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 Airways Privilege Club uses Avios as its currency, and you can transfer the Avios onwards to The British Airways 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 elite members Five Star status with Hertz – click for more details – which comes with a free additional driver amongst other benefits.

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.

These points also count towards elite status in IHG One Rewards.

Here are the snags:

• You must book via the 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 we do.  A two day rental for a status member would earn 2,500 IHG points which is £10 of value.  A week-long rental would get you 5,000 IHG points valued at £20.

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

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 opportunity to earn Avios from Hertz via Qatar Airways.

You can learn more about IHG One Rewards in our overview article here.