Prasobh

Won't hurt asking.

pinniped

The problem is that most airline rewards are paltry. 1 Hertz point is still worth 10-15 cents, so on anything but a super-cheap rental I'd probably go with points. I'm not sure if any airline out there still issues a flat 500 or 1000 miles per rental (BMI maybe?) - that would certainly bump up the breakeven point at which you'd flip from miles to points.

When I used to have the occasional 1-day rental from Hertz, I'd select 500 Marriott points.

Hertz's rewards aren't nearly as good as National's but they're still (usually) better than a tiny pile of airline miles. The main case where Hertz awards can beat National on the long run is a very high-dollar rental pattern, such as Manhattan. (We have a whole thread about that around here somewhere...) Then you'd potentially reach 1,200 points faster than 5 rentals, especially with the bonus points as a PC. Again, I think you just have to do your own math and figure out what's best.

But there's still that little qualitative edge to National: the free days for Exec Elite are in whatever car category you want. My last three have been SAT-AUS in a Mercedes SUV, MCI-MSP in the smaller (but brand new) Lincoln, and LGA-BOS in a loaded GMC SUV (it was wintertime). ^ Holding a four-day PHL-IND reservation for this summer in a minivan (baseball/golf trip).

3Cforme

I hear of an internet forum where people discuss the virtues of Hertz and its specific programs:



http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz-423/

Buster

OK, first rental at National, and...well, I'm a little underwhelmed. Picking your car is nice, but when I went to pick a car last night at PDX, my options were Impala or Impala or Impala. I picked the only non-Impala in the Executive aisle, which was a Nissan Altima. The Altima's OK, but just a regular full size, so not any kind of upgrade. Were my expectations too high that I might have something better than an Impala? I'm a little concerned because PDX is my primary rental location, and if they've got nothing but Impalas, I think I'm better off with Avis, where at least a good bit of the time I'll get a Hyundai. I don't know if this is normal, but the guy at the desk tried to upsell me an SUV. He told me they had removed all SUVs from the Executive aisle due to the predicted weekend snow, and then gave me a bit of an Enterprise-like hard sell for the SUV.

Thoughts? Recommendations? Thanks!