Lately I’ve been excited about earning Discover cash back. What? Cash back sounds boring, right? Well, it is kind of boring, usually, but not when I’m excited about car rentals.
Let me explain…
When I travel, I like to save money, but comfort and convenience are equally important to me. Actually, to be honest, comfort and convenience are more important to me. Yes, I’ll often pay more to fly nonstop. And, I’ll pay more to travel in comfort. Maybe not a lot more, but definitely more. The same is true with rental cars. It’s often possible to get the best car rental discount through a prepaid rate or an off-brand rental agency. But then this usually means giving up the convenience of skipping the lines (which can be very long at times!), and giving up on selecting your own car upgrade.
For the past year or two I’ve enjoyed having National Car Rental Executive status. My status came from having an Amex Platinum card (which I got thanks to a nice signup bonus), but you can now get Executive status for free (see this post). The top benefit of Executive Status is that you can book (and pay for) a midsize car, but then pickup your choice of much nicer cars in the Executive Aisle (which contains a better choice of cars than the standard Emerald Aisle, FYI). When you arrive at National with a car reservation, simply walk past the long lines to the Executive Aisle, and drive out with whichever car appeals to you.
This feature can be used to travel in more comfort and/or to save money. For example, recently when traveling with a group of 7, we were able to select a minivan from the Executive Aisle. We then canceled our second car backup reservation. While a minivan might not sound like luxury, it was way cheaper and more fun for everyone to travel in the same vehicle. We also saved quite a bit of money on parking during that trip since we only had to pay for one vehicle instead of two.
So, what does this have to do with Discover cash back? When you accumulate Discover Cashback, you can redeem it for actual cash back or you can redeem it for discounted partner gift cards. My favorite option is to redeem for half price car rental certificates. And, of those options (Alamo, Enterprise, and National), my favorite is National.
With each of these rental agencies, it is possible to apply up to three certificates to a single reservation.
UPDATE 10/26/2015: You can now only use 1 certificate per rental.
The advantage of the National car rental certificates over the others, though, is that only National allows you to apply all three certificates online. Aside from the fact that I hate having to call to book cars (or anything, for that matter), this lets you stack portal savings as well. Currently several cash back portals (but sadly, not Shop Discover) are offering 5% back for National Car Rental:
You may notice that the Discover car rental certificates have scary language such as:
- One certificate per National rental
and:
- Not valid with any other offer, discount or promotional rate
In my experience, these terms are not true. I have successfully combined multiple certificates and promotional rates on the same reservations several times.
Winning the points & miles & cash back game
The strategy of the points & miles game is to acquire points & miles as cheaply as possible and then to use them for as much benefit as possible (see “The game we play”). With Discover Cash Back, you can apply these strategies.
Ways to acquire Discover cash back include:
- Get the $150 signup bonus for the no fee Discover It card (which you can find here – this is not an affiliate link).
- Capitalize on rotating 5% cash back categories.
- Use the Shop Discover portal which often offers the best portal rebates available.
Once you’ve earned cash back, you can effectively double its value by using it towards rental cars. And, that’s why I’m excited about Discover cash back.
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[…] Redemption value: Discover It Miles miles are worth exactly 1 cent each. Discover It Cash Back, though, can be worth more than face value when redeemed for discounted gift cards. One of my favorite options, for example, is to get $40 National Car Rental gift certificates for $20 each. Read more about why I like that option here: Discover rental car discounts and upgrades. […]
[…] It’s actually possible to redeem this cash back for items other than cash back, for example you can purchase gift cards at a 10% discount (e.g $50 gift card will cost $45 in un redeemed cash back). You can also redeem for car rental certificates and get a massive 50% discount. […]
Can you apply the discount to existing (e.g. Autoslash) reservations? If not, I don’t know how useful it’d be for me. They can usually knock a good amount off anything I reserve.
I would assume so, but I haven’t tried.
[…] the other side is payouts. (HT to FrequentMiler) You can redeem for pure cash back through the portal, but there are more lucrative payouts, such […]
[…] August I published “Discover rental car discounts and upgrades”. In that post I described my approach to car rentals: maintain Executive status with […]
In my opinion, the Discover certificates are a scam.I recently booked Enterprise through Costco. It was a good rate. I tried to apply a Discover certificate and they said it would raise my rate by several hundred dollars. So… I could save 20 and lose 200? That’s crazy. I explained to them that if I bought a restaurant or retail gift card through Discover rewards, that the merchant took it for payment. It doesn’t work that way on the Discover “gift cards”.
[…] Shop Discover has long been one of the best cash back portals. It often offers the best cash back rates. And, Discover Cash Back can be redeemed for many partner gift cards at better than one to one value. See, for example, Discover rental car discounts and upgrades. […]
[…] I’m a big fan of National Executive status (see why, here), but if you’re going to rent from Hertz, you might as well have status. Here’s what […]
Did taking the van in the executive aisle cost you extra or did you only have to pay the amount of your original rental?
No, you just pay the amount of the original midsize rental.
I currently have an alamo reservation for this weekend. The daily rate is 21/day for 3 days and my total is $100. I don’t see anywhere online through alamo’s website that I can pay for my reservation. Can you use these vouchers at the counter when picking up the car? It says above that these are only good towards the base price of the rental, since my base price is only $63 does that mean if I bought 2 vouchers ($40 for $80) that I would only be able to use $63 of it?
I think you need to apply the certificates to the reservation beforehand. Call Alamo and see if they can add the vouchers.
If I already am a National Emerald member how on the link can I use it to get Executive on my account? I only see new signup links.
Great question. The only thing I can think to do is to create a new account. Or, if you have an Amex Platinum card, you can upgrade to Executive status with that.
Anyone have a better suggestion?
[…] Discover rental car discounts and upgrades […]
If I cancel and rebook to take advantage of a price drop, do you now how long it takes for them to credit back to the certificate(s)? I’m specifically looking at Alamo, but from the comments above, it seems like all 3 use the same system.
That’s a great question. My guess is that the certificate would be immediately usable again, but I’ve never tried. Anyone else?
[…] Discover rental car discounts and upgrades […]
Can these be used with Contract IDs or the free day coupon codes?
Yes
Just a data point, I tried making a reservation with National while signed in to my Emerald account (Executive status thanks to Amex Platinum card)using a $20 off a weekend reservation along with a Discover $40 cert, and it gave me an error saying the two coupons could not be used together. When I took off the $20 weekend discount and just used the $40 Discover cert, the reservation went right through.
Yikes, thanks for that heads-up. That’s not good.