In travel hacking you learn something new everyday. Today I learned that Hertz Gold Rewards, a program I formerly thought was fool’s gold, is actually a gold mine. I’ve long blasted Hertz Gold Rewards because I’ve never been able to use the points: and I’ve tried at least 20 times in many different markets at many different times of year. Every time I get the dreaded “Hertz Gold Rewards are not accepted at this location” error message at the last screen.
As is often the case, the jackpot is in the fine print. Check out the transfer ratios for Hertz Gold Rewards to other loyalty programs:
That’s right. For some reason the points gods have assigned Southwest points over twice the value of other miles when transferring from Hertz Gold Rewards. Considering they all transfer from fixed rewards programs at the same rate I consider this manna from rewards heaven. Especially since it’s basically free points as Hertz Rewards were previously almost worthless to me.
Unfortunately, there’s a devil in the details: transfers are not instant. Hertz’s site says they take up to 8 weeks. I did one today and will keep you posted as to when they actually post. You also can only transfer in increments of 600. However, as long as you have any activity in your Hertz account once every two years the points don’t expire so they can sit until you have enough to transfer.
Hertz regularly sends out “we miss you: here’s 500 points if you rent one day” mailers that I’ve been throwing away. I’ll be paying a bit more attention to the next one.
Have you transferred from Hertz to an airline? How long did the points/miles take to post? Please share your results in the comments.
The Deal Mommy is a proud member of the Saverocity network.
Thanks for the tip, I had some Hertz pts that I wasn’t going to use, so I transferred them to SW.
Glad you could use it.
Great find, especially since you can combine points with your spouse for free (and it’s instant)! This might be the missing link we needed for my husband to get his companion pass.
Pingback: Are Hertz Points Suddenly Valuable? I Say So. - Angelina Travels
Keep in mind, transferring to/from doesn’t count as activity but redeeming does. AFAIK you can redeem and cancel effectively prolonging expiration that way. (IMHO, YMMV)
>> However, as long as you have any activity in your Hertz account once every two years the points don’t expire so they can sit until you have enough to transfer
So I can drain my Hertz account with multiple 600 point transactions on the same day? I have been adding to my Hertz stash via E-Rewards $60=500pts every 90 days for a while, towards a week rental in the summer. Hmmm, SW may be better…..
Hi Vicente,
You can do any multiple of 600 in one transaction. I did 2400 no problem.
Interesting. I redeemed some for AA miles and it said 4-6 weeks so it must be on the airline side.
Next time you want to redeem for a rental try calling Hertz if the website doesn’t work for you. I have read numerous reports of this problem although it has only happened to me one or two times.
Good to know, Hua. Thanks!
Pingback: Summer Flights to Greece,Portugal,Mexico,Hertz Gold Rewards - TravelBloggerBuzz
I have often lamented the lack of ways to earn Hertz points. For a time, I even thought about going for a full-time rental car strategy (at certain parts of the year, I don’t need a car), but eventually scrapped it because I couldn’t get enough Hertz points to make the numbers work. In my opinion, they are incredibly valuable so I hope people don’t just blindly transfer to Southwest!
All corporate/airport locations should accept points and calling in does help if you get the non-participation screen. In my analysis, I found Hertz points to be 2-4 times as valuable for car rentals as they are for Southwest. If you’re interested in the full break-down: http://www.thorpetravelsite.com/travel-blog/2016/3/hackinghertzpointsforexponentialvalue
Hi Trevor,
Thanks for sharing. If someone can find availability, good on them! Using autoslash, I usually find rentals so much cheaper elsewhere that hertz points are an afterthought.