Schweden

Hertz Canada is definitely stingier with upgrades. I usually book Luxury (I) and I'd say 50% of the time I get assigned or can ask for H4 or P4 (Volvo XC60, S60, S90, Alfa Romeo Giulia, Stelvio) at no cost. The other 50% of the time, I'm assigned something in the class like a Cadillac ATS, CTS, or Chrysler 300. In those cases, the lowest they'd usually go for an upgrade is $30/day for something like an A5. An Infiniti QX80's asking rate is usually $70-80/day. If I book F, I usually get "upgraded" to a barebones SUV like the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport. The main acknowledgement of PC status seems to be the computer assigning you to a lower-mileage car as I get cars with less than 1,000 miles all the time.

While I agree that $50/day for an upgrade to a PCAR is a bit much, $10/day wouldn't do as booking G is typically $30/day more at YYZ.

Maybe it's from the nostalgia, but I'm pretty happy with Hertz Canada. National/Enterprise have a pretty restrictive under 25 policy which resulted in a lot of Malibus. Even Hertz in the US only typically rents out a Chrysler 300 at best to those under 25 with a $30/day underage surcharge to boot. Meanwhile, you can ask for anything on the Hertz Canada lot for a comparatively reasonable fee.

TravelinSperry

No upgrade in Miami Local Edition today. AM at least recognized he was supposed to provide an upgrade but said he simply didn't have any full size cars to do so. When I went up to get car - lots of larger cars sitting there (maybe not fs but surely larger than what I got). Hertz PC status, ha. A joke as usual.

jackal

I can't speak to Canada, but I have paid a $10/day upgrade on a week-long rental to an Infiniti G37 with Hertz (obviously that was a few years ago, before they changed the model number to the Q50). So it is possible, but it takes a little work.

The published or going daily rental rate for a given car has very little bearing on what you can pay to upgrade to it. I'm speaking as a former rental car sales agent and manager.

I am not 100% sure, but since the PC upgrade is "guaranteed," I would think that you could have rightfully pressed for an upgrade to the next larger vehicle beyond a fullsize (luxury, SUV, whatever) at no charge. And since you didn't receive your guaranteed upgrade, an email note to Hertz may well result in some compensation.

miadeals

Was that at Downtown on SE 2nd? If so, that place is a joke. Last friday I had to wait an hour and 40 minutes for an F car (not an upgrade) and was lied to over and over and over again, meanwhile, dozen cars sitting up on level 5 they were saving for higher priced rentals later that day. They couldn't care less if you're PC, they told me "we don't guarantee cars for ANYONE here" and put you on a "list" with 10 names on it if that's how many are waiting. Some non-PC walked in an hour after me, he got the next SUV that came in even though I was there before him and told them I'd accept that instead of an F car, they don't even follow their list! Tried to get me to take a compact instead! Two camaros and suburban sat the whole time. Oh and then it was "well we save minivans too..." They should all go to hell. Literally the worst experience I've ever had. The Miami Beach HLE is even less staffed but better run.

Finally got a disgusting, sticky 22k Hyundai Sonata, promptly took it the airport for an exchange, they hammered me with a 55k 3 year old Kia Optima with a bad wheel bearing, I give up. You get what you pay for at $10/day all in.

The AVIS down the street is nirvana compared to this disaster, and I'm only PP there.

miadeals

HAHAHHHAHAHA if this the miami downtown location, good luck with that. I had a F car rez and I had to wait an hour 40 min as I stated above, even as SUVs rolled out, sat and waited, etc. They could have had me out in 2 min if they'd put me above an F car with my PC status. I was eventually yelling at the GM after an hour and 15 minutes, they couldn't care less. You can't force them to do ANYTHING. My comp from Hertz corp after 2 calls, twitter message, and email is 675 points or some nonsense.

This is why this branch is 2 star on yelp.

Paupaaa

Clearly I am not a fan of Hertz Dublin either... Somehow even though my online profile has selected to decline ALL Coverages.. they tacked on coverages anyway.. I mean totally my fault for not reading the contract; but I would assume since one is PC and is using the Gold Choice and the car is already pre-assigned waiting that what I requested in my profile would match what I had.. Only realized how much more I was overpaying when I handed the vehicle and looked at the receipt.. Lesson Learned.. But yeah those guys are wicked shady.

jtav559

Rented from a LE Hertz in Dublin earlier this year.

