Hertz actually does know I want to…
I was recently in Tampa for work. Picking up my car among the usual Nissan Versas and Chevy Sparks were these babies… Not the kind of rides I usually see when traveling for work. I actually tried to score a Fiat 500 although it was taken. Aaaaannndd…. I did end up with a Versa.
I really have no idea what Hertz benefits are – you can get Gold without ever renting a car. Per AwardWallet apparently I’m at the Presidents level – what this means, I don’t know. I can’t find anything on the website mentioning it… Logging into my account I did finally find a few notes.
- Guaranteed one-car-class upgrades
- 25% bonus on Gold Plus Rewards Points
- 600 Awards Points after every 15 (qualifying) rentals
- Special savings with limited blackout dates
- All benefits of regular #1 Club Gold service
I always book the lowest class at work – I don’t even get to pick my own gold car. What’s with this one-car-class upgrade? I think I did pick it up my last trip to Baltimore, outside of that it seems to have happened rarely if ever. I’m automatically selected to be in the Compact class for work bookings… it always seems to be where I remain. What’s in the fleet?
The cars can be found here – the fun stuff is in the Dream Cars and the Adrenaline Collection sections. Although neither listed the GTR.
In any case, the Hertz award page is posted here. Doing a search on Hertz’s website, I couldn’t get the GTR to show up for Tampa. My search was a month out for 24 hours on a Saturday. The M5 and a 650i showed up. They are both part of the Dream Cars series. Both are $336 a day, although the M5 says $336 after tax while the 650i is showing $403.94. The M5 allows 75 miles with 47 cents each additional. The 650i is the same, but when about to check out it seems to be that the additional charges are added, I’m speculating in relation to making the car available at the airport.
Using the points is rather odd – the price is listed in dollars, and it’s only on the review/checkout page that the points will be applied. Apparently you must have enough plus the facility must agree to take them; the Tampa airport apparently doesn’t. I couldn’t get them to post in my final review for neither the M5 nor even a Camry. Apparently Tampa simply does not accept them. Rut roh… how useful are these things?
Let’s try O’Hare… Ford Mustang GT from the Adrenaline Collection? No. Corolla? Yes… How about Las Vegas? Most fun there is an SLK250 – Prestige class and far cheaper than the Adrenaline/Dream class. No go on the points though. M5 in LA? Mustang? No and no… Corolla yes.
I have about 10,000 of these points at the moment, although I guess I won’t be upgrading or renting anything cool with them any time soon. I generally avoid situations where I’d need a car on a personal trip. The only time I’ve rented one to get around was in Germany, where the normal car classes were a lot cooler as well.
Hertz does have some awesome cars, too bad I can’t get my hands on any.
