Hertz Sells Their Top Tier Elite Status

by Gary Leff

Hertz is offering their top status level, Platinum, for sale.

The price ranges from $1200 – $1500 a year depending on your current membership level with them. (Though no one should ever pay more than $1350 since that’s the Hertz Gold price, and that status can be had free any number of ways — and even if you were paying it’s only $60 so the $1500 no status price seems silly, see for instance here or here and search on the page for ‘gold’ or find plenty more versions of this by Googling ‘free hertz gold’.)

The benefits strike me as similar to Avis Chairman’s status, which I much enjoy: vehicle delivery, upgrades, valet service back to the airport so you don’t have to ride the shuttle bus. As an Avis Chairman I pay market rate for gas, an unpublished benefit. Perhaps there are unpublished benefits with this Hertz program as well, though I do note as a unique feature that they offer a 4-hour grace period on returning a vehicle which is nice.

Pricing is quite steep, but for someone who rents a car every week it could be worthwhile.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. For someone who rents weekly, it would seem that the easier thing to do is to EARN the status, rather than fork over another $1,200+!

    This seems like a blatant cash-grab, which seem to be more and more commonplace in the travel industry lately. I think they are aiming to appeal more to the infrequent periodic traveling executive who travels on the company dime, and feels as though he should be treated as someone special.

  3. Is it possible to earn this status? If so, how? I had never even heard of it until this post. If it’s a $1200 upgrade from President’s Circle it must be pretty good.

  4. The status can be earned, but it would require some serious spending (probably at least $5-10,000/yr on car rentals). I have heard from HLE employees about how rare it was to see a platinum member (before Hertz starting offering it to the general public).

  5. Gary;

    I know you have or had Avis Chairman’s circle. Have you attempted to or have information on status matching from that to Hertz Plat.?

Comments are closed.