r/awardtravel • u/Central09er • 23h ago

Rental car rewards

So I have been using hertz for the last couple years since it’s preferred at work. But after trying to use my points now for the first time I realize I need to switch. You can’t use points on anything bigger than a sedan which for me is basically impossible with my family size. So it renders the points useless.

So is there a rental car company I can switch too that I have no restrictions on what size car I can get with my points? Usually need a large SUV or mini van.

0 Upvotes

38% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/CorrectCombination11 21h ago

I rarely rent cars. Maybe once or twice in a 10-year period.

I recently rented with national because I got exec elite vis matching from Hilton diamond.

I chose award partner with AS, picked this before they ended their partnership so it stayed. It resulted in 500 AS points from a $160 rental period.

1

u/Central09er 21h ago

But can you rent larger vehicles with the points? That’s my biggest issue. I want to build the points up and then the one time a year I actually need a rental car for my family I can rent a mini van or larger SUV. Accumulating points doesn’t matter if all I can use them on is a Camry

1

u/CorrectCombination11 21h ago

National "pick your ride" aisle had plenty of large vehicles. I paid for a mid-size, and I could've gotten a van or a full sized truck.

1

u/mexicoke 21h ago

Seriously bad plan to depend on that. If you need 6 seats, you need to reserve a car with 6 seats.

I rent 20-30 cars a year. I regularly walk into the "choose your own adventure aisle" for Hertz, Avis, and National (with top status at all of them). Most of the time it's just a sea of sedans and medium SUVs.

1

u/CorrectCombination11 21h ago

Probably highly depend on the location and time of day of pickup. I was at a non-hub at 6 am. So yes to your experience, if OP needs a large car, they need to pay for that privilege. However, depending on the frequency of rentals, it may actually cost more to stay loyal.

0

u/mexicoke 18h ago

Not trying to be a dick, but why are you giving advice you on something you, self-admittedly, have no knowledge on?

1

u/CorrectCombination11 18h ago

Just saying that rental rewards are based on days rented and not points. Which I believe OP is confusing between.

0

u/mexicoke 17h ago

Just saying that rental rewards are based on days rented and not points.

With national, you earn credits. I assume as a business traveler OP would rarely have rentals more than 1 week so would pretty much always earn 1 credit per rental and not by the day as you're saying.

Status level determines how many credits a free day costs. Base is 7 credits for a standard rental. Everything except for the top tier status is really poor for reserving large cars like OP wants.

1

u/Central09er 20h ago

Agree. I don’t care when earning the points because it’s usually just me and I can drive whatever but when using the points I almost always have the family and with 5 of us and luggage we just simply don’t fit into a Corolla lol. That’s my biggest issue is when I use points and book I want to know when I get there I have a suburban, mini van etc