Why crediting Hertz car rentals to IHG Rewards Club hotel points is surprisingly attractive

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As Hertz is not a British Airways Avios partner, you need to find an alternative home for the rewards you earn on your Hertz car rentals.

Our preferred deal is with Virgin Flying Club, where you can earn 1,000 Virgin Atlantic miles on most Hertz rentals. Full details are on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

There is, however, a little known partnership between Hertz and IHG Rewards Club – the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental etc hotel scheme – which is surprisingly generous.

IHG Rewards Club offers Spire Elite members status with Hertz – click to read my article explaining how it works – which is an extra incentive to book.

ALL IHG Rewards Club 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 Rewards Club points per rental

plus

125 IHG Rewards Club points per day for non-status members, or

500 IHG Rewards Club points per day for Gold, Platinum or Spire Elite members

This is pretty generous, especially for Gold, Platinum or Spire Elite members who are guaranteed at least 2,000 points per rental.

Perhaps more importantly, it seems that this is one of the few partner earning opportunities which still count towards earning IHG Rewards Club status.

Here are the snags:

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

This compares well with the Virgin Atlantic deal, assuming you value 1,000 miles at £10.

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.

IHG Rewards update – December 2021:

Get bonus points: You can earn up to triple IHG Rewards base points with IHG’s new Autumn promotion. It runs from 1st October to 31st December. You can register here and our full article on the offer is here.

New to IHG Rewards? Read our overview of IHG Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You will get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards points by 4th January 2022. Click here to buy or learn more.

Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Category

Hertz and Gold Plus Rewards, IHG Rewards, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Rich says:

9 Jun9 June 08:24

Cheers for the reminder. Good for longer rentals. I’m without a car for a couple of months, so very interested in any current rental promos that anybody has spotted. Particularly Hertz and Avis.

Avis Preferred is giving double qualifying spend at the moment.
- Rich says:
  
  12 Jun12 June 17:50
  
  Thanks.
  
  Have seen similar offers from Avis, although TBH a plain search turned up some cheaper prices than the ‘from’ price they were advertising!
Chas says:

9 Jun9 June 08:28

If you can’t use the Amex Plat CDP, then presumably you don’t benefit from their CDW insurance?
- Rob says:
  
  9 Jun9 June 10:21
  
  Amex insurance has nothing to do with using their discount codes.
Aliks says:

9 Jun9 June 08:41

Could well be a good deal. I had given up on the car rental majors, in favour of aggregators like rentalcars, holidayautos etc, but a quick check for a 5 day long weekend rental showed Hertz only £8 more expensive for a VW Polo.
- Aston100 says:
  
  9 Jun9 June 09:59
  
  On the one occasion I used this, it took numerous chases, being passed between IHG and Hertz a couple of times before I got the points. It took at least two months for Hertz to finally acknowledge responsibility and at lay a further month for the points to show up.
  Also, I note it would have been cheaper hiring the car directly through Hertz rather than the IHG link, and the money saved was better than the value of the points I received.
  
  Perhaps my experience is not the norm, but I’m certainly put off from doing this again.
  - C says:
    
    9 Jun9 June 12:15
    
    I find the various rental car discounts to be a complete lottery. Depending on the country of rental, day of the week, weather in my location, weather in the rental location, and any number of other factors, I find that any of Amex Plat discounts, rental car company public rates, other airline rates, and hotel or other discount codes may be be the least expensive option. The biggest differentiator is usually booking as a US, rather than UK, resident (I can provide a valid US address). That said, the Amex Plat discount codes (applied on the car rentla US websites) tend to be amongst the lowest, most of the time. I concur that it’s rarely worth using specialized booking sub-sites; in many cases the rates are even higher than what i get from just a Sale link on the rental company’s public webpage.
    - CHRIS says:
      
      9 Jun9 June 13:19
      
      My last hertz booking (sq5 in Melbourne) in march I booked online via amex travel, was half the price of booking direct with Hertz with / without the amex cdp.
      - Charlieface says:
        
        9 Jun9 June 13:45
        
        Did you check hertz.com.au directly? You need to switch country at the top of the page AFTER logging in, you can also do this from hertz.co.uk
    - Charlieface says:
      
      9 Jun9 June 13:43
      
      You need to check each code’s T&Cs and see where they apply. Also affiliate codes put out by US companies and blogs generally only work in N America, or give a very small discount elsewhere. The IHG code is a prime example: the Amex Plat is generally much better. Virgin and others also don’t require you to use their CDP to get the points.
      Booking from another country site is a good idea, you do NOT need to be resident in that country. Hertz AU and BR sites are good for European bookings usually. Combine this with a good code.
      - Danny says:
        
        9 Jun9 June 14:05
        
        Which country is Hertz BR?
      - Louie says:
        
        9 Jun9 June 14:26
        
        Brazil
  - Adrian says:
    
    9 Jun9 June 14:26
    
    My experience is the same as Aston’s. Every time i have tried to do this it’s been a nightmare, so now i just credit to Hertz. They have always given me the points eventually, but always as “good will”.
James says:

9 Jun9 June 08:56

This would combine well with your recommendation to join InterContinental Ambassador, you would be Platinum Elite and earning 500 IHG per day.

Wish i’d known about this for the past year – Now in Presidents Circle with Hertz but crediting to Virgin.
James Hadley says:

9 Jun9 June 14:29

Hertz is bankrupt. Surely we should wait and see how their restructuring efforts go before worrying about some paltry points offer.
- Rob says:
  
  9 Jun9 June 15:46
  
  Only the US arm. The other bits are still trading OK. In theory.
  
  Chapter 11 isn’t bankruptcy. Imagine if you could invoke a law which would allow you to keep living in your house without paying your mortgage and the bank couldn’t touch you. That’s C11.
  - Cam says:
    
    9 Jun9 June 19:32
    
    The UK is in the process of introducing a similar concept, providing for the current directors of a company to declare a moratorium on creditors and propose a restructuring plan (under court supervision).
Colin says:

9 Jun9 June 19:47

I also thought this to be a good idea last year when we went to NZ. However as it turned out Hertz have credited me with points in their loyalty scheme and NOT IHG’s.
After numerous emails between to 2 neither have done anything about it except to argue it is the other’s fault that I am in this predicament.
Now nearly 18 month’s later those Hertz points are bout to expire.
Rash says:

9 Jun9 June 19:56

There is a nice PC code which works on European rentals (PC 203888) if used with your Amex CDP can make a real difference. Only problem is the code no longer works past June so if anyone has any others please share.

Also had issues in the past with IHG points posting unfortunately, with my Hertz rentals
Travel Strong says:

9 Jun9 June 20:25

I’ve had consistently excellent experience with Hertz/Dollar/Thrifty over the years – really hope they survive… and hope my future bookings survive too as I have some absolute BARGAINS!

2wks SUV rental for $250. 2wks Truck rental for $380.
… maybe this is why they are filing for bankruptcy?!

Also have a corvette rental but it looks like they will have sold them all at auction before my collection date next year!

Tempted to make back up refundable bookings in case they go under, and everyone else is twice the price.