ryandelmundo

Hi guys

Been looking all over this but can't find any great info. I'll be renting a lot of cars over the next year and want to maximize my points. Anyone have a good strategy for this? I suspect earning airline points is better than earning car points. Seems a lot trickier than getting airline points. Also complicated by having to more or less choose the lowest rate when I rent. I usually rent via Priceline for my trips but for business I need refundable rentals so that means I'll be able to get points.

Questions:
1. who has the most valuable points
2. what is your strategy for renting
3. any particular companies you love or hate more than others?
4. does the premier memberships get you anything extra? I think w my Platinum card and CSR, I'll get bumped up a level for some companies, but it doesn't seem like you get too much out of it. The Hertz I get for "free' seems like something everyone can get

Lastly, do any blogs cover this? Seems like most blogs primarily are geared to credit card churning, are there any business travel point/status blogs around. Flyertalk sees to be the best.

Thanks!

AutoSlash

Tough to answer, because it's not apples and oranges.

A few are easy to rule out: Alamo and Budget don't offer any points at all. Their programs are strictly about making the pick-up process faster but completely lack a rewards component. (Also easy to rule out are the low-end discount tier agencies like E-Z, Advantage, Payless, Ace, etc., for the same reason.)

When it comes to companies that do award points or credits for rentals, there isn't a fixed value--it depends on your rental patterns and your ultimate goal for using award redemptions.

If you do a lot of short rentals (ideally, one day rentals), National is a fantastic program, because you earn one credit for every rental regardless of length (you can earn more credits for longer rentals, but the ROI is much lower). And if you regularly rent (or can incorporate into your travel plans) one-way rentals, National is even more fantastic, because those credits can be redeemed for expensive one-way rentals (personally, I use my credits for one-way rentals that would otherwise cost $250 instead of an economy car that would cost me $30. If your rentals are typically long and you foresee offsetting a cheap weekend personal rental, National may not be the best for you because you'll earn credits slowly and the redemptions won't be maximized. Given average earning and redemption patterns, though, you might call each credit worth about $6.

With Hertz, you earn points based on how much your rental costs: you earn one point for every dollar you spend on the base rate only (not taxes, fees, options, etc.).. Redemptions are on a fixed award chart and range from 550 points for a weekend day on a basic (economy to premium) car to 33,000 for a two-week AnyDay (no blackout dates) rental of an Adrenaline or Prestige Collection vehicle. My most common redemptions have been weekend one-way rentals (1,100 points) for premium cars, which (considering the obscene one-way rates Hertz usually charges) is a sweet spot in the award chart. It's tough to put a specific value on points, since the way you redeem them has a big effect, and depending on where you redeem, you still might be left paying dozens of dollars a day in taxes and fees, but a conservative guess might be in the 4-5 cent per point range, but you can squeeze a little more value out of them if you use them wisely (one-ways, premium cars instead of economy cars, etc.).

With Avis, you'll earn points in a similar fashion to Hertz, except Avis guarantees you a minimum of 100 points per rental day. Their award chart is unpublished and somewhat dynamic, but the cheapest you'll find awards start at is 700 points a day. (We covered Avis's new program here.) Very tough to put a specific value on the points as the award chart is so unpredictable.

Enterprise works sort of like Avis's, except it's slightly more predictable. (We covered their new program here.) The points appear to be worth about 5 cents apiece (value fluctuates slightly as their system rounds up/down as mentioned in our article). Their base value is probably slightly higher than Hertz, but your options for getting extra value above that are more limited than they are with Hertz. Of course, your overall spend will probably be less, since Enterprise tends to be much cheaper than Hertz.



