When travelers consider “points,” they usually think of them in terms of hotels. You can earn hotel membership rewards in the form of credits and/or points, usually by staying at said hotels or via specific credit card usage.
Of course, nearly all hotel points eventually expire. When that happens is based on the whims of the respective hotel companies. Here are the most recent updates for hotel point expirations.
Just like hotels, you can also earn points through some car rental companies. Renting more often is the key to getting enough points to earn free days of rentals (But even if you don’t rent with enough frequency to enough points to get a free car rental, you can still get free stuff just for signing up for their respective programs). That being said, those points can eventually expire, just like those of hotels.
Here are the current expiration policies from the major car rental companies:
Alamo
Name of program: Alamo Insiders
Points expiration: Alamo doesn’t have their own points program, so they don’t have any points to expire. They will allow you to earn points with their many hotel and airline partners, and those points will expire based on each company’s respective timeline.
Avis
Name of program: Avis Preferred
Points expiration: Points expire after 12 months of inactivity (read: no points earned or redeemed).
Budget
Name of program: Budget Fastbreak
Points expiration: Budget doesn’t have its own points program, so they don’t have any points to expire. They will allow you to enter your Frequent Flyer number into your Fastbreak account to earn miles with any of Budget’s partners, and those miles will expire based on each company’s respective timeline.
Dollar
Name of program: Dollar Express
Points expiration: Points expire after 24 months of inactivity (read: no points earned or redeemed).
Enterprise
Name of program: Enterprise Plus
Points expiration: Points never expire, as long as you remain an active member with at least one qualifying rental every 3 years.
Fox Rent-A-Car
Name of program: Fox Rewards
Points expiration: Points can be traded in for gift certificates or FoxBucks. Points expire if there is no rental activity and/or no points are accrued or redeemed during a 12-month period.
Hertz
Name of program: Hertz Gold Plus Rewards
Points expiration: Points never expire as long as you have had any rental activity (read: a point was earned or redeemed on a rental) in the past 18 months.
National
Name of program: National Emerald Club
Points expiration: Credits never expire, but once you’ve earned enough credits for a free rental day, the free day is only valid through December 31st of the following year.
Payless
Name of program: Payless Perks
Points expiration: Payless doesn’t have its own points program, so they don’t have any points to expire.
Sixt
Name of program: Express Sixt Card
Points expiration: Sixt doesn’t have its own points program, so they don’t have any points to expire.
Thrifty
Name of program: Thrifty Blue Chip
Points expiration: Thrifty doesn’t have its own points program, so they don’t have any points to expire. They will allow you to earn points with their airline partners, and those points will expire based on each company’s respective timeline.
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1 comment
During the pandemic, Hertz was extending the expiration date for their points but they refused to do so when I asked while my points had not quite expired. That led to a loss of loyalty. I only lost one free rental worth of points. I no longer rent from Hertz.