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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.

  • Lady London says:

    Yaaay! Rhys! Welcome back!

    I was a bit more impressed with thé Italian collection i saw in Milan last week. For some reason it included a very blingy Range Rover. And thé ‘lounge’ appeared to be a new wooden park bench-type seat, albeit beautifully made, with a couple of plastic immaculately tonsured treelets to either side of it in front of a very big ‘The Italian Collection’ outside the door Of thé Hertz office in the car park.

    Perhaps all the Ferraris had been delivered to customers.

  • nick says:

    Re: having to return an item to Hackett.

    Will the bonus avios be clawed back? What if they have already transferred to my BA Exec Club account?

    • Rob says:

      Hackett should be able to claw them back, although it may not happen. Returning in-store makes it less likely as the IT may not be linked up too well.

      • nick says:

        thanks

        what if this same spend also took me over my 3k intital target – to get the 25k intro on the BA premium?

        Could I lose the whole 25k too? My net spend would go down to about £2900 so far..

        best to then spend another £100 today?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          yea AMEX will claw it back as the bonus is linked to the transaction that you spend the £3k on

          catches some people out with the 3 months spend criteria.

          • nick says:

            got it. thanks.

            But surely I will then get the 25k when I go over £3000 spend in the next couple of days?

        • Peter K says:

          I’ve had the BA bonus avios taken back due to a refund. I had spent way over that by the time the refund happened… But outside the initial 3 month period. Put me into negative avios so I just cancelled the card.

  • Liam says:

    OT — I have Amex Gold (credit card) and I have hit the £15,000 spend target for the 10,000 bonus points. I have no intention of paying for the card for its second year.

    1. If I cancel it before the card renewal date (I will still have Platinum and Rewards cards) will I still receive the bonus?

    2. If I wait until the points have posted after the card renewal, will I get a pro rata refund on the rest of the year?

  • Alex says:

    OT – could someone please confirm for me, if I booked an Avios ticket for points + £0.50 and want to cancel, do I get all the avios back and only lose 50p? Until when can I cancel? Thanks!

  • Julian says:

    Does anyone still read The Economist?

    The last time I looked at one was while studying A level Economics in the very early 1980s. Never looked at one after that, even while studying Economics and Politics at University.

    • H says:

      Eeh, yes. It’s an excellent magazine.

      • BJ says:

        +1, and most UK residents can access the digital version on mobile devices or desktops for free via their local authority library subscription. Seriously hope Julian isn’t reading the Sun 🙂

    • mark2 says:

      Yes, I read 90% of it every week (for more than 20 years.
      The quality has gone down and it has moved its political views sharply leftwards.

      • eldoc says:

        Do you feel the 2 are related?

      • Lady London says:

        Is page Three still there?

        • mark2 says:

          I assume that you mean the content.
          I am unable to comment as I am at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise getting ready to go for a walk in the forest hoping to see a bear (in the distance).

          • Rob says:

            Nice hotel, enjoy.

          • mark2 says:

            True, but Rocky Mountaineer ‘forgot’ to mention that many of the hotel restaurants are closed until main season.
            But then most things they told us were untrue. Fortunately train crew were superb.

  • Lost+confused says:

    OT Can anyone recomend a reasonably priced hotel in Dubai for a holiday with a 3 year old? Looks like a lot of the kids clubs start at 4 y/o?
    I’ve got amex plat and and the associated hotel statuses. Only about 40k points in each of miles and more avios and amex rewards so looking at cash bookings. Travelling end of May/beginning of June.

  • Wongster says:

    Hi folks,

    This is probably a most routine query that gets asked most often. I currently have an Amex BA blue with just 2 months remaining to the anniversary date. Have spent £10k on it. If I were upgrade to BAPP now, would I get the voucher immediately, and then pay another set of £195 in two month’s time when the new year starts?

    Also how do I best upgrade my BAPP? by phone request or applying online?

    Thanks!

    • Tom1 says:

      That’s exactly what happened to me.
      Triggered 241 straight away.
      Fee charged on next statement.
      Voucher has 1 year expiry I had to call to change.

      • Wongster says:

        Tom, did you upgrade to BAPP by applying online or by phone?

  • Zane says:

    OT: if I cancel my Amex how is the pro-rats refunded? Is it by month/week/day?

    • BJ says:

      Used to be days but some recent reports suggest it is now months.

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

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