This isn’t something new but its worth a share as now car rentals are bundled with miles and points. You can even get upgraded single and double for a standard rental price utilising their loyalty.
On a trip to Johannesburg for a health conference I finally got the opportunity to test the benefits available to elite car rental holders and to inform anyone and everyone how they too can score unlimited mileage instead of being rationed with 100km or 200km per day at best.
Choosing a rental agent.
SIXT car rental offers direct platinum status for Club Carlson Gold Elite members and TraveLoyalty offers direct Club Carlson Gold instantly read more HERE and HERE.
Access TraveLoyalty’s Car Rental offer page HERE.
For this trip I was keen to try AVIS or HERTZ as part of their loyalty programmes I am a member of and will soon have it available on TraveLoyalty in the coming weeks.
AVIS came out tops as they had the best and cheapest deal bundled with a choice of either 1000 Hyatt Gold Passport points ( worth $24) or 9000 Club Carlson Gold points (worth $63) . Both offers carry a 25% discount and a cap on airline miles. One would choose $63 over $24 mathematically but im chasing a free award in Hyatt for a confirmed suite stay. Unbelievably the $63 basically over compensates for the booking cost. Here’s the methods and proof:
Making a reservation unlimited kilometres.
There’s no rocket science to it. Simply change the country of residence from South Africa to UK or USA.
Getting the upgrade.
The best part besides the upgrade to the next level / two level classes above was the private que to collect the keys from, all ready to go no paperwork but as my booking will show I had to make sure my valuable miles and points codes were shown on the booking form so as not to have hassles later with emailing and calling to claim.
TIP:
The booking.
There’s the country of residence on the offer!
So not only did I score 1000 free Hyatt Goldpassport points worth $24 I also added one loyalty flight number to the car rental reservation and got 500 miles ( 5000 miles gets me a one way upgrade from economy to business class in domestic.)
Is that all?
No, Avis sent me this email a few days after.
All that for R685 for a 3 day rental.
(R598 + document fee).
Another Tip:
If you have more than 3 day rental requirements – split your reservation in 2 and get double the benefits.