When renting from Hertz you can choose to earn frequent flyer miles or Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points. Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points can be used to book free rentals (but you still have to pay taxes and fees) starting at 550 per day for weekend rentals.
Unfortunately for those of us who are infrequent Hertz renters, Hertz points expire after 18 months of inactivity (previously 24 months). And, unlike many other programs, the only account activity that counts to reset the clock is rental activity. That is, you must either earn points from a rental or spend points for a rental in order to extend your points’ expiry date. Points earned through partners or through miscellaneous Hertz bonuses do not extend your points’ expiry date.
How to find your Hertz point expiration date
Hertz does not make it easy to figure out when your points expire. The only way I know of to figure it out on your own is to log into your account and look at “Rewards Account Activity” under “My Account”. There, you can look back in time to find the most recent points transaction that was due to a rental. Then count forward 18 months to determine your point expiration date. When activity involves using points to book a rental, I believe that the rental date is the important date, not the booking date.
A better solution is to ask Hertz. Hertz contact information, including an email option, can be found here.
Keep Hertz points alive, solution 1: Book Placeholder Future Points Rental
According to posts in this Flyertalk thread, booking a cancel-able award rental far into the future keeps your points alive until you can earn or spend points for a real rental.
Since awards start at 550 points, you need to have at least that many in your account to do this.
Keep Hertz points alive, solution 2: Convert Points to Airline Miles
Hertz lets you exchange points for airline miles (usually 600 points for 500 miles). This is not generally a good value since Hertz points are worth more on a 1 to 1 basis than airline miles, but it’s better than letting your points expire.
Since transfers start at 600 points, you need to have at least that many in your account to do this.
Keep Hertz points alive, solution 3: Transfer Points to Spouse / Domestic Partner with more recent activity
If your spouse has more recently earned or redeemed points for rental activity, you can call Hertz to transfer your points to their account. This transfer won’t reset the clock entirely. Instead, the points will adopt your spouse’s expiry date.
The nice thing about this option is that there is no minimum required. I transferred 350 points from my account to my wife’s account since I had too few points to redeem for a future rental.
Keep Hertz points alive, solution 4: Transfer to Spouse, then Book Future Points Rental
This solution combines options 1 and 3 above. If you don’t have enough points in one account to book a future rental, you may have enough once you combine accounts. So, move points into one account then book a future cancel-able rental award.
Keep Hertz points alive, non-solution: Book award and cancel
In some programs you can reset expiry by booking an award with points and then immediately cancel. With Hertz, a cancelled award will supposedly cause Hertz to calculate the expiration date as if the award never happened.
But Hertz “Points Won’t Expire” (yes they will)
Note that Hertz’s website is inconsistent with regards to point expiry. On the Hertz “My Profile” page, click “Edit” in the Membership Details section. There you’ll learn that points won’t expire (I wish that were true!):
However, if you click to view the Terms and Conditions… Earning Restrictions, you’ll find that a program rental is required every 24 months:
Points do not expire as long as the member has a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program rental in the prior 24 months. Activity means a Gold Plus Rewards Point was either earned or redeemed.
Unfortunately, this document is out of date (Hat Tip: AlexK). The up-to-date 18 month terms can be found here (scroll down to “Expiring Points”).
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I did not see confirmation that solution 1 works on FlyerTalk? Either way, caveat is you will not get all your points back when you cancel:
Any changes to a reservation booked with Gold Plus Reward points may impact the rental charges and point redemption. If a reservation which was booked with points is cancelled within 24 hours of booking, all points will be returned to the members account. If a reservation which was booked using points is cancelled more than 24 hours before the pickup time the following points will be forfeited: If a Gold member, 50% of the points used toward the booking will be forfeited; If a Five Star member, 25% of the points used toward the booking will be forfeited; If a President’s Circle member, all points will be returned to the members account. If the customer does not cancel the reservation prior to the time of pick-up and the rental vehicle is not picked up on the rental date, all the points used toward the rental amount will be forfeited, regardless of the members tier status. The cash/point conversions and refunds are subject to modification, cancellation or limitation at the discretion of Hertz at any time without prior notice.
Bottom line, Hertz reward system absolutely sucks. The accrual/value is sooo poor and then they add expiration dates…
I have a problem with my hertz account:
for 5 years i been renting cars with hertz and save points for a future roadtrip but
due to a system error I have not been able to log into my account for three months (since may), even when I try to recover my password was imposible always send the same message of #an unexpected error occur”, my points were going to expire on june and i read that due the coronavirus outbreak they will extend all the points that will expire between may and june.
since I could not do it on my own and never received the email to extend them, I called hertz several times wating for almost a hour each time that i called, according to the customer service she extended for me and I didn’t need to do anything else, when is asked again for my account she told about a system issue, and just be patience.
i asked each week on social media and they always told me that i have to wait because my problem is being solved (never was solved)
Now I call again to find out about an updated of my account and when they ask about the points they tell me that i have 0 points, she told me they expired, thanks for this system issue i lost more than 6000 points.
Nobody knows what happened and nobody has known how to give me a solution they have opened a case but I don’t think they will go further, it is the last time that I collect points in hertz again they were the worst of the worst
Ugh, sorry to hear about that! I agree, Hertz is awful with this kind of thing!
