sam007

guys - with most car rentals, can you pick up 30 mins or an hour prior to scheduled time and return again 30-60 mins later and still not count towards an extra day? what are the general rules - do they simply charge a small fee if you are 1-2 hours beyond the return time and after that they charge you a whole day?

thanks

hoangb

Typically, there is a 30 minutes grace period for the return. However, anything over 30 minutes could be an extra hour or extra day charged depending on the company and the type of rental rate you have.

More than likely though, it would end up being an extra day. Not worth it, IMO, just to be an hour late.

kennycrudup

With National, the 24-hr clock starts the minute you're cleared at the gate (and regardless of whatever time is on the reservation, which is really just for stocking purposes), and you have 0:59:59.9 to get it back w/o being charged for an entire day.

gpia

From my experience, 30 mins has never been a problem with any rental agency. But that obviously counts from when you actually took over the car, not when your rental pick up time was supposed to be. Not aware of any places that would charge excess time by the hour, but always by an extra day once you're past the grace period.

When I worked for a smallish outstation of a major agency, we would often overlook later returns (time of parking garage entrance ticket) if the car was returned during the times when we were closed. Fighting over an hour here or there when we weren't going to use the car seemed hardly worth it. YMMV on that one.

MSPeconomist

Hertz seems to charge extra hours IME, although after a couple extra hours it would be more than an extra day, so that the extra day is charged.

Also, if you do the rental reservation through AmEx PTS, there's an additional grace period, one or four hours in total. This can be very useful, although of course you need to compare the rates carefully as their agency rates might be more than you can get by calling Hertz or using their website for the booking.

AutoSlash

We recently published an article on our website on this topic. Folks may find it useful:

The Fee Detective and the Grace of Rental Car Companies

Yllanes

If you have an AMEX Platinum, you always get the four hours if you book on the Hertz website, even if you don't use your AMEX to pay for the rental, you just have to use the AMEX CDP.

sam007

I don't have an Amex platinum card - can I simply still use the Amex CDP number and get the 4 hour grace

AutoSlash

Technically you are supposed to be a cardholder to use that CDP. Technically being the operative word here.

MSPeconomist

I was just denied the four hour grace period for a Hertz reservation made through AmEx Platinum Card Travel using my AmEx Plat card and Hertz President's Circle number. I double checked that the phone agent was using the AmEx Platinum rate. However, they did offer name more than six extra hours for about $7, which is much less than their rate for an additional hour. This is for a European airport location, to be returned to the same place.

AutoSlash

The 4-hour grace period is only available in the U.S. as per the T&C:

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/misc/...EXPlatinum.jsp

IAHtraveler

Can't speak for others, but Avis is a 30 min grace from:
1. Time out the gate if they scan you at the gate
2. Time on the contract if no gate scan. They usually set this for 45 mins after scheduled arrival time and don't update it. However, it can be station/employee specific. If you swap cars, or are more than an hour away from scheduled time, you're more likely to have the time manually entered. However, I've played the game of setting the time 4+ hours later to keep it within a 1 day increment. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

Also, usually, 1 hour is ~1/2 of the daily rate. After that, it's a full day.

Karla Massey Lovering

First visit needing to know how to get info on finding best car rental rate for a weekly rental picking up in Boston dropping in Tampa please

MSPeconomist

Thank you. I had assumed that the claim in post 7 that I quoted would apply worldwide and the PTS phone agent and his supervisor didn't seem to know otherwise. [OT, but PTS has been horrible recently!] My rate didn't seem to have a stated charge for an extra hour, only for an extra day and I was trying to avoid having to pay for one more whole day given that my flight schedule means that I'll only be an hour or two over, depending on traffic driving back to the airport and assuming that I don't deliberately spend more time than necessary in the airport upon arrival.

mangoMan

I'm trying to use up the last of my Hertz points before the end of the year, and want to book a one-way, one-day, award rental from my hometown HLE to the airport. I need to go the airport on a Sunday and the HLE is not open then, meaning I have to pick-up the car on Saturday. Unfortunately the HLE closes at noon on Saturdays and ideally I wouldn't get to the airport until 2 pm the next day. I have the following options:

1) Return the car before noon and hang out at the airport for 2 extra hours.
2) Add 2 hours to the rental, and pay about $25.
3) Add 2 hours to the rental and use the Amex Plat CDP. If I do this the reservation prices out for only a day but if I don't pay with the Amex Plat (don't have it anymore) will Hertz automatically charge me for the 2 hours?

Ordinarily I would just drive to the airport and pay for parking (13 days in this case). But since I need to use up the Hertz points (otherwise they'll expire), and a return Uber is around the same price as 13 days of parking, I figured I'd try this approach. Option #2 makes this approach more expensive, so I'm really interested if #3 has a shot of working. If not, I'll just go with option #1 , and maybe see if the HLE agent can adjust my pick-up time forward a couple hours when I pick up the car.