How you can redeem points and miles for car rentals

If your vacation plans include renting a car, listen up.

From credit card discounts to negotiated rates for groups and companies, there are clearly many ways to Avoid paying full price for a rental car. You can even get the number of rental days for Free to use points and miles. In this guide, we’ll highlight how you can redeem rewards on your next car rental and save some serious cash.

Related: Check your receipts – 5 hidden car rental fees to watch out for

Use car rental rewards

Most major car rental companies have loyalty programs that allow you to accumulate and redeem points when renting a car. Here’s a quick overview of what you should know about the most popular rental car rewards programs.

Avis preferred: Avis Preferred members earn 1 point per dollar spent on rentals and at least 100 points per booking. You’ll need at least 700 points to get a free car rental with a base rate of up to $50 and no blackout dates. Additionally, you can rent various accessories for 250 points per day.

Quickly allocate budget: The budget does not have a point system. Instead, members now earn $25 in Budget Bucks for every two qualified paid rentals. You can use Budget Bucks to save money on future rentals.

Dollar Express Rewards: Redemption starts at 500 points per day on weekends and 625 points per day on weekdays. Since members earn 1 point for every dollar spent on rentals, earning a free day must have rental payments of at least $500. Note that there are days when rent exchanges are closed – see the list of dates This.

Enterprise Plus: The business doesn’t have an awards chart so the number of points you need for a free day will vary based on your rental details. Members earn 1 point per dollar spent on premium rentals, and elite members earn 10% to 20% bonus points.

Hertz Gold Plus Rewards: Free Hertz rentals start at 950 points per day at the standard rate, although blackout days apply; Unlimited free rentals starting at 1,900 points per day. Base-level Gold members earn 1 point per dollar spent on rentals, while Five Star and President’s Circle members earn bonuses of 25% and 50%, respectively.

National Emerald Club: Like Budget, National doesn’t have a points program but instead allows members to earn credits for free car rental days based on the number of days you rent a qualifying vehicle. You earn one credit for each qualifying car rental on one to seven day rentals. If you rent for eight days or more, you’ll earn one credit for every four days.

Related: 9 car rental reward programs you need to know

How to redeem credit card rewards when renting a car

If you have one card earns cash back or Rewards are transferableYou can redeem your rewards for car rentals.

Although the process varies slightly from card to card, Cashback rewards is usually the easiest. For example, if you have a cash back rewards card like Pursue Unlimited Freedom®you can request cash back in the form of a statement credit or bank deposit and then use it to effectively pay for your rental car (or any other expense).

You can also use Capital One Mile to reimburse yourself for virtually any travel-related purchase charged to your card within the past 90 days. you can Redeem Capital One miles at a flat rate is 1 cent per mile. For example, for a car rental of $100, you’d need to redeem 10,000 miles.

the Chase Travel℠ portal is another place to redeem car rental points. If you have Reserve Chase Sapphire®Each of your points is worth 1.5 cents when booking a car rental through the portal. If you have Chase Sapphire Preferred® Cardyou can redeem points for car rentals at a rate of 1.25 cents per point through the portal.

You can also use American Express Membership Rewards car rental point through Amex Pay with Points feature. However, doing so will not give you high value for your score.

Should you redeem airline miles to rent a car?

Some airlines allow membership redeem frequent flyer miles for rental cars, but don’t expect to maximize your rewards this way. Airlines often offer better redemption rates for flights.

But to give you an idea of ​​what to expect, here’s the number of miles you’ll need for a weekday car rental at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) booked through the three major airlines: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

American Airlines

American Airlines’ new AAdvantage Cars platform lets you use miles to book car rentals through multiple agencies. If you keep Status of American airlines or co-branded American Airlines credit cardYou will receive a discount in miles. To check prices, start your search This.

This may not be the best use of your miles. For example, the average 15,557-mile rental above costs $87 when booked directly through Thrifty, giving you a value of 0.56 cents per mile — much less than our November 2024 valuation 1.6 cents per person Advantage mile. What’s more, you can book your rental through Thrifty and reimburse yourself for just 8,700 Capital One miles — saving you 6,857 US miles.

Additionally, you can book Avis and Budget rentals with cash (and get your money back with credit card rewards) at this linkand you’ll earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty points about purchasing.

Related: The best uses of American Airlines AAdvantage miles

Delta Airlines

Delta partners with most major car rental companies, allowing you to earn at least 2 SkyMiles per dollar spent on car rentals when you book through Delta information portal — but you don’t have the option to pay with miles. The only way to redeem Delta SkyMiles For car rental services, book the full package through Holidays in the Delta.

To do so, search for vacation packages This. First, you need to choose your hotel and flight, then add a rental car as an additional fee. Convert prices from dollars to miles to see how many SkyMiles your vacation will cost. A basic vehicle will be included in the package price but you will find upgrade options at an additional cost.

It’s harder to redeem your miles for a car rental when the rental has to be part of a vacation package, and it’s even harder to gauge how much it should be. value you get for your SkyMiles. But for travelers who collect SkyMiles, this is an interesting option.

Related: 16 ways to earn more Delta SkyMiles, from using credit cards to shopping online

United Airlines

You can change United MileagePlus miles for Avis and Budget rental cars This. As expected, this is not the best use of United Miles.

This midsize, weekday rental costs 27,100 miles through United’s portal, for just $87 on Budget’s website. This works out to 0.5 cents per mile, less than half of our November 2024 valuation is 1.35 cents per United mile. You’re better off booking in cash directly through a car rental agency or Third-party travel platforms and reimburse yourself 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 often does not provide the best redemption value. Therefore, we generally recommend using cash back rewards to offset car rental costs or redeeming rewards from a car rental loyalty program.

You can get decent redemption value when converting Chasing the ultimate reward points for a rental car through the Chase Travel portal, but there are often better points Ways to maximize Chase points.