New benefits from Hertz Gold Plus Rewards …. including a useful one!

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• Kipto says:

  19 Feb19 February 07:27

  Slightly off topic but two years ago I hired a car in Orlando and when I went to pick up the car I was given the choice of whatever I wanted in the car park in that particular category so I had a choice of what car I wanted out of ten different vehicles in that category rather than just being given the keys and making do with what vehicle I am allocated. In other readers’ experience is there a particular rental company that offers this or does it vary with location rather than the company. ?

  • Alan says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:33

    Hertz definitely offer this (‘Gold aisle’), but only at a few locations – I think there’s a list on the website. I believe National offer something similar, again not at all locations though.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:48

    Avis sent out printable upgrade vouchers like candy whilst I was using them last year. This meant that I could present it at pickup and chat through what I’d been allocated and what they could give me as an upgrade (helped that the location wasn’t too busy). Best one was probably a 3 series, having booked lowest category (eg Peugeot 107) although I actually rather liked a brand new (<100 miles on it) Ford Focus that I once got to break in.

  • Rob says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:55

    Hertz do a version of this at some airports for top tier customers.

  • Andy says:

    19 Feb19 February 09:09

    This sounds a bit like Hertz Gold Choice. If you rent an intermediate or higher you can swap to any car in the Gold Choice aisle. So you could pay for an intermediate and then drive away a full size.

    Gold Choice is available to all Gold Plus Rewards members.

    Its available at most large Airport locations in the US and the following in Europe…

    London, UK
    Stuttgart, Germany
    Frankfurt, Germany
    Munich, Germany
    Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Birmingham, UK
    Edinburgh, UK

  • AndyGWP says:

    19 Feb19 February 13:38

    I can only speak for renting in the US, but I think a large majority of airport pickup locations let you just go to the associated category, and get in the car you want to – regardless of rental company.

    We have done so with Dollar, Alamo, National etc at LAS, MIA, DEN, SFO (and possibly others) and they have all worked like that.

    It only seems to be the smaller pickup locations (ie. hotels), where they pre-allocate you a car.

• Alan says:

  19 Feb19 February 07:32

  Always nice to have an improvement, but annoying it’s only for partners and doesn’t include friends or family 🙁

  I’m not sure the return process is really any different, but in any case always double-check they have recorded the fuel correctly, I’ve been caught out with them on that before.

• John says:

  19 Feb19 February 07:41

  How can they tell if someone is your “partner” and not another relative / housemate (especially if you have several driving licences, or one that doesn’t show your address)?

  • Alan says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:47

    I guess it depends on how hard they question you but certainly when renting a car with my parents previously I don’t think I could have easily pretended my father was my partner! Probably a bit easier with a sibling.

  • Andy says:

    19 Feb19 February 08:57

    It’s domestic partner so you need to reside at the same address. In the US you don’t even need to show your spouse/partners licence to Hertz as they are automatically covered but if it came to a claim then you would probably need to prove you live together.

• Gordon says:

  19 Feb19 February 08:46

  Just back from Florida, rented twice from Alamo – Tampa and Miami. At each location was given the choice of any car in the row for the category I had rented. Like this option, if only to choose the colour of the car!

• Ian says:

  19 Feb19 February 08:54

  You should note this. I found out when trying to claim missing points from a long week in Iceland…

  “NOTE: Only qualifying rentals occurring in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas/ U.S. Virgin Islands, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Switzerland Australia, New Zealand,and Brazil are eligible.”

• Florian says:

  19 Feb19 February 10:32

  Is it enough to be a gold star member and present the card at pickup or do you need to do anything special to activate this benefit (ie can you still accrue miles for an airline for instance)? I’m just heading to Australia and the extra driver benefit will come in very handy.

  • Rob says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:12

    I think that is enough. It should not impact your airline miles as long as you tell the agent you want miles and not Hertz points.

• kipto says:

  19 Feb19 February 21:19

  anyone know the best car rental company for different drop off locations in the UK ie pick up a car from a UK airport and drop the car off elsewhere and preferably one that doesn’t sting you with a one way “fee” of around £50 which I am getting quoted for ?

  • Rob says:

    19 Feb19 February 22:10

    Hertz can do this. There is a rate code or a country code which lets you book one-way Hertz rentals for no extra cost, I have a friend who drives one to Heathrow when he flies anywhere! Not sure what it is at the moment ….

    • Alan says:

      19 Feb19 February 23:38

      Damn, wish I’d know what that code was when I drove Route 66 – one-way fee was about half the rental cost (and Hertz actually priced out as one of the best!)

• MKB says:

  20 Feb20 February 00:45

  I’m wondering if the free additional drive for spouse is not a disguised downgrade.

  At pretty much most Hertz locations I’ve used around the world, the additional driver fee has been waived for a spouse. My spouse is actually a civil partner, and, before that, just a domestic partner, and we’ve never had an issue getting this spousal benefit just by asking.

  This sounds very much like the free additional driver for spouse is being withdrawn, unless you sign up for Gold Plus Rewards.

  A problem we have had a few times is getting the free additional driver named on the rental agreement. Some outlets insist that there is no need to do this as the spouse is automatically covered, and have maintained that the only way to get the additional name to appear on the documentation is to pay the additional driver fee. It can however be done if the clerk knows how.

  This is important for Amex Platinum card holders, as the car rental insurance does not apply to the additional driver unless they are named on the rental agreement. I had an exchange of letters with Amex a few years ago pointing out that this was typically costing me about 30 minutes on each rental getting the paperwork changed, and that they should cover included drivers even if they weren’t named on the documentation, but Amex refused to budge.

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