zyxlsy

Sorry for all my postings, what I want to know is this:

I know that there is a National location in Anaheim, and I am planning on renting for about 6 months.

I want 30-day contract so that my AMEX premium protection can be in effect. It's a 20 minutes drive to that location, so it is fine going there once a month.

However, I just wanna know if I can get 6 months of credit if I go there every month to get a new contract.

bocastephen

No, you will need to break the rental up with another location in between - just return to SNA, re-rent for a weekend with a drop at Anaheim, then start a new month from Anaheim.

sanctified50

You can book a multi month with the Amex premium protection. Since National breaks the rental down into 30 day increments, you will be charged the fee each month. I was told in an email from Amex Premium Protection that as long as each contract is no longer than 42 days, you should be ok and get all your rental credits.

Tedgrrrr

Yup you shouldn't have any problems with the credits. Also, make sure you use a coupon each month - you should be able to find $30-$40 off by googling, or just use the $20-$25 codes off the website. Over six months that'll save you been $120 and $240. Also sign up for rent rent reward, and you'll get another free day per month, or in your case six free days over the six month period!!

bocastephen

You don't get credits on back to back rentals - days towards status perhaps, but not rental credits. The OP needs a location break or they need to return to a different location than their pickup and start the next month from the new location.

zyxlsy

Thanks for the advice. Do you think I can keep the same car if I do Anaheim-SNA, SNA-Anaheim, back and forth?

zyxlsy

Thanks for your information. Have you actually tried this? Because what I understand is that even though you are billed by the month, the contract is still 6 months long, and thus the protection is no good...

sanctified50

I had a 10 month rental once and had to use the coverage in the third month of the rental. I was told that if they billed me monthly and I was charged the 19.95 each month, I was covered. They paid for the incident, no problems with it being a 10 month rental.

bocastephen

It depends on the rapport you develop with the stations. Airport stations are a little tricky, but what I usually do is park that car in the regular lot, then go to the counter and say you are renewing and will just keep the same car - it helps if you have status though.

I've kept the same car for 4 months at one station where I had a good rapport with the manager and was able to keep the same car at an airport station without a problem....but I've had another station (Boca Raton) insist on taking any nice car I bring there and downgrading me into the category I reserved, Exec Elite status be damned.

FWIW, my friend is doing exactly what you are, only he is doing weekly rentals to keep the cost down and is also bouncing between Anaheim and other locations and can keep the same car - just be extra nice to the counter staff there.

zyxlsy

So, can I assume that you were charged 19.95 each month for several months, meaning the protection was actually in effect, even though you had a 10-month rental? Provided that you were billed monthly for your rental?

zyxlsy

First of all, are your really sure that weekly rental costs less??? I'm gonna do some research on that!

Also, the time you kept a car for 4 months, did you rent by the month, and swap between two locations? Were you successful in getting all the rental credits and getting the credit card protection working?

Thanks in advance!

bigshooter

I rented for 18 months straight and received 7 credits every month (they wouldn't do a contract for more than 30 days) except for one month when they closed out the previous month contract incorrectly. Emerald Club CS gave me the two credits I was missing. I believe the whole time still counted as a single rental towards status, but all of the days counted and I renewed my EE status by April of each year.

I even received credits for concurrent rentals (had the monthly at home and another when out of state) and they gave me credit for both for quite a while. Eventually they fixed that glitch though.

sanctified50

Correct. I was billed 19.95 after each 30 days.

Tedgrrrr

Weekly costs less if you can get $35/$40 coupons and use one each week. That's what I did a couple years ago for a couple months at a time. Looking at HPN (Westchester) for an example, I can rent a car for $198.57 all in (i.e. $28.37 per day). A monthly rental is $714.87 all in ($23.83 per day). But, then you can use the $25 off coupon code (right on main National home page), and this drops the weekly rental to $166.02/week (all in). Ironically the coupon doesn't work on monthly rentals ("Maximum rental length conflict with coupon ND3265FFC.").

But so anyway, renting 7 days at a time = $23.72/day, vs. $23.83/day on a monthly rental. It doesn't seem like much, but in the next few weeks there should be some $35 and/or $40 coupons coming out that should be valid for a few months which will make a bigger difference, plus with rent rent reward you will get a free day for every two weeks you rent, as opposed to one free day for every two months you rent.

Just make sure you don't use the Amex protection if you rent by the week!!

Tedgrrrr

i've always gotten rent rent reward credits on back to back rental. And nowadays, I've even gotten normal credits by dropping a car off in the morning and picking one up a few hours later, though granted that's with Enterprise, but I've done that consistently and have never not gotten a credit.