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Hertz is one of the major global players in the car rental market. The company operates in a massive 160 countries worldwide. In addition to Hertz, the parent company also operates other car hire subsidiaries, Thrifty, Dollar, and Firefly.
The Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program is Hertz’s loyalty program. Similar to most programs, you earn points and redeem them for free rentals. However, the points expiration policy has undergone many changes in the last few years — with the most recent happening in mid-July 2024.
Do Hertz Points Expire?
Hertz now uses a two-pronged expiration policy. First, your points will expire if you have no rental activity on your account for twelve months. Second, your points have a finite life expectancy and will expire five years after they are earned, regardless of activity. Per the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards FAQ page.
“Points are valid for five years from the date that they were earned. If a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards member does not redeem the points within a five-year period, the points will be considered forfeited and removed. This five-year point expiration does not apply to residents of Canada.
In addition to the expiration policy above, all points in a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards member’s account will be forfeited and removed from a member’s account after twelve months of no rental activity.“
Track your points and miles expiration for 630+ loyalty programs and get email alerts before your miles expire by signing up for a free AwardWallet account.
What is Qualifying Rental Activity?
Even worse, Hertz is very specific about what activity counts towards resetting the validity of your points. To reset the expiration deadline for your points, you need to earn or redeem one point on a completed rental. Again, per the Hertz FAQs page:
“Rental activity means a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards point was either earned or redeemed on a rental.”
Other programs allow a wide range of activities — such as points transfers and credit card spending — to count as activities. However, Hertz is more restrictive and expressly excludes points transfers as qualifying activity.
“Point transfer to a partner company does not count as rental activity.”
Keeping Your Hertz Gold Plus Points Alive
If you have Hertz Gold points that are about to expire due to 12 months of inactivity, your options are very limited. In a nutshell, you can only do one of two things:
- Earn points on a completed rental to reset your expiration clock. You earn 1 point per dollar for rental fees as well as:
- Car seat charges
- Insurance options
- Additional mileage charges
- Gas
- SiriusXM
- Redeem some points for a completed rental. This will reset the clock but you must redeem points before the points expire.
However, if your points are about to expire due to reaching their five-year lifespan, there is nothing you can do but use them.
Keeping Track of Your Hertz Gold Plus Expiration
The best way to keep track of your Hertz Gold Plus expiration is through AwardWallet. Just connect your Hertz Gold Plus account to AwardWallet to get reminders in the months before your points are set to expire. After the one-time setup, you won't have to worry about tracking your point expiration since AwardWallet will do that for you.
Plus, AwardWallet will help you automatically track your car rentals in your AwardWallet Trips timeline.
Redeeming Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Points
Hertz has a two-tier award pricing. You can redeem your Hertz Gold Rewards points in any of the two following ways:
- Standard Rewards is the standard price. However, bookings do feature blackout dates.
- Any Day Rewards have no blackout dates. This flexibility comes at a premium, with prices double the standard rewards rate.
Keep in mind the pricing differential is enormous. After a Hertz Gold Rewards award chart devaluation, the pricing in points also depends on where you rent. One day-free rental standard rewards price as follows:
- North America: Standard rewards start at 950 points, and Any Day Rewards cost an eye-watering 1,900 points.
- Europe: Standard rewards start at 900 points, and Any Day Rewards cost a massive 1,800 points.
- Australia and New Zealand: Standard rewards start at 700 points, and Any Day Rewards cost a more reasonable 1,400 points.
Boosting your Hertz Elite Status
While being a program member is great news, having elite status is even better and gives a ton of additional perks. Fortunately, you can receive complimentary Hertz Gold Rewards elite status from various travel rewards credit cards as well as other loyalty programs.
If you hold Delta Medallion, United Premier, or IHG Diamond, you can leverage your status for Hertz Five Star status. Plus, cardholders of several premium cards can enroll to get Hertz President's Circle status.
Related: How to get rental car elite status for free
Our Take
Hertz Gold Plus Rewards is on the stingy side. It couples a short 12-month activity-based expiration policy with a five-year fixed expiration deadline. Throw into the mix the serious restrictions on what counts towards resetting the validity of your points, and things can get difficult. If you want to continue using Hertz, you must plan ahead a little more than before to ensure you hit those activity deadlines and keep your points valid.
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