Help! I made an award reservation before the expiration date for a rental after the expiration date. Now my points are all gone! Called them and was told that the award rental has to take place before the expiration date too. Argh, over 10k points!
Yikes! I don’t know any way to help. I’d keep calling to see if a supervisor takes pity on you and makes a goodwill adjustment to your account.
I am in the same boat Greg. I made a points reservation in to the future after the expiry day of the points.
all my 6k points are gone. I called repeatedly for 3 times, and all I am being told is there is no other option. They say my account became inactive. When I ask for a supervisor, they say that they got rid of all the supervisors. I am very upset.
Hertz has an option to buy points (minimum of 50 points for $10). if I buy points will this count as activity to keep my current points from expiring? Thanks.
I don’t think so. Hertz claims that the only account activity that counts to reset the clock is rental activity
FYI this information is not true — only RENTAL activity counts as activity:
“Points will not expire as long as you have a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards rental activity in the prior 24 months. Activity means a Gold Plus Rewards Point was either earned or redeemed on a rental.”
Just lost 10K points due to misinformation.
I just chatted with a Hertz representative and was told that all points extend the expiry.
NO!! I had points ACTIVITY not rental activity and just today found all my points caput!!! I have to see if I get them back… 11000 points!!!!!!!!!
we bought a Hertz rental car from Hertz we were told we could use our points at anytime they would never expire that was in Feb. 2014 we are senior citizens we went to use our points for vacation and they are gone this is not right or fair we are very upset and want out missing points from our bill of sale back
It’s one thing to earn Hertz points, it’s another thing altogether to be able to use them. Every time I check on the little box to “Use my Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Points”, it always defaults me back to the regular booking page with cash prices. Is there some trick to being able to use the points, or are there only specific circumstances when you can use them? Even Avis makes it easier to use their Preferred Points.
Starting to think that they’re not worth the hassle…
I’ve had the same problem in the past and I would just call up Hertz and tell them I want to use points and I am having problems using their website to do so. I haven’t ever failed to get an agent to help me use my Hertz points doing this.
@Neos. When you select the “Use My Points” box, The cash price shows through several pages HOWEVER, when you get to the checkout page you’ll be given the option to Pay with Points and a drop down box with point payment options. For example, if you are booking a 2 day rental, you’ll have the option to pay Points for 1 day and cash for the other.
What if an account with no activity in the past 18+ months earns points through e-rewards? When would you expect these points to expire?
I assume they would expire 18 months after they’re issued to you
[…] to customers regarding changes for the 2019 year, but I do think it’s worth repeating. Frequent Miler has a post on how to keep these points alive for those […]
[…] to customers regarding changes for the 2019 year, but I do think it’s worth repeating. Frequent Miler has a post on how to keep these points alive for those […]
I have the same problem with Avis. Any hints for that program?
No, sorry, I haven’t looked into Avis at all
[…] How to keep Hertz points alive. This happened to me many years ago and I boycotted this program for many years before I re enrolled […]
I had over 4,000 points expire for that reason!! It bothers me so much. Anything that I can do in order to get them back?
Thank you.
It can’t hurt to ask Hertz, but I have no idea if they’ll do anything for you (my guess is no)
I called them unfortunately, they did not do anything to reinstate the points. They call it as loyalty points but they do not know the really meaning of customer loyalty. Really unhappy and will switch to some other going forward Lost close to 4000 point collected over 7 years
I have 11000 points!! and I just found out they went caput!!!!!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!! this thing is nonsense!!!!!!!
In order to check activity, you have to open each month one at a time. 🙁
it’s crazy!!!!!!!! I had 1100 point expiration posted in several months this year and have no idea about it going caput!!
Keeping and using Hertz points for car rentals is not a good idea. When you use points for car rentals, you’re not insured for collision. You’re better off paying with your credit card and use the points for something else. I always credit my rentals to my airline miles accounts, rather than accumulating car rental points.
If you have regular car insurance, there’s a good chance that it applies to rental cars too. Yes, you’ll have to pay a deductible if something happens to the rental car, but that would be true with your own car as well. So, the way I see it is that you’re right about not using points if you don’t already have good car insurance, but if you do then it’s not much risk.
Liability is always covered by your own auto insurance. However, collision insurance (for damage to the rented car itself) may or may not be covered the your personal policy. Even if it did, it will most likely have a deductible, AND you might be subject to future premium increase as a result. It’s simply not worth it, IMO.
If it is covered by your personal policy, then I don’t see why the deductible would be more of a problem when renting a car vs. driving your own. Maybe you’re more likely to get in an accident when traveling?
If you paid for the rental with your credit card, you don’t have to pay the deductible.
If you use points for the rental, a surcharge is charged as well as taxes are charged– if these are placed on a Chase Sapphire Card to secure the rental, would the rental be covered with the Primary coverage offered by the card?
Technically no because Chase’s terms state that the entire rental has to be paid with the card (or with Ultimate Rewards points), but it might work in reality if you were to submit a claim. Hard to know.
I once had an unknown person damage my parked rental car that I had paid for with points, leaving only a few dollars in tax on the bill. Citi paid the repair bill without questioning it.