National fails vs. Hertz
 

I rent cars for work approx. 220 days a year. This year my company required us to switch to National. I've been renting from them since Jan 1st and have 136 rental days and only have 6 free rental days. At Hertz last year I earned over 12k points and had several free weeks with nice rentals. I searched this forum for complaints about the earning and couldn't find anything. Are there really people that prefer National over Hertz?

Six free days after 136 rental days suggests you have some lengthy rentals. National's free day earnings are more generous with short rental periods.

Any comments about cars or service, or are you a single-vector comparison renter?

pHLphan,

I agree with you. I spend about 120 days a year with rental cars and I have been loyal to National. The reason I have been loyal has a crazy reason. I only stayed loyal to them because when I switched around with different car rental companies I kept on getting on the wrong shuttle at the airports. So I settled on National. I usually only earn a few days a year for free rentals. My company doesn't care who I use. How does Hertz compare for free rental days for loyal customers than that of National. I'm ready to jump ship.

I would say that the quality of cars at National is better. Due to company policy, I must book all my business related rentals at Hertz but I book all my personal rentals at National. I'm smalltime with National but I've had 3 rentals with National this year and the aisles has proved to be fruitful thus far. Compared with Hertz where I'm batting a .200 on getting a preferable car. I'm to the point where I've given up on Hertz, taken my Chevy Sonic, Dodge Caravan or other crappy car and go on my way.

The service is great (better then Hertz) the cars are better too (Yukon and Tahoes mostly) but the rate of return on points/free days is 10x worse than Hertz.

Esltroy, Hertz gives you free rentals based on points. You earn your points based on how much you spend. You get better returns on how much you rent. And you can use you're free days/points internationally whereas National has so much restrictions and expiration that's it's ridiculous.

Go to Hertz. No National Exec Elite would argue

National's free days can be earned and redeemed more easily than Hertz points.

A regular Emerald Club member rents 7 times to get a free day, regardless of rate. Hertz points are based on how much you spend. So if you are on a corporate contract with a fixed, cheap rate, the miniscule points are like a drop in the ocean.

Once you have a regular free day with National, it expires in 1.5 years. Hertz points don't expire as long as you have activity. National's relatively few locations, and lack of neighborhood stores, mean they frequently are the first to sell out.

However, if the National location has inventory for a paid reservation, you can use the free day. Hertz by contrast has a long list of "peak award" days, which cost double the points, and which not surprisingly fall during the most popular vacation times.

National free days can be used for one-ways. Executive Elite members can use them for a one-way with an SUV, etc. Hertz points can also be used for one-ways, but for double the points as roundtrip, and not for specialty vehicles.

It is true that Hertz points can be earned and redeemed overseas, whereas National's program is limited to the US, Canada, and recently Mexico. Elsewhere National/Europcar seems like a country-specific collection of franchises. This traditional weakness has been reduced a bit recently, since it is theoretically now possible to earn credits with Enterprise in Europe.

This one would!

But then again, I switched from Hertz to National last year and found that for me National was better. The reason for this is pretty simple: my trips are typically short, which means that I accrue free rental days at a much faster clip (for me, 120 rental days a year would probably average out to somewhere between 45 and 60 rentals based on my average length of rental, which would net you between 8 and 11 free rental days). I certainly may have gotten an equivalent amount of points with Hertz (haven't crunched the numbers based on spend), but I much prefer the fact that I can use my free days for anything at any time with National, while you need to pay a premium for specialty vehicles as well as redeeming at peak times. I'm pretty much only redeeming at peak times thanks to my vacation schedule (as an example, I was out in LA over Columbus Day Weekend using free days), so I got to tool around in basically whatever I wanted on a Lux res for 4 days instead of burning half of my points stash (would cost 6600 points, so a bit more than half of your 12k stash).

I say all that not to say you're wrong, but to say that it really depends on your earning and burning habits. For me, I get a ton more value out of not contending with blackout dates since I burn at peak periods (and like driving nice cars). If you're able to redeem outside of those blackout dates or you prefer to hold onto a large stash of points without redeeming, Hertz has a better program. If you like your total flexibility like I do, National's is better.

