Here’s a limited time rental car offer you don’t usually see! Hopefully, it’s one you can take advantage of.
Three companies own a huge percent of car rental brands. Avis owns Budget and Payless. Hertz (which just declared Chapter 11) owns Dollar and Thrifty. And Enterprise owns National and Alamo. As long as you can still find reasonable prices when looking for a car to rent, having just 3 companies as the major players isn’t a bad thing; it just “is what it is.”
Enterprise tends to keep its namesake business separate from the other brands. Each division has a niche, with National for business travelers, Alamo for the leisure traveler and Enterprise serving the local (non-airport) customer. There’s some crossover with Enterprise having airport locations and Alamo’s local branches, but not much.
The National Emerald Club and the Enterprise Plus loyalty programs are also kept separate. They do allow reciprocal status and earning of points (you can credit Enterprise rentals to National and vice versa) but for redemptions, you have to use the company’s program where your points are.
That is, until now.
For a limited time, National Emerald Club members can redeem their free days at participating Enterprise Rent-A-Car neighborhood locations in the U.S.
“Free days” covers the base rate (time & mileage) only. Here’s more info about it, borrowed from this page of National’s website:
- Valid for free days earned in the Emerald Club program and ONE TWO FREE® promotion
- Available for U.S.-based Emerald Club members only
- Valid for up to a Midsize vehicle for Emerald Club base tier members
- Valid for up to a Fullsize vehicle for Executive tier members
- Valid on any car class except Trucks and Exotic vehicles for Executive Elite and VIP tier members
- Reservations must be made by calling 844-643-5085 at least 24 hours in advance
- To modify or cancel your reservation, call 844-643-5085
- Offer ends August 31, 2020. Travel must occur by December 31, 2020
- Not valid at airport locations
This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. People who work out on the road have been living and working from home for the last few months. If you live in a big city and were never home that much before, you might not have a car. Or maybe you want to get the family out of the house and go on a road trip this summer but the family car is either too small or just not trustworthy enough for such a voyage.
While many airport rental locations have policies against renting to local residents, these types of rentals are Enterprise Car Rental’s bread and butter business. Being able to use your National Free Rental certificates for local rentals at Enterprise gives customers a way to use for them when they’re not flying. This is obviously the basis for the offer because it explicitly excludes rentals from Enterprise’s airport locations. If you’re renting at the airport, you could just as easily rent from National anyway.
Both regular free night credits from the Emerald Club program and those from the One Two Free promotion can be used at Enterprise. Just in case you hadn’t heard, the free night credits earned during the One Two Free promotion have been extended until the end of the year (they were initially due to expire on June 15.) This gives you plenty of time and opportunity to use them if you haven’t done so yet.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and get emailed notifications of when we post. Or maybe you’d like to join our Facebook group – we have 13,000+ members and we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel articles you may not see otherwise, etc. Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
