National Car - Do you use them for Air Miles or for their points program?
Apr 13, 2018, 6:44 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 59
National Car - Do you use them for Air Miles or for their points program?
Looking advice on the following and if I should switch to national:
1. Is it worth signing up for rental car's points program in order to get free weekend rentals and what not, while opting out of AA air miles?
2. Is it better to not get any car points and opt in to get AA air miles points?
Here's my situation: I'm currently with Avis and have been renting from them for work consistently twice per month for the past year (M-F). At the end I managed to squeeze out 1 measly free rental. My mistake, I realize is that every car rental week, I lost out on $7-$14 equivalent of AA air miles per weekly rental (at $0.014 per mile of car rental). Meaning I could have gotten 24 rentals * $14 AA miles = 336$. This is using AA's partner with Avis, but they also have similar deals with Hertz such as 4x per every dollar spent at hertz (which comes to $12-$16 AA miles assuming the weekday rental was ~250$).
So long story short. For all of you who fly for a living. Do you stick to Hertz or Avis and get attached your Airline # to get the air miles? Or do you opt out of air miles at Hertz/Avis/National in order to get the free car rental programs. I've given up with Avis in terms of getting free rentals, I even had Amex Platinum where I was suppose to get a free rental gift cert if you rent twice per 90 days - never saw it in the mail (scam). But Avis and Hertz has a descent program with AA's air miles where after doing the math it comes to $7-$14 per week you get in AA miles equivelent (ie 1000-1300 AAdvanatage miles).
What car rental company is best, and what do you go for? Airline miles or Car loyalty points?
1. Is it worth signing up for rental car's points program in order to get free weekend rentals and what not, while opting out of AA air miles?
2. Is it better to not get any car points and opt in to get AA air miles points?
Here's my situation: I'm currently with Avis and have been renting from them for work consistently twice per month for the past year (M-F). At the end I managed to squeeze out 1 measly free rental. My mistake, I realize is that every car rental week, I lost out on $7-$14 equivalent of AA air miles per weekly rental (at $0.014 per mile of car rental). Meaning I could have gotten 24 rentals * $14 AA miles = 336$. This is using AA's partner with Avis, but they also have similar deals with Hertz such as 4x per every dollar spent at hertz (which comes to $12-$16 AA miles assuming the weekday rental was ~250$).
So long story short. For all of you who fly for a living. Do you stick to Hertz or Avis and get attached your Airline # to get the air miles? Or do you opt out of air miles at Hertz/Avis/National in order to get the free car rental programs. I've given up with Avis in terms of getting free rentals, I even had Amex Platinum where I was suppose to get a free rental gift cert if you rent twice per 90 days - never saw it in the mail (scam). But Avis and Hertz has a descent program with AA's air miles where after doing the math it comes to $7-$14 per week you get in AA miles equivelent (ie 1000-1300 AAdvanatage miles).
What car rental company is best, and what do you go for? Airline miles or Car loyalty points?
Apr 13, 2018, 6:55 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 880
It really depends Tbh what you value. National cars are usually better kept imho and lower mileage. National rewards more frequent shorter rentals then longer ones. For example you said you rent twice a month between M-F so you'll gain 2 credits per month . At the base membership you'll need 7 for a free day and you can use it up to a midsize car. At executive (earned by renting matching or various other ways) you'll need 6 and up to a full size. Executive Elite you'll need 5 and basically can reserve any car with a few exceptions Basically.
Apr 13, 2018, 9:57 pm
#3
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Des Moines, IA, United States
Posts: 246
I consider loyalty to car rental companies to be the least valuable travel category. That being said, I typically rent with National but I obtain points for those rentals in my Enterprise account. The reason is that I will almost never rent from National for personal rentals because they're too expensive. If I find National too expensive to justify for even a particular business rental then I'll usually use Enterprise with the Costco discount. I rarely see other rates that are competitive with the Costco rate at Enterprise.
Apr 14, 2018, 12:56 pm
#7
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Des Moines, IA, United States
Posts: 246
I don't consider the free days on National to be very valuable but that is because I use them for personal rentals where cost is an important factor in my rental decision. The problem with the National free days is that they limit the size of cars you can rent to their smaller cars. When I price a total rental, even with adding the free day for National, I can rent cheaper from other agencies without free days.
Apr 14, 2018, 3:32 pm
#8
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 880
I don't consider the free days on National to be very valuable but that is because I use them for personal rentals where cost is an important factor in my rental decision. The problem with the National free days is that they limit the size of cars you can rent to their smaller cars. When I price a total rental, even with adding the free day for National, I can rent cheaper from other agencies without free days.
They can limit you. I am an executive elite and I can pretty much get up to luxury cars with them .
Apr 14, 2018, 5:41 pm
#11
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sarasota, FL (SRQ)
Programs: WN A-List, AA EXP, Hyatt Top Tier (definitely NOT a Globalist), National Exec Elite
Posts: 491
Depends on what's in the fleet where you are renting. I have never personally had a Mercedes as an Exec Elite but I have driven many BMW, Audi, etc. including the higher end ones near $100k. To some extent there is luck involved.
Personally I find National free rental days to be extremely valuable, I rack them up like crazy (don't forget winter 1-2-FREE) and redeem for what my family wants on vacations, large premium SUVs, minivans, etc. all with low mileage and generally fully loaded.
I used to rent weekly for years at a Hertz location that had no problem allocating me a 40,000 mile clapped out Corolla. National treats me like a rockstar in comparison.
Personally I find National free rental days to be extremely valuable, I rack them up like crazy (don't forget winter 1-2-FREE) and redeem for what my family wants on vacations, large premium SUVs, minivans, etc. all with low mileage and generally fully loaded.
I used to rent weekly for years at a Hertz location that had no problem allocating me a 40,000 mile clapped out Corolla. National treats me like a rockstar in comparison.