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Hertz introduces ‘The British Collection’ of luxury vehicles for rent

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Hertz is introducing a new premium service called The British CollectionIt is primarily based around a varied fleet of Jaguar and Land Rovers and will only be available from the Heathrow, Edinburgh Airport and London Marble Arch locations. The cars come with a make-and-model guarantee, so you can pick exactly which vehicle you want.

Hertz is also introducing a “dedicated lounge” (their emphasis, not mine!) for ‘The British Collection’ customers, including soft furnishings from Tom Dixon, a botanical mocktail from Seedlip, neon light installation by British artist Lauren Baker and an “in-lounge garden installation” from florist McQueens (whatever that means!).

Hertz British Collection lounge

Only one render was provided with the press release – see above – which makes the term ‘lounge’ seem very generous.  However, you don’t necessarily need to use the lounge as The British Collection comes with complimentary terminal delivery and collection for Heathrow and Edinburgh Airport customers, and local pick-up near Marble Arch, so you can avoid the Hertz branch entirely.

To rent a car with the British Collection you must be over 25 years of age (I’m out!).


How to get FREE car rental status and other benefits via UK credit cards

How to get FREE car rental status and other benefits via UK credit cards (April 2024)

If you hire a car in the UK, you can get special benefits (discounts, upgrades, free additional drivers etc) if you have elite status with a car rental programme. You can get elite status for free via certain American Express cards.

The Platinum Card and American Express Business Platinum

The Platinum Card from American Express and American Express Business Platinum come with two free car hire status cards. Your supplementary Platinum cardholder can also receive status in their own right.

From Avis, you receive President’s Club status in Avis Preferred. This gets you up to 25% off standard rates, a free additional driver and a guaranteed one class upgrade. For weekend rentals you will receive a two class upgrade, subject to availability.

From Hertz, you receive ‘Five Star’ status in Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. This gets you up to 15% off standard rates, a free additional driver and a one class upgrade, subject to availability.

Hertz also offers Platinum cardholders a 4 hour grace period on rentals. Your final day is treated as 28 hours, so a 1pm pick up with a 5pm return the following day is only charged as one day, not two days. We wrote about the Hertz / Platinum 4 hour grace period here.

The Platinum Card also comes with full car hire insurance with no obligation to pay for the rental via American Express. You can refuse any attempts to sell you additional insurance at pick up. This benefit has substantial value if you rent on a regular basis.

You can find more details on the two Platinum cards, and apply, in our full reviews linked below. You can apply here for the personal card and here for the business card.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is an excellent card in its own right. You receive 20,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up (convert to 20,000 Avios amongst other things), four airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit. Even better, your first year is free.

There are two car rental benefits:

  • you receive Preferred Plus status in Avis Preferred
  • you receive a special package with Hertz – 10% off best available rates at participating locations, a one class upgrade for rentals of 5 days or more, subject to availability, and no additional driver fees

Find out more about the benefits of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold in our review. You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

Comments (102)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Jb says:

    I wonder how long that Guernsey route will last…

    • BJ says:

      About 90 minutes I would imagine 🙂

    • Andrew says:

      No later than the 14th September…

      20Kg luggage allowance, Saturday to Saturday – they should manage to fill 37 seats.

      Certainly my in-laws have got two separate trips planned over the Summer on the new service, they love Guernsey and this will save them having to kill 2-3 hours in Southampton or Exeter on a Flybe connecting service.

  • John says:

    OT my lloyds amex was supposed to end last week, but it’s still working and I haven’t received any new cards.

    Stavanger is spelled correctly once and incorrectly twice.

    • RichS says:

      Same, mine should have ended last week, but still not received new card.

    • Jonathan says:

      My old cards worked on the old scheme until the statement after the “change” date…ie a few more days. Then from that statement the new scheme (earning rates) kicked in but the new card still took a further 3 weeks to arrive. I called to chase but Lloyds weren’t too concerned. If I recall correctly the old Amex card then stopped immediately but the old MasterCard worked until I started using the new card. If also took a few days after the change date for everything to update on my online login.

      • John says:

        Sorry can you clarify, did you earn at the new rates when spending on the Amex, or did the Amex stop working at the same time the new rates kicked in?

        Basically there is no point earning 0.4 Avios for Amex spend when I have the BA free Amex (which I am keeping), but not sure when to stop using Lloyds. At next statement maybe?

        • David says:

          So how do we know? The new rates are no longer 0% FX, are they? So if I keep using my Amex abroad, am I suddenly going to start getting hit by FX fees at some indeterminate point?

          • Rob says:

            I assume you stay at 0% FX until you get your new Lloyds Avios card and your Amex dies.

        • Jonathan says:

          My Amex physically stopped working as of the statement date following my switchover date…. ie about 3 days later.

    • Ben says:

      I still haven’t received “the” letter from Lloyd’s. Both my Amex and Mastercard still work.

