Hertz is offering a promotion whereby current Five Star or President’s Circle status members can gift that same level of status to two people for free. This is pretty cool because even those who get complimentary top-tier Hertz President’s Circle status can gift that status to two people — and status will be valid from January 13 to December 31, 2025.
Gift Hertz status to friends or family: How it works
The process here is really simple: you just need to fill out a form with your member number and email address as well as the member number and email address of the member to whom you’re gifting status. You need to fill out the form by 12/31/24 and they should get the same status that you have (whether that be Five Star or President’s Circle) from January 13, 2025 through December 31, 2025. Here are the links to the forms:
Note that you can only submit the form once. The terms state that if you re-submit, only the most recent submission will be considered. Still, I’d recommend collecting the names, Hertz Gold Plus numbers, and email addresses of both people to whom you want to gift status before submitting the form as you otherwise run the risk of status not being awarded as you’re hoping (the form has spaces for you to enter member info for the two members to whom you are gifting status).
Does this work if you have free status from a credit card?
Some premium and ultra-premium credit cards come with complimentary Hertz status. For instance, Capital One Venture X and Amex Platinum cardholders get complimentary Hertz President’s Circle status.
Yes, even those with complimentary status as a credit card perk can gift status to two other members.
What are the benefits of status?
Hertz Five Star Benefits
Hertz Five Star benefits include:
- Earn 1.25 points for every dollar spent.
- Access a greater selection of premium vehicles.
- Free upgrades.
- Skip the line, choose your car, and go.
- Free additional driver.
Personally, I find the access to a slightly nicer selection of vehicles and the free additional driver to be the most compelling benefits here. That said, my anecdotal experience is that the “greater selection of premium vehicles” isn’t anything amazing. And the free additional driver is for a spouse or domestic partner only, not a friend.
However, I do appreciate the opportunity to choose the vehicle that I want.
Hertz President’s Circle benefits
Hertz President’s Circle benefits include:
- Earn 1.5 points for every dollar spent.
- Access the largest selection of premium vehicles.
- Guaranteed vehicle upgrades.
- Dedicated customer service line.
- Skip the line, choose your car, and go.
- Free additional driver.
Again, I find the ability to select from a slightly more premium area to be nice. You’ll have access to the President’s Circle area, which often has relatively new cars and sometimes even mid-level sportscars (think a Ford Mustang or Dodge Challenger), convertibles, or midsize SUVs. I recently rented from Hertz to drive home from New York-JFK during a snowstorm. I therefore wasn’t very interested in the Mustangs and Challengers in the President’s Circle area, but a nearly-new all-wheel-drive Buick SUV fit my needs perfectly that night (and I did end up driving 20mph or less for the last ~30 miles and hitting a hill or two that I’m not sure I’d have made it up without AWD).
That said, I’ve been really frustrated to not be able to get an SUV with third row seating or a minivan as a President’s Circle member. In the past, I often enjoyed reserving a mid-size vehicle from National and picking a minivan from the Executive Selection thanks to my National status. I’ve found Hertz status to not be helpful in getting that type of deal.
Still, when the price is right and especially when I’m not traveling with more than the four members of my immediate family, I’m usually pretty satisfied with the President’s Circle selection area. The free additional driver is also nice, but just as with Five Star note that this only applies to a spouse or domestic partner.
Keep in mind that Hertz has earned a poor reputation
I have to mention that Hertz has earned a poor reputation in recent years. About two years ago, they were forced to pay out a $168 million settlement for falsely accusing customers of stealing cars.
Personally, I’ve still rented from Hertz dozens of times in recent years and haven’t yet been arrested. That said, if I had been arrested for stealing a car that I had returned to Hertz, I’d no doubt be livid.
Of course, the settlement covered 364 people who were wrongly arrested. I’d guess that puts the odds of being wrongfully arrested astronomically low as compared to the total number of rentals during that period. Still, I think we can all agree that the odds of getting arrested for a car you’ve returned really ought to be zero. Anyway, I know that some have sworn off Hertz for that reason.
Also worth a mention here is that Hertz has significantly devalued its points twice in the past few years (first an announced devaluation in 2019 and then a stealth devaluation this year). I collect their points still and will inevitably put them to use someday, but the value is so low that the points aren’t much of a consideration. Whether I’m earning 1 Hertz points per dollar spent or 1.25 or 1.5, the value per point is so low that it really doesn’t matter to me. At the same time, since you’ll pay a daily fee to earn miles with an airline instead, I don’t often find that it makes sense to earn something other than Hertz points. My point here is just to keep expectations low on that front.
Finally, Hertz has instituted unfriendly cancellation policies in recent years. You’ll need to check terms, but you may be on the hook for a penalty if you cancel late in the game. That stands in contrast to other rental outfits with often don’t have any cancellation penalty.
Again, I’ve still rented from Hertz numerous times in recent years despite all of the above (and in large part thanks to big Capital One Shopping cash back offers — I just got targeted for 25% back the other day). But if you’re gifting this status, you probably want to make sure that your friends or family know the upsides and also the downsides.
H/T: One Mile at a Time
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As a general legal principal, “rights” may be “novated” or transferred to another party. Do you know if I can novate my right to be arrested and more specifically, if I can choose where the arrest takes place?
FYI, Hertz President’s Circle allows you to pick from any available jail cell as well. You may want to update the post to include this.