Hertz loyalists have just been Bonvoyed. Anyone holding Hertz points due to their previously great value might now be ruing saving them up as they’ve been devalued overnight, up to 70% in some cases.
I rarely have to rent a car, so I’m not too familiar with Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. My knowledge of it has been largely comprised of people raving about how much the points are worth.
Be sure to check out Brian’s post which includes an award chart he’s put together listing the new redemption levels. Some redemptions haven’t been hit too hard. For example, 1 free standard rental day is increasing from 675 points to 750. That’s an increase of 11.11% which, while not great, isn’t terrible.
In many cases though, there’ll now be substantially less value. For example, a 2 week rental of Specialty Vehicles for 8-14 Days will now cost 15,000 points versus 8,800 under the old award chart. That’s 70.45% more than before, a ridiculous increase.
To make matters even worse, this isn’t a change that they’ve announced a month or more ahead of time to give you a chance to redeem your points under the old rates. Instead, the point requirements changed overnight. If you’d been saving with a specific award in mind, there’s a good chance you’ll no longer have enough points.
Hertz points are due to go on sale on Daily Getaways on May 29. The value of buying one of those packages has now decreased, so be sure to calculate their worth based on the new award chart produced by Brian.
h/t The Gate
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[…] From Frequent Miler […]
Hertz Rewards points still have some value, but should never be a deciding factor in which car rental company to use. The vast majority of my Hertz points I paid for on Daily Getaways. Only the most frequent of car renters (like me) should ever have bought these points. They can be very useful, but only in certainly limited situations — which only very frequent renters are likely to encounter. Right now, for example, the best use of Hertz points is probably for those folks who need short term one-way car rentals. There aren’t many other good options for such rentals. Obviously, no-notice devaluations suck and are evil, and I won’t be a purchaser of more points this month.
The program is not worth less. It’s worthless. I never rent from Hertz and I recommend anyone with points should never use them again and maybe they’ll learn a lesson.
Hertz is a pretty heartless company, completely out of touch with their customers. And they even have consumer engaging tools like the Hertz Hub, but they really don’t get it. Or they just don’t care. Not sure which is worse
Another company that just lost my loyalty
If you don’t rent much… say, 5-15 days/year in the cheapest category, does it make sense to earn rental car rewards points over miles with ANY company? I feel like the low points earnings/value (and measly discount, if any, using a partner or corporate code) is crap compared to the mileage earnings I could opt for instead. It’s also easier to keep a FF account alive…
Just lost my future business.
Hertz sucks. Everyone should email them and let them know this is wrong.
When Delta devalued their program Skymiles became SkyPesos. Hertz has just devalued their program and now Gold Points have become Brass Points.