      On holiday this weekend, so I hope the card will remain active for me …

      • Anna says:

        I haven’t had the letter either. I called Lloyds a few weeks ago and they said they were aiming to close the cards by the end of June, but this can’t now happen as they have to give 60 days’ notice of the changes. You’ll be fine, I’m hoping mine will last until the end of the summer!

        • Ben says:

          Likewise .. it’s the best card at the moment for any sort of spending ..

    • Kathy says:

      Re: Lloyds Avios card. I haven’t had ‘the letter’ yet either, and just managed to earn an upgrade voucher (which might get used on short-haul as it’ll be so tough to earn Avios going forward.

  • David says:

    Should someone tell Hertz that Jaguar Land Rover is an Indian company…?

    • paul says:

      LOL

    • Lady London says:

      Huge numbers of top so-called British names – especially the traditional ones – are owned by someone else now.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Indian owned but everything about its core identity is British.

      All cars are designed and engineered here.

  • Oh Matron! says:

    Slightly OT:

    Have been quite impressed with Hertz of late. Little quibbles have been sorted very6 quickly at Heathrow, with alternative cars (and upgrades at the same time).

    Last week’s upgraded was just because! I went from a Qashqui to a Mere C200 Cab…

    Still a shame they don’t have the choice thing like in the states, but good nonetheless.

  • paul says:

    A few weeks back there was a great article on Hertz gold plus rewards. In the feedback I commented that you cannot book the cheap deals on the Hertz.com.au and be logged in to you account and this was challenged by the author of the article who said he did it all the time.

    Can someone please explain step by step how you do this. I have spent all weekend trying to rent a car using the .au site and the responses I get are as follows. ( Presidents circle member)

    Logged in Hertz UK site using Amex Platinum CDP
    Car £78 for weekend

    Not logged but on the Hertz.com.au site and using Amex Platinum CDP
    Car £38 for same weekend

    Logged in and change country to Hertz.com.au and using Amex Platinum CDP
    Please call to book / There are no cars available at you destination on those dates.

    I have booked a pay at desk rate as it was a good rate. But it not on my profile and so they wont be expecting me and no upgrade. They can take the number at the desk and so hopefully will get points. The alternative seems to be to change your home address to Australia.

    .

    • John says:

      Yeah I don’t understand how Hertz IT works. I use the Australian site but I only really use Hertz in Australia. If I log in then the cheapest rates don’t show up.

      However it seems the rates in Australia go down at 1-2 weeks in advance. If you book earlier to lock in a rate, then you should always check again just before the trip and cancel / rebook. (Prepaid rates can be refunded 7 days in advance, usually, and I pay with an Australian card if AUD, UK card if GBP, so no exchange rate fluctuations.) When rebooking, the cheap rates then still appear when I log in.

    • Rob says:

      Just book it, don’t log in and get your number added later.

      • John says:

        Didn’t think you could add an existing booking to hertz membership?

        • Paul says:

          You cant! If you call to add it they re price!!!! You have to add at the desk on collection. Its a scam and frankly something Hertz are getting a reputation for with me. My most recent rental in TLV had been pre booked on .co.uk and using my membership details. Rate was $148 for 3 days. Usual email the day before from gold rewards and on arrival told the booking cancelled by Hertz Israel as car not available! The new rate was $450 which was eventually reduced to $231. Shocking scam that Hertz CS here in the UK have failed to deal with yet.

          • Lady London says:

            I’ve phoned to add my membership number for years and not paid any more. If there is no way talking to them to avoid a price increase just leave the existing booking in place.

            Its always useful to work out call centre incentives if you can. Often when you phone up with a minor query or change, the agent will say they will do it by making a new booking. I am sure this isn’t necessary a big chunk of the time. I go with it but always say yup go for it but I don’t want it costing me any more. That way the agent does what they are incentuvised on and it costs me nothing.

            Personally I generally find Hertz agents know all the discount codes and will try their best to find one you could be eligible for if you say you can’t work with the prices you are getting online and ask could they see if they could help. Quite a few times the agent has managed to find something that improves the price. They then get to do a new booking and everyone’s happy.

          • Lady London says:

            I believe that if you prepay you avoid some of these scams. I have a feeling I read somewhere a long time ago that Israel car hire is famous for them – it might have been flyertalk

      • Lady London says:

        Bet to phone them to do that when youve done the booking.

        I thought Hertz had stoppés their old tricks Of charging people that logged in, more than people that didnt for the same rental. Evidently not.

    • Rooster says:

      When logged in, not specifically about the platinum discount but you need to make sure your profile is set to accept the correct options in order for the prices to display correctly.

      For example you need to choose to accept some options such as the Excess reduction in order for the price to show otherwise it just shows either a high price or please call

    • Danny says:

      Reply to Paul: You don’t need to change your home address to Australia. Just add a work address in Australia (perhaps your company has an office there?) and change the mailing address in your Hertz profile to your work address (can always be changed back as soon as you’ve made the booking). That should be enough to trigger Australian rates while you’re logged in.

  • Robert says:

    Hertz IT is beyond a joke.

