

Thanks OP for posting the link.....

I've never once received one of these offers via email while apparently having preferences set appropriately to receive them!