Personally, I don't have a "strategy" for renting. I go for whoever's cheapest, within reason and willing to pay a small premium for one of the higher-end agencies, though if your company is paying and you value a hassle-free experience, you may put a little more value on renting from the premium agencies (Hertz, National, or Avis) with the slickest bypass-the-counter options. (That topic is covered here: How much more are you willing to pay for Hertz rentals?.) I only really consider rewards in the equation when National is running their One-Two-Free promo (when I can basically count that I'll be getting about $13 per rental day in value), when I find myself renting with National much more. Otherwise, I rent with whoever's cheapest and just collect the points as they come in. I don't claim airline points as the rental companies all charge fees for doing so that approach or even exceed the value of those points, though I do have friends who collect with foreign airline programs (where fees aren't charged) or hotel programs, and I do have other friends who work much harder than I do at chasing bonus mile promos with the rental companies and occasionally get some lucrative rewards (Avis and Hertz seem to be best for that, but by doing that, you have to remove some of the discounts and coupons that take real money off your rental, so you end up paying a higher price to earn those miles, so you have to do the math and be sure it's worth it).



We make no bones about the fact we have no love for Payless. Otherwise, to be honest, rental cars are basically a commodity these days, and other than a very small adjustment for company reputation (see the thread I linked above), there's ultimately not much reason to pay a significant sum more for one company above another. I enjoy the experience at National the most and Hertz nowadays (with Ultimate Choice) a close second and Avis a distant third, but I'm personally not willing to pay a ton more for that (some people are, though). Otherwise, Budget, Dollar, Thrifty, and Alamo are pretty much equivalent and Enterprise is similar (but has its own entire ecosystem of issues...).



Hertz's higher tiers give you a small bonus on earned points, and National's higher tiers reduce the number of credits needed to redeem an award, so those can be a little helpful. It's nowhere near the 100% bonuses that top-tier airline status members get.



We do try to tackle these kinds of issues in our blog, but admittedly with a huge (and growing) list of ideas to cover and a very small team of us generating that content, it's tough to cover everything, but hopefully you'll find some helpful information there. I do know The Points Guy and others have covered the topic of the value of rental car rewards points, too, which may be helpful in this process.

And of course, shameless plug for our system (see the links in our signature below)--if you're going to be renting a lot this year, you would probably do very well to run your queries through it. Since we search over 1,000 different coupon and discount codes and can find rates anywhere from 10-70% (or sometimes even more) lower than retail rates on other sites, you would probably end up saving a nice chunk of change over the next year. You're always welcome to reach out to us with any questions.

Safe travels!

ryandelmundo

Thanks AutoSlash! This is the best post I've seen in ages. Looks like my company has a good discount with Avis, so unless someone has a good bonus, I'll probably be using them so long as the price stays rightl I think I'd prefer to use National but most of my rentals will be 6 days or longer. I'm surprised their reward system is so stingy to people that want to rent longer. What a strange incentive!

I had already put in requests with AutoSlash for my first two trips and will use when I can! I like something that is "set and forget" and AS seems to be that way, just put things in, and get good numbers back. Your blog posts are also great, I"ll keep my eye on them and look forward to more!

guv1976

"A few are easy to rule out: Alamo and Budget don't offer any points at all. Their programs are strictly about making the pick-up process faster but completely lack a rewards component."

That's not completely true with respect to Budget. Although Budget does not offer a points program, it has had a "Budget Bucks" promotion for Fast Break members for several years. Every two rentals of two days or more earns a $25 Budget Bucks coupon, which is redeemable on a future rental of even one day of a mid-size or larger car. See here:

https://www.autoslash.com/blog-and-t...ainder-of-2017

(The Budget Bucks promotion has apparently been renewed for 2018, as I just got an E-mail from Budget indicating I had two qualifying rentals in January, and need two more to get another Budget Bucks coupon -- even though I have not yet gotten the first one for the two January rentals.)

Note that the Budget Bucks promotion is in addition to earning frequent-flyer miles on Budget rentals; it's not an either/or situation.