    Using the link to the “British collection” Rob put here, offers a few vehicles but not a single British Collection car, and I tried 8 different dates between now and September.

    Then I went to the regular hertz.com site and logged into my Gold Plus account (I have President Circle with them). This time many more vehicle categories showed up, including the British Collection ones, only if you click to get a quote for one, it does nothing other than make the page go dark for a few seconds…

    So then I logged out and tried again through hertz.com without being logged into my account, and the prices for the British Collections actually showed this time without having to click through, although I have no intention on paying over £500 for a day’s rental of an F-Pace or XF thank you very much.

    All this by the way was through Chrome. Trying with Safari when logged in brings up a messaged saying “Sorry, there are no vehicles available for the period and/or location you have selected” for the very same dates I used on Chrome! Go figure…

    Anyway, I would highly recommend checking out Avis Prestige with a seriously extensive selection of cars, and where for the same dates Hertz wanted over £500 a day for the Jags, the very same models can be had for around £200 with Avis. You could even drive the I-Pace for £300 a day.

  • Lumma says:

    OT booked ANA business class with Virgin miles last night. Frankfurt to Tokyo (there was far more availability on that route than London).

    Found availability on United website then called up and the agent found the same exact flights. 95000 miles and £209 in taxes. Quite a simple process although most flights only had 1 seat in business

    • Kathy says:

      I am hoping to book this from London – although ex-EU is not impossible. How far ahead were you looking for availability?

      • Lumma says:

        Hi Kathy

        I didn’t find anything in 2019 from Heathrow or Frankfurt. I booked the back end of February but there was quite a lot of flights in March too. From Heathrow there was only a couple of days with any options and couldn’t find a return flight to suit. Pretty much every day in February and March had seats from Tokyo to Frankfurt. Taxes are around £150 less from Frankfurt so should cover cost of connecting flights easily.

        I didn’t check any other ANA destinations in Europe but there’s a few other options if you want to search

        • Kathy says:

          Thanks, I am considering going around about this time next year – after Golden Week.

  • Will says:

    Ref Hertz model guarantee.

    It doesn’t really exist, I booked a good GTi advertised as guaranteed model and was given a very standard Audi A2 when I arrived (as presidents circle member)

    Complained, got told no golfs and followed up with CS several times to be told and I quite:

    “I can advise yes, if this particular vehicle is available at the time of collect, then the model provided will be the same as booked

    However, that is not a guarantee on that particular car type being available , only a guarantee on getting that model should that vehicle be available”

    Very poor. It’s pike guaranteeing a table at a restaurant and then saying “it’s only guaranteed if no one else turns up to eat here”

    • Lady London says:

      What a load of sh*te.
      I looked at that on the Hertz site and thought ‘guaranteed’ meant ‘guaranteed’. There’s a price premium so it should have.

      There is no such thing as getting thé car you bookefmd with Hertz. They’re always trying to foist whatever véhicule theyve gît a lot if for that season on me. Always in a wildly different class to that booked. Sometimes it’s simply impossible to get what you’ve booked.

      My only tip for Hertz is never book the bottom grade of car ‘A’. You will get a tatty overworked clunker a lot of the time. Booking anything else does open up the above problems but they can be better problems. One time I landed an Abarth – it was the best car of its type that I’ be ever driven.

      • Rob says:

        Can’t be that knackered because Hertz has a hard cap of 10,000 miles in the UK. Cars usually go after 6 months anyway.

        This is genius of the car rental model. A 6 month old car with 10k on the clock is probably worth 75% the price of a new car. However, Hertz gets a 25% discount (you’d imagine) so they are quits. The cars are effectively free to them.

        There may also be a VAT dodge because you don’t charge VAT on second-hand items. If Hertz pays £10k for a car it can reclaim £1,500 VAT so the net cost is £8500. When it resells the car it does not need to add VAT (I assume, as it is a 2nd hand vehicle). This makes the numbers even better.

        • Lady London says:

          I don’t hire much in the UK. A little, but not much. and Hertz made a decision a few years ago to keep their cars till much higher mileages. I’ve even had 45,000 miles on one! Altough it may have been a car that needed to go “back to base” in anohter country before being taken out of the fleet.

          If Hertz has gone back to allowing only a much lower mileage that would be fine. Not my experience over past 3 years or so however, but it’s true recently hired cars had lower mileages.

        • will says:

          VAT is chargeable on a used car IF the VAT was reclaimed on the purchase price of the car AFAIK.

        • will says:

          I do find Hertz a real mixed bag and it seems to be completely random and not down to any country or what status you hold.
          I don’t mind getting a dog of a car as long as it’s cheap enough, what I really don’t appreciate is paying a premium and then either not getting what was advertised or getting something that’s long past its use by date and they’ve done this to be more than once now.

          The Golf I had paid extra for had “Guaranteed Model” written against it on the booking page, it’s outrageous really that they can get away with it. You’d have thought that they would know if they had that model booked out on that date, I only booked it 2 days before hiring so it’s not even likely it was juggled around, I assume it didn’t exist when they took the booking.

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