Why crediting Hertz car rentals to IHG One Rewards is surprisingly attractive

As Hertz is not a British Airways Avios partner, you have historically had to find an alternative home for the rewards you earn on your Hertz car rentals.

The good news is that this is no longer the case.  You can now earn Avios with Hertz rentals by crediting them to Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

This is because Qatar Privilege Club now uses Avios as its currency, and you can transfer the Avios onwards to British Airways Executive Club.

You only earn 500 Avios per Hertz rental, however. There is a little known partnership between Hertz and IHG One Rewards – the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental etc hotel scheme – which is more generous.

IHG One Rewards offers Diamond Elite members status with Hertz – click to read my article explaining how it works – which is an extra incentive to book.

ALL IHG One Rewards members, irrespective of status level, can earn points when they rent from Hertz.  Full details are on the IHG website here.

Here are the headline details:

• You will earn 1,500 IHG One Rewards points per rental

plus

• an extra 125 IHG One Rewards points per day for non-status members, or

• an extra 500 IHG One Rewards points per day for status members

This is pretty generous, especially for Silver, Gold, Platinum or Diamond Elite members who are guaranteed at least 2,000 points per rental.

Perhaps more importantly, it seems that this is one of the few partner earning opportunities which has historically counted towards earning IHG status. We still need confirmation that this will continue in the rebranded IHG One Rewards.

Here are the snags:

• You must book via this link on this page of the IHG website

• You must include the IHG CDP in your booking – this means that, whilst you benefit from the IHG discount of up to 35%, you are excluded from any more generous deals you may be able to access

Let’s assume that you value IHG points at 0.4p each, as I do.  A 2-day rental for a status member would earn you 2,500 points which is £10 of value.  A week-long rental would get you 5,000 points valued at £20.

This compares well with the Avios deal via Qatar Privilege Club. This will only get you 500 Avios, which I’d value at £5. It also beats the generous Virgin Atlantic deal with Hertz, which gets you 1,000 Virgin Points per rental.

As long as the IHG discount rate throws up a good price, this is one of the better hotel / car hire tie-ups and one you should try to remember. It may trump the new opportunity to earn Avios from Hertz.

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IHG One Rewards update – March 2023:

Get bonus points: Click here for our article on IHG’s ‘2k Every 2 Nights’ promotion, which runs from 9th February 2023 to 14th April 2023. You can register here.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You will receive an 80%-100% bonus when you buy IHG points by 21st March 2023.

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