And of course, National caters to shorter rentals (1-2-Free anyone?), and Hertz caters best to longer rentals. Different strokes and all that.

Now, that says nothing about the quality and selection of the vehicles for either...

I'm in the same boat as PHLphan. Required to switch to National from Hertz at the beginning of the year, my rentals are usually 8 - 10 days long meaning I'm only getting 1 or 2 credits per 10 days rented. In the amount of time I had earned 2 free weeks (non-peak) of GCAR equivalent rental with Hertz last year, I've earned 5 days with National so far this year.

Granted, I like the vehicle selection at National better even though many of my rentals are at MOB where there is no executive aisle, but I definitely miss being able to take a vacation and not worry about having enough points for a week's car rental.

In my company we have a choice between National and Hertz... I chose National early on because of already having ES from my previous employer, but I quickly realized that my short rentals (usually 1-2 days max) do make it the better program for me. This year I'll earn EE with only 30 rental days and, combined with 1-2-F, I'll earn somewhere around 8 free rental days... all with an average daily rate of $35-45 pre-tax/fee... and that's renting almost exclusively PCAR/LCAR with a few downgrades to ICAR at the booth when I find a Grand Cherokee, Tahoe LTZ, etc on ES.

If National would just sort out the VAST number of stations not properly using their advertised ER sections, I would have very little to complain about with National (except for maybe TUL as a whole).

Don't forget Hertz gives you higher mileage cars. You're lucky to get something under 20K these days. With Emerald Aisle, it is fairy easy to get something under 10K. Just picked up two cars last week with under 3K from National. Hertz gave me a "newer" car at 16K.

Mileage has never bothered me that much as long as the interior isn't ratted out... I've had a couple of LCARs north of 20k miles (one ATS, one XTS) from National and neither bothered me much since the interiors still felt reasonably fresh, OnStar was still active (for Nav), and I prefer Pandora to SXM anyway. I think higher mileage having and impact on interior quality is more of an issue on ICAR/SCAR/FCAR than PCAR/LCAR and up, but I will conceed that the chance of an interior being in poor condition clearly does increase with mileage.

Disagree, I think it's the other way out. Hertz has a lot of blackout dates. I travel personally (on my own dime) during peak holiday seasons, and I often have to pay double points. National does not have blackout dates. In addition, as an Executive Elite, I can reserve any class and usually they will let me pick speciality cars.

Just a little venting and a slide on over to National vote... I've been Hertz Prez Circle for several years... 5 star for the decade before. Rent 70% from Hertz and 30% National and Avis. I've noticed over the past two years, I seldom get PC service (where they have it), seldom get the one car UG, AND seldom get a competent phone agent... not to mention the ridiculous phone tree to get to an agent. The drop-off team seems about the best thing going for Hertz. Wondered why I put up with higher rates... What has happened to the old Hertz culture of #1? Sold it off? I run a small office of travelers and I've told them to head on over as well... They seemed happy, they were quiet because I loved Hertz.

Guess I felt loyal or that some return affection would be displayed. You know, corporations are people too my friend.

Anyway.... time to try National with their easier to connect with phone system, not to mention five for five friendly / helpful phone agents so far. And of course much better rates. Looking forward to the results of my status match request. We will see how green the grass is or isn't. Thank you Hertz for some good times, but way too few for this formerly loyal folk. If I come crawling on my knees asking if you have me back, I'll hope you'll say yes... But right now the grass is really really green

I tend to rent for shorter periods, so I don't experience the frustration that longer-term renters face, although I an certainly understand it.

What I do like about this program is that, as an Executive Elite, I have virtually unlimited potential with a free day "token". I can use it on a compact car on a January weekend, or book a convertible one-way between cities in the peak of summer, and everything in between. I can't begin to tell you how much the program has saved me in long-distance moving costs when I was between cities earlier in the decade.