Triangle Trip

As a a Hertz Five Star Gold customer, I have been reserving mid-size cars at Hertz for the past four months and they’ve been giving me Toyota Corolla’s, Dodge Stratus, and cars that I would considered compact or economy class. I’ve tried to add NeverLost, Hertz’s GPS device, to my mid-size reservation in hopes to get a real mid-size car and still end up with a Corolla.

Recently I found a new best practice to add to Captain G’s list of best practices for renting cars. If you want a mid-size car or get upgraded to a full size at no extra costs, make your Hertz rental car reservation as a mid-size reservations and add satellite radio (Sirius XM) as an option. Satellite radio cost you about $5 per day depending on the city you’re renting from but it almost guarantees you a mid-size if not full size car. The rationale behind this logic is Hertz will not put satellite radio in their Corolla and other compact size fleet. Regular renters will not rent a compact car and upgrade to a satellite radio. So if you’ve $5 to spare per day and want to ensure you have a midsize to full size car, make sure you’ve Sirius XM radio as an option on your rental reservation. And if you’re lucky (this happens to me about 75% of the time), you’ll also end up with a Neverlost too, at no cost!

I have been a Hertz Gold, Five Star Gold, and President’s Circle member but could not really figure out what my benefits are for each level.  Hertz has finally posted these benefits on line.  Click here for the explanation.

As you can see, you do not get any perks unless you are earning #1 Awards from Hertz.  I usually bank my airline account for my car rentals.

Banking airline points with your car rentals is a great way to keep your airline accounts active.  I have tried to use my rental car activities with hotel accounts and found it does not work.  In order to move your rental car activities over to your hotel account, you will need to book the hotel when you reserve you car.