When it comes to renting a car, I tend to stick to the large car rental companies. I guess it’s just because I’m comfortable with them. You also don’t want to be halfway through your vacation and have your car break down. More importantly, if it does, you want to find a company representative somewhere nearby.
I’ve seen Sixt car rental come up on searches I’ve made with Autoslash when looking for the cheapest car rental in an area. They’ve never been that much cheaper and since I’m usually able to get additional benefits from National, Avis or Hertz because of credit cards I hold, I was willing to pay the extra few dollars for the peace of mind.
Eventually, I had a rental where Sixt came up with the lowest price. I’m not talking a few dollars cheaper. I’m talking a nice dinner amount cheaper.
I researched what benefits I could get from Sixt Rent A Car.
Sixt is not a new, nor a small company. As per Wikipedia, Sixt is a European-based company with over 2,000 locations in 110 countries. They started with a few United States locations but now have a large footprint at many major U.S. airports after purchasing locations from the defunct Advantage Rent A Car in 2020.
Before booking my rental, the first thing I did was sign up for Sixt’s Express Card program. Enrollment is free, so there’s nothing to lose.
After that, I started looking for what cards might provide benefits for Sixt. It didn’t take long before I found online articles saying you can get Platinum status by having a World Elite Mastercard. I headed to the Mastercard World Elite website.
There are many benefits listed on this page but while there used to be a selection offering Sixt Platinum status, it’s no longer there.
I dug a little deeper and went to travel.mastercard.com, the “lifestyle managers” for Mastercard. Just to get to the website, I had to enter my Mastercard number. I used our Citi Premier card number, but any World Elite Mastercard should work.
Then I had to make an account. After logging in, I went to the “Offers and Experiences” page and searched for Sixt Car Rental, where I found an offer for 15% off but no Platinum status.
Only when I clicked on the box did I get to see all the benefits:
From here, my only choice was to click a box and contact a Lifestyle Manager.
I received an email shortly thereafter saying one of their representatives would be contacting me within 24 hours but the usual wait time is 2-3 hours. Since it was 1 AM, I turned my phone on silent, just in case.
There were no calls in the middle of the night, but I received an email by noon the next day. (Bold type is for emphasis).
Thank you for using the Mastercard Travel & Lifestyle Services online platform to inquire about our car rental upgrade/discount with Sixt.
Drive in style with Mastercard cardholder-exclusive discounts and benefits
Sixt, one of the leading worldwide mobility service providers with rental locations in over 115 countries, has been offering its expertise and experience for over 100 years. With the best selection of vehicles ranging from compact cars, convertibles, SUVs and luxury cars to vans and trucks, Sixt has the perfect option to suit your needs.
Book with Mastercard Travel & Lifestyle Services to receive complimentary access to Sixt Platinum status, which includes:
- Savings of up to 15% on Sixt rent a car/rent a truck worldwide
- A complimentary upgrade to the next highest car group subject to availability
- Preferred reservation priority
- Access to special Sixt Platinum counters/parking lots at select airports/stations
If you would like us to assist with the upgrade to SIXT Platinum status please reply to this email or call us anytime with your SIXT Express number. It will be our pleasure to assist you with your request.
You could jump through all the hoops to get the email to reply to or just call them. The phone number to call to upgrade to Sixt Platinum status is 855-802-1387
I was connected to a representative after a short hold when I called to upgrade. I told him that I read about getting Platinum status with Sixt and asked how could I sign up. The representative was very helpful and said he could get me signed up for Sixt’s renter program and put me in for my upgrade. I explained that I had already signed up for a Sixt account online and he replied, “Well, that’s most of the hard work. All I need is your membership number and I’ll forward the information to get you upgraded.”
I was then asked for my Mastercard World Elite account number. Now, I could have given him our Citi Prestige card number but I wanted to see if I could get the same benefits with a less expensive card. I noticed that the JetBlue Plus card from Barclays is a Mastercard World Elite card. I gave this account number and after he verified the account, the process was started.
I was told that the Mastercard concierge team would forward my information to Sixt who would manually upgrade my account to Platinum status. The process would take four to six weeks. Wait, what???
What system can take up to 45 days to process an upgrade? Our rental was several months away so waiting wasn’t a problem. Still, I was shocked at how long this would take. I can’t imagine how anything could ever take that long as even if you had to email someone a name, it should be done within a week.
I’m happy to say that my online Sixt account was upgraded to Platinum within just a few days and it took about 4 weeks for me to receive my Sixt Platinum card in the mail (yes, they really do still send out membership cards).
If you want to know if your card offers Mastercard World Elite benefits, I’m really not sure. I know that our Citi Prestige and Citi Premier are both World Elite Cards. The same goes for my Barclays JetBlue Plus card and Barclays American Airlines Aviator Red card. I’ve looked online but can’t find a definitive list. My suggestion is to look at your card and if it says World Elite, you’re good.
For this experience, the Mastercard World Elite concierge was very nice. He even followed up by email when the upgrade was processed (I noticed the status had changed online long before the concierge emailed me). Sixt sent me a Platinum card, as promised.
If you’d like to read about how our rental went, check out my review: Our experience renting a car from Sixt in San Antonio.
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4 comments
I hope you tracked the rental with AutoSlash. With a few months to go, there’s a very good chance your rate will come down over time. 🙂
Of course I did! Unfortunately, it’s a rental at an airport where I’ve found prices tend to go up the closer to the rental date. Fingers crossed!!!
Thank you very much for posting this! Seems like it’s a global benefit and it also applies for MasterCard Black cards issued here in Argentina.
Sixt is a very good company to do business with in my experience but I tend to rent from them in Europe as I usually can beat their price with my corporate code at another agency here in the USA. Europcar tends to be a bit cheaper in Europe at times but I think Sixt has better cars in that region.