For short rentals with Avis or Budget, I usually credit to AA: because I am AAdvantage Gold, even a one-day rental with Avis or Budget earns me 1,000 AA miles. If you hold a qualifying AA credit card, you can earn 750 AA miles per rental, even without AAdvantage elite status. Note that Avis/Budget will charge you $1/day plus tax for earning AA miles. If you wish, you can credit an Avis or Budget rental to a foreign FFP, and pay no surcharge for the miles.

With longer Avis rentals, I'll sometimes credit to BA or Virgin Atlantic to avoid the daily surcharge.

Yllanes

I will add that AMEX Platinum gets you National Executive, so you can get upgrades and pick any car from the Executive Aisle at airports. With Hertz, AMEX Platinum gets you a CDP which comes with a four-hour grace period.

If you are going to rent many times for work, you will get status soon (with Hertz it's five rentals for Five Star and twenty for President's Circle, sooner if they are expensive rentals). This gets you access to the elite aisles in major airports that have Ultimate Choice, which is a very significant benefit. You rent a midsize and choose anything from the aisle, which normally has at least Premium cars. With National you get a similar aisle straight away if you have AMEX Platinum.

AutoSlash

While the Budget Bucks promotion is definitely worth mentioning, I wouldn't consider a temporary promotion (even if it has been renewed) as equivalent to an actual rewards account (just as I don't consider National's One-Two-Free to be an actual rewards program, even if it is common, although it is a very nice add-on to the existing National Emerald Club program).

Also worth mentioning is that the Budget Bucks $25 rewards coupon is a coupon code, meaning that to use it, you must remove any other coupon from your reservation first. Given the number of coupons Budget has that are quite good (free weekend day, spend $175-save $25, $20 off SUVs, etc.) and can meet or even beat $25 off, the value of that $25 Budget Bucks coupon is, in many cases, reduced to far less than $25. (For example, it doesn't make sense to apply your $25 off coupon when you can use a free day coupon instead that saves you $35.)

guv1976

"Also worth mentioning is that the Budget Bucks $25 rewards coupon is a coupon code, meaning that to use it, you must remove any other coupon from your reservation first. Given the number of coupons Budget has that are quite good (free weekend day, spend $175-save $25, $20 off SUVs, etc.) and can meet or even beat $25 off, the value of that $25 Budget Bucks coupon is, in many cases, reduced to far less than $25. (For example, it doesn't make sense to apply your $25 off coupon when you can use a free day coupon instead that saves you $35.)"

Very true. But I have typically used my Budget Bucks coupons on one-day rentals -- including one-way, one-day rentals.

RustyC

I'm self-funded and tend to be very price conscious, so that screen tends to favor certain companies and often eliminates some. That said, I've been pleased with some of the awards I've been getting out of Advantage as a platinum member there (7+ rents I think is the benchmark). I got a free 2-day weekend that I used in LAS to cut that bill to $12.xx. They also sometimes send free-day codes (1 free day min. 2 but can be weekdays), and they have this "skip the pump" award that's a prepaid tank of gas that's really great, but I've had all kinds of problems with their returns people who know nothing about it and are dyed-in-the-wool trained to try to charge refueling if the tank isn't full. I once had to get a $154 refueling fee removed...basically you have to do returns at the counter and watch it like a hawk. What's also maddening is I haven't found anything spelling out what you do to get what award...they just send something after every rental. They're also trying to get a counter-bypass "ExpressWay" started but are behind the big companies there.

With the mileage-granting companies I usually look for codes to get maximized miles with Southwest, since you can redeem off-peak with WN at low levels (even 2 to 3K in extreme circumstances) and there are the included bags (and they have a hub in ATL). So a code-boosted rent for even 2 days can get 1,200 miles or so (more for more days) and lead to free flights more quickly. The olden days of occasional fall promos with the legacies where you could get 3K or even 5K miles for rents as short as 3 days don't appear to be coming back.

randix

this site which is updated periodically, should be in your bookmarks...

Frequent Flyer Bonuses | Bonus Offers by Car Rental Company

AutoSlash

We did an analysis of the Advantage Awards program here in our blog.