Hertz benefits after cancelling Platinum card

[notsoplat]

I have a UK AmEx platinum card which I am planning to cancel before October 11th (when my next year’s membership fee is due) because I won’t be able to take advantage of the platinum benefits much next year… However, I’ve booked car hire with Hertz using the card on the 17th October and was planning to make use of the “free extra driver for spouse” which is one of the Hertz Gold Plus benefits.

Will this still work if the card is cancelled?

Will there be problems with the car rental itself (when I booked it did say you needed to present the credit card the booking was made with when you collected the car)?

If AmEx hadn’t abolished the pro-rata fee refund from October 2nd I would wait until after the car rental to cancel the card I don’t want to pay the whole annual fee!

[The Savage Squirrel]

Would be very surprised if status changed before the end of the year (and they can sometimes persist far far longer than that 🤣) but it would clearly be sensible to have a valid credit card attached to the booking at all times – not least to help everything run smoothly and swiftly on pickup – so I’d amend that.

[EwanG]

@Notsoplat have you set yourself up a Gold Plus Rewards account, and did you enroll for the status upgrade?

As a base GPR member (gold level) you get the spouse/civil partner as a free additional driver, but the benefit of enrolling through the Amex enrolment page is you will be on the Five Star membership tier, earning more points and with an upgrade if available.
I don’t believe there is a requirement to hold onto the Plat card after you’ve upgraded your tier, however the tier may reset downwards in future if you haven’t met the criterial to retain.

Separately there is the Platinum CDP code which gives you the 4 hour grace period, the terms for this are clear that you must remain a Platinum cardholder, although I have never been asked to prove this.

So if it’s just the additional driver you need this for, there is nothing to stop you cancelling your Amex card ahead of the rental.

[notsoplat]

Thanks for the replies!

I’ve rebooked with a different credit card number and cancelled the original booking to avoid any problems at collection.

I did set up a GPR account and thought I had done it via the Amex enrolment page but logging into hertz.co.uk now I can’t see any evidence that I have the five star membership tier… Where would it show up? Is there a way to get the account upgraded while I still have the platinum card if it’s not already?

[EwanG]

I’m using the Hertz app (which is pretty rubbish) and it shows the status in the middle of the post login page.

You can enrol and check your enrolment status via https://benefitsglobal.americanexpress.com/benefits/status?Face=en_GB
Do this again if there’s no green tick!

[notsoplat]

Thanks! Looks like I’m not enrolled in the AmEx extra, I guess I just signed up for GPR and thought that was that.

I’ve just tried to associate my accounts but it doesn’t work. If I click the like from the AmEx benefits page to Hertz then there is an option at the bottom of the page to enrol but that wants me to set up a *new* GPR account. Which I guess wouldn’t help unless I cancelled and rebooked this booking so it was on the new account (plus I have some points in my current GPR account).

I tried logging into the Hertz site and then clicking the link from AmEx rewards and then it takes me to an “under construction” page:
https://imgur.com/a/Kg3KWvO

Judging by the language and links on the page it’s somehow got confused and thinks I’m in Brazil (I’m actually currently in Portugal).

I’m not sure if there is a way to resolve this? Has anyone else successfully enrolled and associated their AmEx account with their Hertz GPR account?

[notsoplat]

According to this article:

To apply for these, usually you just add the relevant CDP to your profile and Hertz will check it and upgrade you within a couple weeks.

I just went to the Hertz site and added 633306 to the “corporate discount program” section of my profile and it showed up as “AMEX PLATINUM EMEA – Preferred” – should I now just be able to wait and receive the upgrade from Hertz? Nothing changed on the AmEx benefits page _yet_

[JDB]

You might do better to look at the comments in this much more recent story (the one linked above is three years old). The Plat CDP may not offer the best price or benefits.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/09/04/hertz-amex-platinum-4-hour-grace-period-2/