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Hertz secretly changes its points expiry rules – and may have wiped out your balance

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There are two travel loyalty programmes which have shown, time and time again, that they don’t deserve your trust. One in Radisson Rewards – no-one was surprised when they devalued their points by 50%+ overnight in 2022.

The other is Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. There is something rather poetic about their latest move. Instead of devaluing points, it has simply wiped them out altogether for many members via a retrospective change to their expiry rules.

Historically Hertz Gold Plus Rewards required you to have rental activity on your account – earning or redeeming – every 18 months to avoid your points expiring. It used to be two years not so long ago and no-one seems to know when it changed to 18 months.

On 30th September, Hertz made a new change. It shortened the validity period of its points to 12 months.

If you have a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards balance you probably don’t know that this occured. I can’t find trace of anyone receiving notification either before or after the event.

What happened to your points on 30th September?

What happened on 30th September? Anyone who had zero activity on their Hertz Gold Plus Rewards account for the last 12 months had their points balance wiped out.

Here is a response provided by Hertz to the Australian Frequent Flyer website when challenged:

Hertz Gold Plus Rewards is all about rewarding our loyal Hertz customers. The more frequently a loyal member rents a car, the more points they earn – and the faster they reach upgraded loyalty tier status and enjoy enhanced benefits. To ensure that our program remains focused on rewarding loyalty, we reduced the inactivity rental period from 18 months to 12 months, effective September 30, 2023. As long as a member rents a car once in a rolling 12-month period, they continue to grow their points balance. If a member did not complete a rental with Hertz in the 12-month period prior to September 30, 2023, their previously accumulated points have expired.

So there you have it …. in order to remain ‘focused on rewarding loyalty’ your points may have been wiped!

Can you get your points back?

Looking at Flyertalk, it seems that some people have been able to get their expired points reinstated. However, there are two snags:

  • you need to provide Hertz with a screenshot of your previous balance (Award Wallet screenshots seem to work, or send an old e-statement)
  • you will need to complete a Hertz rental by 31st December to avoid your points being permanently expired

If you had some Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points and haven’t checked your balance in the last month, make sure that your points are still there.

The bottom line, though, is that I recommend taking airline miles instead of Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points – most logically via Virgin Flying Club or Avios in Qatar Airways Privilege Club – and giving the Hertz scheme a miss. This has always been HfP policy because of how Hertz has behaved in the past, and has always turned out to be good advice.

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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 2025)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

Category

Hertz and Gold Plus Rewards

Comments (37)

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

  • Matarredonda says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:39

    Carhire is I believe the largest unregulated industry and it is awful with no morals.
    The worst of the lot in the UK in my experience is easirent.
    Even different depots of the same company can vary so much
    I hire maybe 10/12 ti.es a year but as somebody else has said the experience is better through rentalcars/booking.com where Al.ost always prices are lower than going direct to the hire company.
    Oddly enough got a hire with hertz at Stansted airport, on Monday, for the first time in maybe 10 years through rentalcars.com with a deal significantly better than anybody else

  • Mike Hokkenbaals says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:49

    In the immortal words of REM: Everybody Hertz

  • Panda Mick says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:56

    Have a 2500 points balance with Hertz, and being in London and carless, I manage to keep my points from expiring with the odd rental

    Hertz will continue to get my business whilst I can keep hiring Polestar 2 for £55 for two days (for example). I’m guessing that, as the Polestars continue to keep as cheap as chips almost everywhere, Hertz bought a tonne of them and no one wants to hire them

    Once things change, I’ll be off to Enterprise, where, instead of having range anxiety and having to find somewhere to charge before taking it back, like Hertz, you can take the car back almost empty 🙂

    Hertz’s website and mobile app is embarrassingly bad

    * I still haven’t forgiven Hertz for letting a customer steal my iPad in Italy 🙁

    • Aristeides says:
      28 Oct28 October 10:37

      Hertz’s website and mobile app is embarrassingly bad

      +1 – it is almost inexplicably bad. App is so buggy, you think your phone is broken.

      I enjoyed the Polestar prices especially in Italy over the summer, as well as the variable enforcement of the €35 fee for returning with less than 80% charge.

  • MKB says:
    28 Oct28 October 10:39

    I lost 2,450 points on 30 September. I had checked only the week before and made a diary note that I had to have a rental before next March to retain them.

    So far, they have offered to reinstate 1,000 points. I’ve told them to think again.

  • dougzz99 says:
    28 Oct28 October 10:40

    I find Hertz now the poorest of the companies I use, or in their case used to use. In London I use Europcar or National/Enterprise. In the US National or Avis. I’ve done 6 London rentals this year, and the manager at National remembers me, and have had excellent customer service from them, getting cars on time when others are being asked to wait. I usually get better rates from Enterprise but that seems like web branding, everything else is as a National rental. In the US the aisle system National use means you have some choice, and whilst Avis have a version of that it seems much more limited.
    Electric cars are often available deeply discounted, but without a home charger they remain a tricky proposition.

  • dougzz99 says:
    28 Oct28 October 10:45

    Meant to add a constant from National staff in London to customers is apologies for no cars. Staff say website takes reservations without proper consideration to inventory available. Have repeatedly seen people being told cars are coming from other sites and expected wait is x hours. Not had that problem myself, but frequently upgraded (Qashqai booked, received XC40 and XC90) suggesting limited cars available.

    On Flyertalk in car rental threads there seems to be a theme that Hertz have the poorest inventory management of the majors, and the most trouble providing what’s been booked.

  • Martin says:
    28 Oct28 October 10:51

    I generally use car-flexi.
    They quite often are the cheapest.
    Used many times without a problem.
    Not always the cheapest as holiday auto can sometimes be cheaper.

  • RussellH says:
    28 Oct28 October 11:02

    I have never hired a Hertz car direct, but quite some years ago, just after I started reading HfP, Rob had an article about a Hertz promotion, which involved getting 1 000 points just for signing up.
    Not exciting in itself, but Rob explained that they could be transferred across to Marriott.
    I due course, I followed Rob’s instruction on how to do the transfer.
    As others have noted, Hertz IT is, shall we say, on the poor side. The attempted transfer hung, no failure message, nothing, while the points remained in my Hertz a/c.
    After a few more attempts failed, I phoned Hertz and was told that it was a known issue, and I should keep trying.
    I kept trying + trying.
    Finally I found that the points had left my Hertz a/c, so I checked my Marriott a/c to see if they had arrived.
    To my delight I found that they had arrived 32 times! I must have tried to do the transfer 32 times, and each of them must have registered in some way, but never been carried out until the problem was sorted by Hertz.
    So, 32 000 Marriott points from 1 000 Hertz points.
    I have never looked at my Hertz a/c sonce.
    🙂

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

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