As promised last week, I’m giving one lucky blog reader National Car Rental Emerald Executive Elite status.
As I mentioned, I have Executive status with National myself (but not ‘Executive Elite’).
National’s unique selling proposition is its ‘Emerald Aisle’ where Emerald Club members pick their own car. Just cruise the aisle and pick the one you want from that area of the rental lot, it’s not just about picking the car with the lowest miles or the most prestige on offer but sometimes you want a bigger car for more people or a smaller car for easier parking.
It’s much nicer than getting assigned a car you don’t want, and then queueing for a rental counter agent to beg to be switched to something else. Much faster, too.
Emerald Club <I?Executive members get to pick from the ‘Executive Aisle’ which tends to have a greater, broader selection of better cars.
Here’s a comparison of National’s elite levels.
- Executive status is earned after 12 rentals or 40 rental days. Regular Emerald Club members earn free rental days every 7 rental credits, Executive members earn free rental days after 6 credits and their free days are valid on a full size car not just a midsize.
- Executive Elite is earned after 25 rentals or 85 rental days. Every 5 rental credits earns a free rental day, valid for any car that’s available. Executive Elite members also get guaranteed reservations with 24 hours notice. And in practice the treatment received is better than the published benefits, or so Executive Elite members tell me.
Want Executive Elite status for a year?
- All you need to do to enter is leave a comment to this post, either how you would make use of rental car elite status or what one thing would make the car rental experience better for you?
- Only enter once. Anyone leaving more than one comment will not be eligible to win.
- I will draw a winning comment at random using random.org
- The contest will remain open for entries through Friday, April 29 at 6pm Eastern.
This is a giveaway, I don’t get anything by offering it, all interpretations of rules are mine and it isn’t mean to be a strict terms and conditions just a friendly gesture to benefit readers. If you have a question, please don’t post it as a comment here since you only get one entry! Instead email me.
Enter away, good luck on Executive Elite status, and thanks for the giveaway opportunity, National!
I like my elite status to include adding my wife as an extra driver for no additional charge.
Gary,
Best part of rental car elite status would be to be able to go from arrivals with a family of 5 in tow, grab the biggest, safest available vehicle and plunk them down in without having to having to deal with the insanity of those 5 tired miserable travellers waiting in an endless line at the rental counter. How cool would that be??
I agree with David – better cars aren’t always bigger cars – I’d like upgrades to luxury rather than boat. 🙂
I would use it to upgrade to a SUV in Tahoe!
This would make my entire National Rental experience easier…they are my favorite company by far. Love the “Pick Your Own Car” concept!
The ability to choose my own car (especially a convertible) would be great and earning faster awards is always nice.
Will be handy in LAX next month !!! THX
Thanks Gary. I’m about to be Executive, but the Executive Elite would be even better.
Have Exec, Need Exec Elite 🙂
I would like to have the opportunity to choose the vehicle.
Love picking the car.
If I win, can I gift it to someone that needs it far more than I do? Wait, I guess this is an entry…
Love the National experience, but it could be made better by having some idea what the selection at a particular location looks like (ideally in realtime, but realistically probably just an average selection). Right now I need to turn to forums to figure out what I might be able to get at a particular location (I’m Excecutive now).
I think the ability to pick your own car is a great feature and more companies should follow suit
I would certainly rent cars more often!
Thanx Gary
I’d probably switch all my rentals from Avis – I find the Avis First program kind of a yawn.
Would use it so I wouldn’t have to rent small cars for half the year.
I would switch from Hertz if I were to win this.
I like picking my own car in the aisle. Having Exec Elite would allow me to select even nicer cars! 🙂
My next rental car will be used for a 3 day trip to Napa.
It would a wonderful experience to not worry about the price and able to get to choose what you want. Feels majestic.
I would love an alternative to Avis which treats me like a bipolar spouse. Upgrades one day, downgrades the next. High mileage cars, low mileage cars, etc.
I’ve always wanted to pick a car! Whenever I travel with my wife, she’s always wondering about “that car over there”. Usually we just get whatever is given to us.
Thanks
Sign me up – it would be great to pick my own car!
I would use it when I see my children it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the opportunity.
I rent mostly from Thrifty, because I don’t have a lot tied up in which car. Most of my trips are one or two day trips where I shlep to the hotel, the meeting, and the airport. Who cares about which car gets you there. The worst car I ever rented was a 1985 Chevy Chevette with the rear bumper hanging off. This was 2002 from Ace Rental Car in San Diego.
Knowing the exact car I am getting at time of reservation would be great. Sign me up!
Thanks Gary. Although I never win, I appreciate your coming up with these contests.
Thanks for the oppotunity and the blog. Love it.
The ability to reserve on short notice and getting to pick your car is great.
I would use it choose a van to take the family with more room!
I’d use it to try and status match with other rental companies, just for fun. 🙂
I’d go to California, pick out a corvette, and drive down the coast!
The 24-hour guarantee would be the biggest benefit for me.
Clean cars and ones with less than 30,000 miles. Any more than that and they start to show wear and smell weird.
I think I’d surprise my wife with a drive up the 1 to the Bay Area.
I will use it to impress my coworkers on business trips! “Oh, you got a minivan? I got a Caddy…”
I use Hertz at the moment but gaining status on National would definitely convince me to make the switch. I have to say that I love using the GPS feature though on Hertz and I haven’t tried National’s GPS, so I hope it’s good.
I really like National’s Emerald Aisle…would love to try it as Executive Elite.
Rt 1 on the coast of CA!
Ability to select my car would be awesome! Book an economy and upgrade 🙂
Getting in and out QUICKLY is the top priority in a car rental experience!
Well, the elite status would probably make me take all of my car rental business to National, intead of splitting between several companies.
One thing I’d like to see is 24-kiosks for returning the car and getting a receipt on the spot for situations when you are returning early in the morning (at an airport, for example).
I would switch to National as my preferred rental company!
Would luv it, pick me, pick me! 🙂
The opportunity to choose my own car and get the added customer service features might just entice this urbanite to stop driving her own car and switch to as-needed car use. Executive Elite status is environmentally friendly!
I would love to be able to try out electric vehicles when I rent a car.
I’d like to have less hassle getting FF credit for rentals. There’s invariably a snafu (often involving clerks who say they’ve entered my FF# when they haven’t or, because of the system setup, simply cannot).