FlyerTalk Forums - 2019 Changes to Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Program

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2019 Changes to Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Program

Just got an email; highlights are:

Changes in point earning and expiry:

Increasing point multipliers:
- Five Star®: From a 10% bonus to a 25% bonus
- President’s Circle®: From a 25% bonus to a 50% bonus
Updating Five Star® qualification status from 7 rentals or $1,500 spend (excluding taxes and fees) to 12 rentals or $2,400 spend (excluding taxes and fees).
Changing points expiration from 24 months of inactivity to 18 months of inactivity.
Eliminating select activation bonuses including sign-up bonus and 15th rental bonus.

https://images.hertz.com/icons/skip-line-icon.pngA better, faster experience:

Offering Hertz Fast Lane powered by CLEAR – a free service that gets you through the exit gate in 30 seconds or less. Currently available at our Atlanta airport location, we will roll out more than 40 new locations in 2019.
Offering Five Star® for a Day for Gold members that reach 8 rentals and President’s Circle® for a Day for Five Star®members that reach 16 rentals so you can experience next tier benefits.
Offering you the chance to upgrade to any available car on the lot after your 30th and 40th rentals.
Guaranteeing President Circle’s members their requested vehicle is available with at least 24-hour notice at our airport locations. Previously, we required at least 48-hour notice.
Providing Hertz Valet, our airport terminal drive-back service, for President’s Circle® members after 15th, 20th and 40th rentals at select airport locations.

https://images.hertz.com/icons/platepass-icon.pngFlexible redemption options:

Introducing Cash + Points: Use a combination of points and currency – instead of one or the other – to pay for rentals and vehicle upgrades.
Offering new ways for you to earn and use points beyond rentals – including unique and exclusive access to Hertz+ experiences and Hertz Rewards – our auction platform.
Offering you the chance to use your points to redeem for luxury vehicles in Hertz Dream Cars Collection. (Effective mid-January 2019)
Lowering enrollment age from 21 to 18. (Effective mid-January 2019)

I just got the email. I'm intrigued about the valet service after 15th, 20th and 40th rentals for President's Circle. What if they are better served at the 22nd rental? Details seems sparse. Same for the CLEAR.

Providing Hertz Valet, our airport terminal drive-back service, for President’s Circle® members after 15th, 20th and 40th rentals at select airport locations.

On balance, these look like an incremental positive to me, since the higher bonuses outweigh the higher cutoff, and the points expiration isn't an issue for me.

I also noticed that it seems that Gold members will no longer be able to transfer to Airline partners with the new changes
At least the current ToC don't seem to state that it's limited to Five Star and President's Circle only right now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hurnik (Post 30581761)

Given that the exchange rates were almost comically bad (like a 90% reduction in value or more), that's hardly a loss.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cestmoi123 (Post 30581768)

Given that the exchange rates were almost comically bad (like a 90% reduction in value or more), that's hardly a loss.

Really? Depending on the airline/transfer partner, 600 hertz points = 500 miles on the airline.
Given how hard it's been (at least for me) to actually be able to use the Hertz points for actual rental reward redemptions (sorry, that location doesn't participate, or it's a diff. season, can't book online, etc.), I found more value transferring to airline partners (not all of them mind you, as southwest was about a 50% reduction if I recall correctly)

But YMMV.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hurnik (Post 30581903)

I've never had a challenge redeeming points (occasionally have had to call when the website wasn't working), and I never get less than 12 cents/point, and sometimes over 30 cents/point. My average is 18-19 cents. I redeem for Manhattan weekend rentals, which are typically well above $100/day, and can top $200/day in the summer, so 550-1100 points is a pretty darn good deal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hurnik (Post 30581761)

My hunch is that this is a way to deal with people who haven't rented in nearly 18 months (so aren't 5* or PC), realize their points are going to expire, and transfer them out instead, costing Hertz money.

Doesn’t seem like too bad of a deal. I rent about 52 cars a year from Hertz (3 or 4 from Avis) and it seems like I used to earn a ton more points back in the day. They’d have promotions that would have me rolling points in.

I do forget, do I start the year at PC (as I ended the year) or have to keep renting 20 cars before these benefits kick in next year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tampatravel (Post 30582459)

Doesn’t seem like too bad of a deal. I rent about 52 cars a year from Hertz (3 or 4 from Avis) and it seems like I used to earn a ton more points back in the day. They’d have promotions that would have me rolling points in. I do forget, do I start the year at PC (as I ended the year) or have to keep renting 20 cars before these benefits kick in next year.

If you rented 20x in 2018, you're PC for 2019.

If I'm at 6 rentals for 2018, is it now too late to do a 7th rental and get 5* for 2019?

Quote:

Originally Posted by lensovet (Post 30583260)

If I'm at 6 rentals for 2018, is it now too late to do a 7th rental and get 5* for 2019?

The changes presumably take effect January 1st, so as long as you complete the 7th rental by December 31st you should qualify.

I like the proposed changes but hope they do something about the 30th and 40th rentals. Work has me traveling and renting often times for 2 weeks at a time. I can't get that many rentals unless I'm swapping cars every couple days.

has anyone else not received this email?!

I'm wondering how literally they'll implement this.

Offering you the chance to upgrade to any available car on the lot after your 30th and 40th rentals.