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Car Rental Company Rental Benefit Programs:
A Comparison of Hertz, Avis, and Budget Rental Companies

Most of the larger rental programs offer some sort of benefit program or club designed to encourage customers to rent from them. They are all designed to allow you to give your information to the car rental companies so that your reservations are faster (that means the reservations clerk does not have to type the information in every time you reserve a car) and for the company to notify you of rental discounts and specials by email. Some of the programs offer points that can be exchanged for free car rental days or similar programs that provide free car rental days. The bottom line is that there is not a lot of difference between the programs of the various companies.

At Hertz (hertz.com) customers can join the Hertz #1 Club for $60 per year. In exchange for this $1.15 per week customers sign up once and get: Faster reservations and rentals. With your #1 Club card the reservation agent can pull up your information immediately. Use express check-in and check-out. A Hertz #1 Club "may" receive special discounts on rentals in the United States and Canada, although the website doesn't say what these discounts are. Until they specify a minimum discount that can be combined with my AARP, AAA discount from Orbitz, Expedia, or one of the other deep-discount travel websites this benefit seems minimal. Members of the Hertz #1 Club can sign up for email offers for "discounts, upgrades, and more." Hertz #1 club members receive a discount on infant and child seats.

Hertz typically charges $10 per day to allow one's spouse or domestic partner to be an alternate driver of the rental car except for rentals in California, Iowa, New York, and Nevada. Belonging to the Hertz #1 Club waives this charge. Avis does not make such a charge for rentals in the United States. Budget mentions checking the license and insurance of a spouse as an alternate driver, but does not mention this charge. This "feature" alone is enough to make me look for Avis or Budget, and not pay $60 to join their Hertz #1 Club.

For every dollar spent, Hertz #1 club members earn points that can be redeemed for free rental days. You get one point for every dollar spent. At 500 points you get one travel day. On a daily rental that seems to average between $40 and $60, after you have spent $500 you get about ten per cent back in terms of a free day. If you typically rent by the week (which is usually more than four days)

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