FlyerTalk Forums - Hertz Rewards May 2019 USA Redemption Devaluation

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Hertz Rewards May 2019 USA Redemption Devaluation

Was just looking at some upcoming reservations for 2020 in anticipation of the Daily Getaway promotion and the Hertz website is showing a MASSIVE devaluation and I don't recall seeing ANYTHING about this anywhere. My 4400 point weekly SUV rental is now 7450. Weekend rewards are gone. One week prestige anytime goes from 16,500 to 25,000. Daily rates up tremendously.

Anyone hear anything about this?

[EDIT: Confirmed to me by Hertz customer relations. Complete overhaul of the rewards program with no announcement]

Seems like a case of "this is over a year out and we don't want you booking yet". I just tried pricing out a quick two week rental in July of 2020 that was over $2500 per week with the AAA CDP. No way it will stay anywhere close to that. FWIW it gave me the option of a week rental with 2750 points, but very few other point options.

Why sell it cheap when anyone booking this far out is likely price insensitive and will pay higher rates?

RM/IM won't kick in realistically until 60-90 days out. Unless this is something like the Indy 500 or the Super Bowl.

I don't think so. If you just go to their redemption chart on their website it's been completely changed:
https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/ememb...points-program

So I'm not talking about just what the rental is pricing at - I'm pointing to what they're now showing on their website as redemption rates.

[EDIT: I finally got through to someone in customer relations. They've confirmed they've redesigned the program. All awards increased between 50% and 67%. The rep told me they've "redesigned the program to be more beneficial" to it's customers. Which of course is why they implemented this without notice either before or after. . . . complete stealth devaluation and in terms of percentages - one of the biggest I can ever remember.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldrush3 (Post 31123704)

FWIW it gave me the option of a week rental with 2750 points, but very few other point options.

Also - I just tried pricing an October rental and I was getting 3750 points. Can you tell me what you were pricing and when that showed you 2750? I don't think that was even the old weekly cost.

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldrush3 (Post 31123704)

July is too far out - actual pricing is only in the system until early April - they're on a similar schedule as airlines at 11 months out although it'll show you further dates but at rates like you got at thousands a week. Try doing a week or two weeks sometime in the next month or two and see if you're seeing the increase.

The OP is right, the new table is a HUGE change, and with zero notice. I checked the award table vs. the most recent version at the Wayback Machine, and compared them. See below. Biggest hits are to weekend rentals and to daily and weekly specialty rentals.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7daf200c3a.jpg

Current Version: https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/ememb...points-program
Previous Version (as of 3/8/19): Gold Plus Rewards Redemption Points List

Yup - and your Weekend chart for specialty should list 1500 for specialty (not 1000) as well as they've eliminated all weekend rewards so that's really a 77% increase instead of 21%.

Curious to see if they alter the wording for the Daily Getaway deal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Simon (Post 31124171)

Just saw that, thanks. Corrected it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Simon (Post 31123615)

Yep, just got sticker shock trying to redeem my points... Probably devalued to the point that while I used to collect these I might now also consider Avis. Especially given the Plat benefits at BOS have pretty much been eliminated.

Well, don't I feel like an idiot accruing Hertz points. The international burn rate is still 900 for a day, so I guess I'm doing that...

The increase is actually as much as 81.82 percent — such as for specialty vehicles during the weekend, which now no longer exists on the award chart.

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Simon (Post 31123615)

One week prestige anytime goes from 16,500 to 25,000.

One week prestige anytime used to be 23k (double 11.5k standard rate), so up from 23k to 25k, not 16.5k to 25k, correct?

The biggest hits are to specialty vehicles, up 50-82%.

The thread title seems misleading - I just checked redemption rates here and seems no difference locally - that US rates have increased is just 1 area of the globe

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Noble (Post 31126424)

The thread title seems misleading - I just checked redemption rates here and seems no difference locally - that US rates have increased is just 1 area of the globe

Well, you know that "the rest of the world" will be following soon, right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thysk (Post 31126439)

Well, you know that "the rest of the world" will be following soon, right?

I don't see that that is necessarily the case - that rates in one region have changed, does not imply that rates in other countries will change - if all were going to change, then would have thought that all would have been changed concurrently

Maybe they will change, but at the moment the thread is very misleading

I edited the title for clarity.

Thanks
Jason8612 Hertz mod