With many people still eschewing air travel, road trips are becoming more popular. Not everyone is renting cars (which is really hurting the car rental agencies) but if you do plan on renting a car, having elite status can be a big help! It helps to put you in some nicer vehicles, sometimes even big upgrades.
Here is how to match your car rental status up to Hertz President’s Circle status to get started with Hertz!
Match Your Status to Hertz for Up to Hertz President’s Circle
First of all, you need to be a Hertz member – which is free to sign-up for. Having even this can streamline the process of picking up a car but it will not give you much more than that. But, it will give you For that, you will need some elite status.
The Hertz Elite Status Tiers
Here is what you get from the various Hertz elite status tiers.
Hertz Gold
- Free to sign-up for (link here)
- Earn 1 points for $1 spent
- Choose your car from the category booked
- Use points for free day rentals and online rewards
- Free additional driver in the US (if it is a spouse or domestic partner)
- Experience Five Star status for a day after completing 7 qualifying rentals
- Free 1 month of airport CLEAR trial
Hertz Five Star
- Requires 12 rentals or $2,400 spent in a year
- Upgrades as available
- Earn 1.25 points for $1 spent
- Get a wider selection of vehicles to choose from (any vehicle in the Five Star section of the Hertz Ultimate Choice lot)
- Use points for free day rentals and online rewards
- Free additional driver in the US (if it is a spouse or domestic partner)
- Experience President’s Circle for a day after completing 15 qualifying rentals
- Free 2 month airport CLEAR trial
Hertz President’s Circle
- Requires 20 rentals or $4,000 spent in a year
- Receive guaranteed upgrades
- Earn 1.5 points for $1 spent
- Choose any vehicle in the President’s Circle section of the Hertz Ultimate Choice lot
- Additional exclusive benefits and rewards
- Dedicated Hertz Rewards line
- Free additional driver in the US (if it is a spouse or domestic partner)
- Free 4 month airport CLEAR trial
President’s Circle members have seen some pretty great options (at major US airports) in the President’s Circle section – like renting a mid-size car could let you pick from Jeep, Volkswagen, and more – including big, luxury SUVs. If you plan on renting, you will want to have Hertz President’s Circle to get the most bang for your travel buck.
How to Status Match to Hertz
Hertz actually makes it incredibly easy to match status you have with Enterprise, Avis or National to get equivalent status with Hertz. Here is how it matches up:
- Get Hertz Five Star status –
- Avis Preferred Plus (under 25 rentals)
- Enterprise Plus Gold/Silver
- National Executive statuses
- Get President’s Circle status –
- Avis President’s Club
- Avis Preferred Plus with more than 25 rentals
- Enterprise Plus Platinum
- National Executive Elite
To get started, just go to this Hertz status match page. Super simple! Next, enter your information and select the program you want to match from. Finally, just attach a screenshot or photo of your competing elite status. I would recommend screenshooting your status card from your profile if you do not have many rentals (and received the other status from a match itself).
How Long Does it Take to Status Match to Hertz?
I had my Hertz President’s Circle status the very next day! This was based on my National Executive Elite status and went very well!
I won’t have a chance to try it out until next month but I have over 45 days of Hertz rentals coming up so I should get a good idea of what the Hertz President’s Club status actually translates too in real world service!
How to Get Other Elite Status
Fortunately, there are many ways to get car rental elite status for free! It often comes as a perk of certain credit cards. Earlier this year, American Express and National ran an awesome promo that gave out their highest status, Executive Elite, and a free reward day just for filling out the form and taking one rental.
While that offer expired months ago, it is still possible to get elite status as a credit card perk. The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers National Executive and Avis Preferred (which does not help you here). If you have any card that is a World Elite Mastercard, that will also unlock National Executive status. Finally, the Amex Platinum comes with it as well.
But, if car rental status means that much to you and you don’t have another way to get it, the United Club Infinite card offers Hertz President’s Circle status. Right now, there is also a bonus of 100,000 miles to help offset the steep $525 annual fee.
Hertz from led for bankruptcy. https://www.google.be/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/05/23/hertz-files-for-bankruptcy-after-16000-employees-were-let-go-and-ceo-made-over-9-million/amp/
Yes, I know. They are still in business doing rentals.
If I match my National Executive elite status to President Circle will it still last a year or its extended because of the coronavirus?
Thanks.
Mine is not showing an expiration date at quick glance but since I was told it is regular President’s Circle and they had extended that until 2022, I would believe this would last until then as well.
10 straight years of Hertz PC status here (~50 rentals / year).
My advice: rent from National.
Thanks for that, Jeff, especially with your experience! I have heard things like that before. 🙂 But, if I have to rent from a company other than National, I want the best status I can get! In this case, National didn’t have neighborhood locations and the airport surcharge was insane for the amount of time we need it. So, I was willing to trade off the overall experience for the hundreds I am saving this time!