I like Hertz because every $500 I spend I get a free weekend rental day (which in NYC, can be up to

National Car Rental is running a pretty lucrative promotion: Earn one Free Rental Day with every two rentals of two or more days between August 22, 2011, and January 31, 2012. All in addition cheap car rentals cancun to your standard Emerald Club rewards.  Registration link . My understanding cheap car rentals cancun of the T C is that there is no limit to the number of free days earned just that you can only use 3 free days per rental when it comes time to redeem. cheap car rentals cancun No more than three Free Rental Days may be redeemed toward one rental of three or more days.
I like Hertz because every $500 I spend I get a free weekend rental day (which in NYC, can be up to $200 in value), however I find their 5 Star elite program to be pretty cheap car rentals cancun worthless. I generally don t get upgraded unless I pay extra, but that s always annoying because I have to go back into the station and then haggle over price. cheap car rentals cancun Frankly, I ve gotten tiny Corollas one too many times, which for a 6 7 man is not an enjoyable driving experience.
I don t have a National Emerald club account, so I took this as an opportunity cheap car rentals cancun to sign-up. National gives the option to earn airline miles or free rental cheap car rentals cancun days and I chose the latter. I have plenty of airline miles, so I d rather cheap car rentals cancun get free rental days. Their program is pretty generous (though not as generous as Hertz for my situation)- every 6 rentals you get a free day (it s one every 7 for non-elite Emerald Club members).
National is also offering a referral bonus for getting coworkers/friends/family to join the program. For each referral who actually rents a car, you get a free rental day (10 free day max). Feel free to use my link for your status match.
One Free Rental Day will be awarded for every two qualifying rentals made after the date on which the member has registered and which occur between August 22, 2011, and January 31, 2012. Credit will not be given for rentals made prior to a member s registration date . A qualifying rental is the paid rental, via The Emerald Club ® , of a Midsize or larger vehicle at participating National Car Rental locations in the 50 United States, including the District of Columbia, for a period of two or more consecutive days during the promotion.
Earned Free Rental Day fulfillment will begin after September 2, 2011, (solely by email to the email address provided at the time of registration) and thereafter will occur within 1–2 weeks after the second qualifying rental. cheap car rentals cancun Free Rental Days are non–transferable. To redeem a Free Rental Day, visit emeraldclubpromos.com/12Free11 to view your free day certificates, click redeem and then rent a Compact through Fullsize car starting after September 2, 2011, and before June 25, 2012. To take advantage of this offer, make a reservation at least 24 hours in advance. No more than three Free Rental Days may be redeemed toward one rental of three or more days. Unfortunately, we cannot combine this offer with any other discount and cannot apply the offer to a previous cheap car rentals cancun or existing reservation. All standard rental qualifications apply. Be aware that taxes, surcharges, recovery and recoupment fees and other charges may apply, and that optional products and services (such as damage waiver and additional driver fees) are extra charges. Please check your auto insurance policy and/or cheap car rentals cancun credit card agreement for rental vehicle coverage. cheap car rentals cancun The availability of this offer is limited to participating U.S. locations and is subject to change without notice. Blackout dates may also apply. cheap car rentals cancun We cannot accept the coupon if it has been purchased, bartered or sold for cash.
Referrers of friends and colleagues through our email form and social media links will earn a maximum of ten Free Rental Days, regardless of how many friends and colleagues enroll. In order to receive credit, referred friends and colleagues must use the email address provided by the referring party at time of enrollment cheap car rentals cancun and conduct a rental by January 31, 2012.
Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned cheap car rentals cancun by the credit card issuer. Opinions expressed here are author.s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. This site may be compensated through the credit card issuer Affiliate Program.
An important caveat to their pick any car feature is that it s only for National Rental Centers with an Emerald Aisle, which are at most larger airports (though not at medium or small ones like Louisville or Lexington KY). If you re at an airport without an Emerald cheap car rentals cancun Aisle, they will assign a car to you.
TPG, your Hertz comparison also isn t taking into account their current promotion cheap car rentals cancun where you get 100 bonus points cheap car rentals cancun for every rental. cheap car rentals cancun I rent a car from NYC for 1 day at a time every other week or so, I m getting 200 points per rental ($100 rental and 100 point bonus). That means that I m getting a free car day every 2.5 rentals/days right now. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. I think that gives HTZ the edge for now.
