Get 1,000 free Marriott or IHG points from Hertz for everyone and an Accor / Hertz status match

A couple of years ago, Hertz and Le Club AccorHotels launched a partnership.  It has been pretty quiet since then but it seems that the key benefits – a Hertz status match and a chunk of free Hertz points – are still available.

Hertz is offering a status match to all Le Club AccorHotels members.  A lot of Head for Points readers will still have Gold status with Accor due to their (now terminated) partnership with American Express Platinum, so you can benefit from this.

For the rest of you, this is still worth doing.

Everyone who signs up for Hertz Gold Plus Rewards via the links below will get 900 free Hertz points.  This is good for a one-day car rental or you can transfer them into 1,000 IHG Rewards Club points, 1,000 Marriott Rewards points or 500 miles with a variety of airlines including American, Delta and United.

What benefits do I get from the Hertz / Accor partnership?

Here are the full list of benefits from the Hertz / Accor partnership:

Earn 3 Le Club AccorHotels points per Euro spent for every vehicle rental at the eligible rates (USA excluded)

Enjoy a 10% discount on the eligible international rates on a wide range of vehicles

Receive a status match based on your Accor tier:

• Le Club AccorHotels Platinum Members can access directly to Hertz GPR President’s Circle Membership
• Le Club AccorHotels Gold Members can access directly to Hertz GPR Five Star Membership
• Le Club AccorHotels Silver Members can access directly to Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Membership
• Le Club AccorHotels Classic Members can access directly to Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Membership

Note that this offer is not available in all countries, but the UK is fine.  If you are not UK based check the small print first.

Is Accor a good place to credit Hertz rentals?

Potentially yes.

An Accor point gets you 2 Eurocents of Accor hotel discount voucher, as long as you exchange in chunks of 2,000 points.  3 Accor points per €1 is equivalent to getting 6% of your rental cost back in Accor vouchers.

Alternatively, if you set up your Accor account to transfer your points into Iberia Plus, you will earn 3 Avios points per €1 spent.  Do NOT transfer Accor points into British Airways Executive Club as the rate is only half as good.

That said, our preferred Hertz partner is still Virgin Flying Club.  As you can see on the Virgin site here, the majority of Hertz rentals will earn you a flat 1,000 Flying Club miles.

How do I register for my Hertz Gold Plus Rewards status match?

There are separate landing pages depending on which Accor tier you belong to:

Platinum – click here to get Hertz President’s Circle membership

Gold – click here to get Hertz Five Star membership

Classic or Silver – click here to get basic Hertz membership

ANYONE can get Classic status simply by signing up for Le Club AccorHotels via this link.  You can then sign up for Hertz Gold Plus Rewards via the link above and claim your 900 free Hertz points.

At no point during the sign up process does it ask for your Accor number.  I can only assume that either Accor will be asked to validate your email or postal address or the cookie carries through from the landing page and Hertz does not do additional checks.

What happens if I am already a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards member?

You can get your status upgraded by adding the relevant Hertz CDP code for your Accor status tier (shown via the links above) to your Hertz Gold Plus Rewards account.  You will not receive the 900 Hertz points as you are not a new member.

What can I get for 900 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points?

Most people who rent a car from Hertz choose to take airline miles instead of Gold Plus Rewards points.  Some of the deals, such as 1,000 Flying Club miles per rental from Virgin Atlantic, are very generous.

If you opt to earn Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points, you will earn 1 point per pound/dollar/euro spent excluding multipliers. These can be redeemed for free days on a sliding scale of expense, although the redemption amounts differ by country.

This is the points redemption chart (click to enlarge):

As you can see, the 900 points you get for signing up via the Accor link would get you a one-day UK rental of a small car as long as reward availability was there.  You would need to pay for insurance on top unless you have an all-inclusive policy from insurance4carhire.com or similar, or have an Amex Platinum card which includes free car hire insurance.

Points expire after no account activity within a two year period.  However, you can transfer them for free to your spouse or ‘domestic partner’ by calling.

Perhaps more interestingly, Hertz points can be transferred various airline and hotel programmes in 600 point blocks.

600 Hertz points (because you can only redeem in 600 points blocks even though you are getting 900 Hertz points) = 500 airline miles, 1,200 Southwest Points or 1,000 IHG Rewards Club or Marriott points.

How do you redeem your Hertz points for miles?

To quote from the Hertz online FAQ:

• Log in at hertz.com
• At the top navigation bar, click on “My Account,” from there select “Use My GoldPlus Points”
• Select the “Frequent Traveler” tab
• Complete the form and hit “Submit”

Next steps

If you have Accor status, this is a good opportunity to get yourself some Hertz status for free.

If you have no or only low level of Accor status, including the basic status you get for signing up, the attraction here is 900 free Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points.  Those will get you a chunk of hotel points or a free days rental of a small car.

The full terms and conditions for the Accor / Hertz partnership can be found here on the Accor site.

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Accor Live Limitless update – April 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.