The South Circular location that I had reserved was open but could not rent me a car due to ongoing police activity. They were 10 feet on the wrong side of the yellow tape. I pleaded for a car, saw an audi and Merc in the lot, but was told I had to go to another location. They were more interested in the police action than servicing the customers. So all the way to the other side of town to the airport for a chance at an upgrade? Or to a semi-closer small LE office. Went to the closer one, got some ancient POS dented Skoda diesel that drove like a cinderblock. Not a hint of an upgrade, and I even walked the lot hoping to find something newer (I would have took a ford mondeo with low miles just to not drive the skoda!). Was not happy about that. However, the only saving grace was that the prepaid fuel rate was 20 cents a litre cheaper than street pricing, so i was happy to take them up on that.

Returned to DUB a week later and was checked in and done pretty quick. No funny business on the charges, and the tolls showed up on my CC about a week later. Overall, a mixed bag of an experience.

I think its just a heavy tourist market during the summer and they know they don't really have to try all that hard. Unfortunately it permeates their operations year round.

miadeals

Returned my 55k junk kia to miami HLE, had a new FCAR rez, they wanted to give it right back to me, I refused (was hilarious to hear her on the radio, what do you mean 55k? You mean 5k right?) and was upgraded to PCAR impala w 18k on it, pretty basic model. Was only one in gold line while 20 people waiting in normal line. Couldnt believe I was out in 5 min after disaster last week. $72 all in for PCAR in miami, decent.

Gonna try to get rewrite next week for same car.

hockeyinsider

Booked a premium-class car at DTW. Instead of picking a car, I received a text message indicating I had been given a luxury-class car, in this case a Buick LaCrosse. When I went to the stall I found the most basic LaCrosse model ever. Hardly luxury, especially compared to the loaded Chevrolet Impala cars that typically come with a premium-class booking. I went inside to the Gold Counter and asked why I had been given a LaCrosse when there were a half-dozen Cadillac XTS cars next to my car. The agent voided my LaCrosse and told me to pick anything from the President's Circle row. I went with a black XTS that had 1,000 miles on it.

FlyinHawaiian

I hope your reservation at DTW was a points redemption; otherwise, I would have asked them to downgrade my reservation from a Premium car to Intermediate (assuming it is cheaper than Premium) and then used Ultimate Choice.

hockeyinsider

No, it was cash.

m907

Why did you choose to pay more for a premium reservation?

91StealthES

jackal

I don't know that I would trust that working with Hertz like it does with National.

AFAIK, at National, your contract is actually processed and opened at the exit gate. Until you drive through the gate, all you have is a reservation that has not been opened into a contract.

That means you can cancel one of multiple reservations while you're still in the parking lot, and then the agent at the gate will only have one reservation to pull up and turn into a contract.

With Hertz, I believe the system (or perhaps even someone in the back office behind the Gold counter) opens your contract a couple hours ahead of time. It's at that time that you get your Carfirmation email either with a stall or with directions to go to a particular aisle (at UC locations). Once you get that email, your reservation has been turned into an actual rental contract (albeit in "pending" status until you actually go through the exit gate and your contract receipt is printed, at which point the contract changes from "pending" to "open"). Once your contract has been opened, even into "pending" status, canceling your reservation does not do anything to the actual contract. The exit booth agent will have multiple contracts to choose from, which can lead to you paying a higher rate than you want (if they choose the more expensive one). You would need to clearly inform the exit booth agent which of your multiple contracts you want them to activate and honor to avoid that.

I am not 100% sure that is how it works, but being familiar with the system over many years, I would guess it is.

FlyinHawaiian

The member's profile states that he/she has PC status.

The standard points award is up to a Premium class, so for locations with Ultimate Choice, I will book that and then either take what is assigned or what I can find in the PC/5* sections. Booking a Premium at an Ultimate Choice is a bit of a gamble as to if the car assigned will be better than what is in the PC section with the remedy of either cancelling the reservation and booking for a lower car class or asking for a manual reclass as an option.