I am sure you already cheap car rentals cancun know this but Platinum card members get Executive cheap car rentals cancun Status in their program which is the next level to Emerald Club. With executive status one would would receive a free rental day with six rental credits and have access to the Executive cheap car rentals cancun selection area. The executive selection area always has a choice cheap car rentals cancun of a full size car or higher and the executive member would only pay for a car class less than full size.
I have recently become an Emerld Club member, and have used the Emerald Aisle twice. I used to dread renting cars in the past standing on line, waiting for paperwork to be completed etc I have been so happy about how easy it has been to walk out right up to a car, pick it and just spend 2 minutes at the gate as you are leaving the lot. I noticed the selection of vehicles depend on the specific location, but a choice is better then no choice!
Definitely enjoy Executive status (gained via the Amex Platinum card). Visited Phoenix recently and drove out with a shiny new black Camaro only to discover (quite incredibly) that there was a Camaro convention going on at my hotel. I had a blast backing that lowest-level stock Camaro up next to the long line of tricked out Camaros and laughing my way into the hotel.
Once you try National cheap car rentals cancun Emerald/ Emerald Exec you won t go back to Hertz. It s amazing to just bypass everything and just walk to any car on the lot you want and get in and drive away. I used to be a staunch Hertz supporter but the size and quality of cars I was getting was on a steady decline to the point where I could get nothing more than a Nissan cheap car rentals cancun Versa. Hertz was to the point where the ease of the #1 club gold was gone because I would have to go back in every time and plea for a bigger car. Upon switching to National, I pay the same rate (corp rate) and get cars much bigger, nicer and with more features.
Big Con for NYC residents: You CANNOT redeem any free days in local Manhattan/ NYC rental locations. The only way you can redeem these free days (or any of their free days for that matter) is at LGA, JFK or EWR which adds a huge amount of PITA to the offer, cheap car rentals cancun although still worth it.
I agree. National did this promotion in I think, Spring of 2010? We accrued cheap car rentals cancun enough free rental days that since September of 2010 we have not paid for a rental car in the US. I just checked the dates and that is over 40 free rentals in a year, plus the days keep accruing!
The other nice perk (we re Exec Elite, I don t know if that makes a difference) is that when you re using your free days you can use them on any car class. We ve redeemed a lot of those free nights for Suburbans and convertibles, which generally rent for 2-3x the fullsize rate. Just call ahead and ask for the specific car you want (depending on location they ll even accommodate make and model if they can we ve even had some branches transfer cars in). By the same token, if you don t see a car you like in your aisle most locations will give you something else if you ask, and there is almost always an attendant walking around the aisles so you don t have to go to the counter if you have a problem.
One caveat is that we did go through a long stint of paid rentals where it seemed like the only cars in the lot were red Pontiac G-6s, but I haven t seen one of those for a while the current cheap car rentals cancun stock seems to be a lot of Camrys, Impalas, etc.
I m emerald executive (2 away from executive elite) and at Charlotte the other day I had my choice of a suburban, explorer, and xterra all for the price of a mid-size. I love national and gave up hertz because of the poor car choice. Driving around manufacturer clients in a Nissan versa is not acceptable. The worst car I ve ever ended up in is a chevy impala.
I love their EA service, I am a Exec member due to AMEX PLAT and the cars I get for the price are just incredible. A few places in the US like PR and Alaska do not offer the Emerald Aisle service so dont expect much there, but at pretty much any other airport you can pick what you want and pay the mid size rate.
Ive gotten the new Hyundai Genesis (which is a pretty nice car), Escalades etc for the mid size rate. More often than not though I will just pick a nice regular car if I dont need the space (fuel is expensive after all).
Pricing (if you play with their system) is also very very good .Roughly $60 for a 3 day weekend rental in LA with all taxes etc, recently cheap car rentals cancun did a $400 rental for 2 weeks in Alaska after taxes, where let me tell you car rental prices cheap car rentals cancun are through the roof. The second cheap car rentals cancun lowest rate I got was about $950 from Hertz.
I have Exec status from Amex Platinum but have never used it. I like renting midsize SUV s and have always found Alamo to be much cheaper than any of the other companies. However, are you saying that I can just rent a mid-sized car (which is much cheaper, even than my Alamo rental) and just pick from the midsized SUV s at the airport? I m flying into Hartford, CT, which from the link below does have an EA Thanks in advance for the insight!
Also, National usually has good Last Minute Deals