How to get Hertz elite status through credit card spend

6

Just like hotel chains and airlines, many rental car companies offer multiple tiers of elite status.  The intention is to incentivize loyalty by offering better benefits to better customers.  Here’s how to fast track to status without being a great customer…

Hertz

Hertz Elite Requirements

Hertz offers three levels of status, as follows:

  • Gold Plus Rewards: This is the base level available to anyone who signs up.
  • Five Star: Within a 12 month period, this level requires at least 7 rentals or $1500 in spend.
  • President’s Circle:  Within a 12 month period, this level requires at least 20 rentals or $4000 in spend.

Hertz Elite Benefits

You can find Hertz’ benefits listed here.  To summarize:

  • Gold Plus Rewards: designated Gold parking stalls. No need to wait in line to pickup your car.
  • Five Star: Gold benefits plus one car class upgrade subject to availability; 675 rewards points after 15 rentals; 10% bonus points on rentals.
  • President’s Circle:  All Five Star benefits plus confirmed reservations; confirmed one-car-class upgrade; 25% bonus on rentals.

How to manufacture Hertz elite status

Recently, United and Hertz announced a partnership with two primary benefits:

  • Beginning November 1st, 2014, United elite members and cardholders earn extra miles on Hertz rentals.
  • Beginning January 1st, 2015, United elite members and cardholders of premium United credit cards may sign up for complimentary Hertz elite status.

Please read the announcement for complete details.  Here, we’ll focus on the Hertz elite status benefit that begins on January 1st:

Hertz Five Star status

To qualify for complimentary Hertz Five Star status, you must have United MileagePlus Premier Gold status or Premier Silver status.

Path to Five Star status:

One way to get to Five Star status, now, is to get to United Silver status.  One path to United Silver status is to manufacture Marriott Platinum status.  Through United’s partnership with Marriott, Marriott Platinum elites are able to sign up for free United Silver status.  And, now, United Silver status elites can sign up for free Hertz Five Star status.

For details about manufacturing United elite status and Marriott elite status, please see:

Hertz President’s Circle status

To qualify for complementary Hertz President’s Circle status, you must either:

  • Be a near-top tier United elite: MileagePlus Global Services, Premier 1K or Premier Platinum.
  • A primary cardholder of either: MileagePlus Club or Presidential Plus Card.

Easiest path to President’s Circle status:

The easiest path to Hertz President’s Circle status, then, is to sign up for the MileagePlus Club card.  This card costs a hefty $395 per year, but it includes excellent benefits, such as: 1.5 miles per dollar earned everywhere, no fees on close-in award booking, United club membership, and free checked bags.

Other good options

As I’ve reported before, its possible to get instant free elite status with National and/or Avis simply by signing up through special links.  See: Instant free Avis and National car rental elite status!  You can read more about National elite status here: Discover rental car discounts and upgrades.

Status Match

Interestingly, it looks like you can obtain Avis and/or National status as described above and then status match to Hertz President’s Circle status!  This might be the best option of all (but I have yet to try it).  Details can be found here.

Conclusion

I’ve presented here a few ways to fast track to Hertz elite status. Whether or not you should do so depends heavily upon your situation.  Do you already qualify anyway (due to having United elite status or certain credit cards)?  If so, there’s no reason not to signup.  Or, do you rent from Hertz enough to make it worth doing more?  I can imagine that people who fly United often will find the United Club card appealing and that the added benefit of Hertz Presidents Circle may be enough to tip the scales in favor of getting that card.  In my case, I hardly ever fly United and rarely rent from Hertz, but I’ve found it easy to maintain Marriott Platinum status through their elite buy back program (details here) so I’ll keep United Silver status and I’ll signup for free Hertz Five Star status.  What about you?  Do you see any benefit in reaching for Hertz elite status?

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

6 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments