How does the Hertz car rental benefit for Amex Gold cardholders work?

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American Express and Hertz have a long standing partnership that gets American Express Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders extra benefits when renting a car.

We cover the car hire element of The Platinum Card quite often on Head for Points, because the benefits are strong. Platinum comes with free car hire insurance, Hertz Plus Gold Rewards Five Star status and an intriguing Hertz deal where you last rental day counts as 28 hours long.

We have never looked at the Hertz benefit for Amex Gold cardholders in detail, however.

What are the benefits of the Hertz / Amex Gold partnership?

The Hertz / Amex Gold landing page on the American Express website is here.

These are benefits on offer:

10% off best available rates at participating locations worldwide
One car class upgrade for rentals of 5 days or more, subject to availability
Additional driver fee waived

Car rentals in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Taiwan are excluded from the offer. Rentals within Japan are eligible for a reduced discount of 5%, a complimentary additional driver but no vehicle upgrade.

How to save 10% on Hertz car rentals with Amex

To make use of the discount you must enrol in Hertz Gold Plus Rewards via the American Express portal here.

If you are already enrolled in Hertz Gold Plus Rewards you must add the CDP code #705500 to your profile.

To complete the offer you must also register a valid Amex Gold card as the form of payment in your Hertz Gold Plus Reward membership profile.

Once registered you can book car rentals on the Hertz website or on the phone to receive your discount and benefits.

Existing bookings are not eligible for the offer but if you haven’t pre-paid it is worth checking whether cancelling and re-booking will save you any money.

The additional driver benefit may be more valuable

In truth, there are plenty of Hertz discount codes available via various travel partners. We have always liked the Virgin Atlantic deal because you receive 1,000 Virgin Points however short your rental.

The ‘additional driver’ benefit DOES offer real value for a couple. It is harder to get this for free and it can be laughably expensive.

I always fail to see the justification for charging for this at all, since alternating long drives across two people should be safer and something to be encouraged.

The upgrade benefit has no real value

Different people treat car rental upgrades in different ways. If you need a certain size car because of your luggage requirements, you need to book it in advance. You can’t rely on an ‘if available’ upgrade.

Some people are also unhappy driving larger cars than they are used to, especially when it comes to parking. An upgrade can be a problem at times.

In any event, irrespective of how your booked or your status with the car rental company, you are far more likely to be get an upgrade when renting compared to flying or checking into a hotel.

Conclusion

The Hertz benefit is a relatively low-key part of the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold package.

The 10% discount is nice to have if you can’t find a better deal – although you probably can – but the real value seems to be in the ‘free additional driver’ benefit.

PS. Remember that Avis offers a ‘free additional driver’ to anyone who books via the British Airways portal here.

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Category

American Express Gold card, Hertz and Gold Plus Rewards

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

FCP says:

15 Jan15 January 04:17

Entry level, free Hertz Gold rewards gets a free additional driver automatically. So the only Amex benefit being offered is the 10% discount
- Terry says:
  
  15 Jan15 January 09:09
  
  Promotions aside, the free additional driver through Hertz Gold Plus membership, is only limited to your spouse or civil partner.
  - Ron says:
    
    16 Jan16 January 09:07
    
    Correct, however the article suggested that the additional driver would be the main benefit for the card for a couple. But it isn’t because as a couple you can have this benefit for free.
tony says:

15 Jan15 January 07:00

The point that strikes me most about car rentals is the obscene discounts you can by booking via a third party. I’ve noticed this at its most extreme during peak holiday periods, but 60%-70% by booking over something like Expedia rather than direct with the agency seems par for the course.
mradey says:

15 Jan15 January 07:28

Sliding a 20 across the counter with your driving licence gets you the car you want (within reason).
- sloth says:
  
  15 Jan15 January 10:46
  
  even in Turkey? 🙂
EwanG says:

15 Jan15 January 07:51

A note of caution on the “free additional driver” benefit.
In the past, the base Gold GPR tier advertised that the free additional driver could be a spouse or civil partner, for others you’d have to pay. If you were on a higher tier there was no such restriction. This is also what I’ve found in practice.

Currently the GPR benefits table is silent on the additional driver benefit, and on the FAQ page on the .com site which lists benefits clearly says the additional driver can be your spouse/civil partner.

The point is this article sets no expectation about who the additional driver could be, and in practice you might have difficulty at the rental desk getting this free benefit for anyone other than your spouse/partner.
paul says:

15 Jan15 January 09:05

I have hertz president circle membership but I cant say that it has ever been of much benefit, certainly not in the UK where their car are pretty rubbish.

Prices on their app (which is utterly useless) and the web site are laughably high and 9 times out of 10 I switch to the consolidators and or to the OZ trick.

There was an extensive HfP article on Hertz by a reader which suggested that it was possible to book via the OZ site while logged in but I personally have never been able to get this to work.

Their credit card policy is insane in that you absolutely must present the same card used to book. I had had mine replaced as it was faulty and hadn’t realised the number had changed. This led to a cancellation of all my bookings while on a trip to the USA and new bookings which in turn led almost $6000 US in charges against my platinum card.
- Terry says:
  
  15 Jan15 January 09:15
  
  I’ve always found the PC upgrades in the U.K. to be very good (midsize to 7 seater SUV, or full size estate), and haven’t been asked to present my credit card.
  
  Service standards in the U.S. have been terrible in recent years, and unless I’m booking a specific make/model ‘collection’ car, I tend to use National EE membership for aisle access.
- EwanG says:
  
  15 Jan15 January 10:49
  
  To book via Aus you need to be logged out. Then once booked, you can edit the reservation and log in, which will link the booking and your account without altering the price.
- Harry T says:
  
  15 Jan15 January 11:15
  
  I rented as President’s Circle in Tenerife and got upgraded from a Yaris to a large BMW SUV. They also added my gf as a free second driver even though they should have charged a supplement due to her being younger.
L Allen says:

15 Jan15 January 09:09

I tend to turn down upgrades. One time with Avis they upgraded me and swapped out a manual car for an automatic! They only had one manual left, which they gave to someone in front of me in the queue. Having never driven an auto, I asked if they were happy to give me a waiver for any incidents or damage arising from me driving something I was very unfamiliar with. Cue them running out the door to catch up with the people who had taken the car I had selected and originally allocated to me. That couple got my upgrade so hopefully they were happy about that. They could have offered a Ferrari instead of a Golf and I’d still turn it down if it was an auto.
- Harry T says:
  
  15 Jan15 January 11:16
  
  Automatics are much more fun to drive!
Terry says:

15 Jan15 January 09:21

That CDP is publicly listed on Hertz’s website (Partner Offers), and available to all American Express cardholders.
thehornets says:

15 Jan15 January 10:58

The best bit of Hertz membership is the ‘Ultimte Choice’ in some US airports. Get off the Hertz shuttle, go to your relevant zone, get in the car you want and drive out. It takes less than 5 minutes and you just need to show your licence on exit.

On the downside: pricing via their website is horrendous- you need a complicated mixture of CDP and PC codes to try and find good pricing; their IT systems are shockingly bad and contacting them is an ‘experience’ and points expire after 18 months