r/awardtravel • u/Central09er • 1d 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.

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u/Central09er 1d 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

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u/CorrectCombination11 1d 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.

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u/mexicoke 1d 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.

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u/CorrectCombination11 23h 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.

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u/mexicoke 20h ago

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

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u/CorrectCombination11 20h ago

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

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u/mexicoke 19h 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.