If your vacation plans include renting a car, listen up.
From credit card discounts to negotiated rates for groups and companies, it’s no secret that there are many ways to avoid paying the full price of a rental car. You can even get free rental days using points and miles. In this guide, we’ll highlight how you can use rewards on your next car rental and save some serious cash.
Related: Check your receipt – 5 hidden car rental fees to watch out for
Using rental car rewards
Most major car rental companies have loyalty programs that allow you to earn and use car rental points. Here’s a quick overview of what you need to know about the most popular rental car rewards programs.
Avis Preferred: Preferred Avis members earn 1 point per dollar spent on rentals and 100 points per booking. You’ll need at least 700 points to get a free car rental with a base value of up to $50, and there are no blackout dates. Also, you can rent various accessories for 250 points per day.
Budget Fastbreak: The budget does not have a points system. Instead, members currently earn $25 in Budget Bonuses for every two qualifying rentals. You can use a Cash Budget to save money on future rent.
Dollar Express Rewards: Redemption starts at 500 points per day on weekends and 625 points per day on weekdays. Since members earn 1 point per dollar spent on rentals, earning a free day requires at least $500 in paid rentals. Note that there are blackout dates for using the rental – check the list of dates here.
Enterprise Plus: Enterprise does not have an award chart, so the number of points you will need for a free day will vary based on the details of your rental. Members earn 1 point per dollar spent on paid rentals, and exclusive members earn 10% to 20% bonus points.
Hertz Gold Plus Rewards: Free Hertz rentals start at 950 points per day at the standard level, although blackout dates apply; Unlimited free rental starts at 1,900 points per day. Base-tier Gold members earn 1 point per dollar spent on rentals, while Five Star and President’s Circle members receive a 25% and 50% bonus, respectively.
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The National Emerald Club: Like Budget, National does not have a points system but instead allows members to earn credits for free rental days based on the number of days you rent a qualifying car. You earn one credit for every qualifying car rental when you rent between one and seven days. If you rent for eight days or more, you will earn one credit every four days.
Related: 9 car rewards programs you need to know about
How to use car rental credit card rewards
If you have a card that earns cash or rewards transfer, you can use your rewards for car rentals.
While the process varies slightly from card to card, cash back rewards are usually the easiest. For example, if you have a cash back rewards card like Chase Freedom Unlimited®, you can request cash back as a statement credit or bank deposit and use it to pay for your rental car (or other expenses).
You can also use Capital One miles to get cash back on almost any travel-related purchase charged to your card within the last 90 days. You can redeem Capital One miles at a fixed rate of 1 cent per mile. For example, for a rental car charge of $100, you would need to spend 10,000 miles.
The Chase Travel℠ site is another place to use points for car rentals. If you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve®, your points are worth 1.5 cents each when you book rental cars through the portal. If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® card, you can redeem rental car points at a rate of 1.25 cents per point through the portal.
You can also use American Express membership rewards points on rental cars with Amex’s Pay with Points feature. However, doing so will not give you the maximum amount of your points.
Should you use airline miles for car rentals?
Some airlines allow members to use flyer miles for rental cars, but don’t expect to increase your rewards this way. Airlines often offer the best prices for flights.
But, to give you an idea of what to expect, here’s how many miles you’d need for a one-day weekday car rental at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) booked with three major carriers: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.
American Airlines
American Airlines’ new AAdvantage Cars platform allows you to use miles to book car rentals through various agencies. If you have American Airlines status or an American Airlines credit card, you’ll get a discount on miles. To check prices, start your search here.
This may not be the best way to use your miles. For example, the average rental of 15,557 miles above costs $87 when booked directly through Thrifty, giving you a value of 0.56 cents per mile – well below our November 2024 average of 1.6 cents per Advantage mile. Plus, you can book this rental through Thrifty and get back just 8,700 Capital One miles — saving you 6,857 American miles.
Alternatively, you can book Avis and Budget rentals for cash (and maybe redeem them with credit card rewards) at this link, and you’ll earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points when you shop.
Related: The best use of American Airlines AAdvantage miles
Delta Air Lines
Delta partners with many major car rental companies, allowing you to earn at least 2 SkyMiles for every dollar you spend on a rental when you book through Delta’s portal – but you don’t have the option to pay with miles. The only way to redeem Delta SkyMiles for car rentals is to book a package deal with Delta Vacations.
To do so, search for a vacation package here. You’ll need to choose your hotel and flights first, then add a rental car as an extra. Convert the price from dollars to miles to see how many SkyMiles your vacation will cost. The base car will be included in the price of the package, but you will see upgrade options at an additional cost.
It’s hard to use your car rental miles when the rental has to be part of a vacation package, and it’s hard to measure how much value you’re getting with your SkyMiles. But for travelers who collect SkyMiles, this is a great option to have.
Related: 16 ways to earn more Delta SkyMiles, from using credit cards to shopping online
United Airlines
You can redeem United MileagePlus miles for Avis and Budget rental cars here. As expected, this is not a good use of United miles.
This mid-range, weekday rental, which costs 17,100 miles on United’s site, costs just $87 on Budget’s site. This results in a cost of 0.5 cents per mile, less than half of our November 2024 average of 1.35 cents per United mile. You’re better off booking in cash directly through a car rental agency or third-party travel platform and paying back with credit card rewards.
Related: Flights, credit cards and more: How to earn miles with the United MileagePlus program
Bottom line
Redeeming points and miles for rental cars usually won’t provide the best redemption value. As a result, we often recommend using cash back rewards to cover the cost of your rental or redeeming rewards from the rental car loyalty program instead.
You can get great redemption value when you use Chase Ultimate Rewards points for a rental car through the Chase Travel portal, but there are often better ways to maximize Chase points.
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