My Hertz Car Rental Escapade

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Every part of travel has gotten more expensive. Prices are higher than they were before for flights, hotels, meals, and activities. But if there’s one area where prices went sky high and never came back down, it’s car rentals. I’ve tried all the tricks I know and still ended up paying through the nose.

For our trip to Austin, I started with Autoslash to check what the prices were running. I found they were even higher than usual. I then checked my corporate rate from work, and the prices went up even more. Even looking at codes from my discount club memberships didn’t lower the price. Finally, I checked Kayak, and there was a rate for an SUV from Hertz, which was lower than the standard car from any other company.

I had to book through Kayak to get the rate, which ended up being through its parent company’s Booking.com subsidiary Rentalcars.com.

Since I usually don’t book with a third party and definitely don’t prepay for the rental, I wanted to share some of the differences from my usual rental as a President’s Circle Hertz member.

Partial Payment & Rental Voucher

While I typically don’t prepay for rentals, it was the only way to secure the lower rate. I paid at the time of booking for most of the rental, which was refundable if I canceled in advance. When I received my email confirmation, there was a link to a payment voucher which it said I needed to print and bring to the rental counter.

Things to remember when picking up your car
• Your voucher.
• A valid credit card in the main driver’s name.
• Your Driving Licence [sic] (Both parts if applicable).

I could tell this rental experience would be different.

Registration Emails

Starting a few weeks before the rental, Hertz started emailing me reminders. While I could look at the reservation online, there was no way for me to add my Hertz Gold Rewards number to the booking. This meant none of my personal information or preferences about declining the insurance, gasoline or toll transponder were linked to this rental.

I was also asked to preregister by taking a picture of my driver’s license and a selfie to verify my ID. After doing this, I supposedly was all checked in before I arrived at the airport, and I was told to wait for an email where I could select my vehicle.

Airport Rental Counter

I didn’t receive that email to select a car until I was almost at the rental car center at Austin Airport. I decided to just wait until I was talking with an agent.

I had a short wait at the counter. I provided my license and the voucher, which I printed out as instructed in the email. Once she found my reservation, the Hertz agent started to show me all of the options available. I told her that I was a President’s Circle member, but since this was a third-party booking, none of my preferences were linked. I didn’t need insurance, fuel, tolls or any other upgrades, just the car I reserved. She nodded and put away the laminated book of upgrades.

After a few keystrokes and clicks of the mouse, she had me pay with my credit card for the rest of the rental and told me that I could go to spot 74 in the garage. We walked out to the parking lot and started to look for our car, which was a grey Kia Sorrento. As we rolled our luggage to the back of the car, someone else arrived and said he was assigned the car in spot 74. More importantly, he had a receipt saying this was his rental car. We hadn’t been given a receipt, so we let him take it.

Rental Mix-Up

The Hertz agent in the lot was very nice and apologized for the mix-up. In fact, she tried to give the reasons why this could happen and said she’d try to get it fixed. I said that wasn’t necessary as it wasn’t far to go back to the counter. As we walked back to Hertz, we passed the Gold Rewards desk, and an agent asked if everything was OK. I explained what just happened with 2 people being assigned the same car. I also dropped in that I was a President’s Circle member but my info didn’t link to this rental.

I don’t know if that mattered, but he told me to wait there. Then he started looking up my rental and asked which vehicle I was told to pick up in the lot. It took a while, but he pulled up the reservation, and after a few more keystrokes and clicks, I was back on my way to the lot, this time with a receipt.

Upgrade!

I knew something was up because the previous time, we walked all the way to the end of the lot, where people without status picked up their cars. This time, we headed to the other side of the lot, where they keep the reserved cars. Turns out, he put us in a Volvo XC60.

You better believe I checked that this was the same car on my receipt. I didn’t want Hertz saying that I stole a car from their lot. We also took pictures of every scratch, dent and nick on the exterior before leaving the airport.

When we returned the car, I had to laugh because Hertz has an eReturn area where you can leave the keys and go. I have to ask who uses this area. I was sure to check in with a person and had a receipt printed showing the end of my rental. Sharon even took a picture of the person giving me my receipt.

Final Thought

There were so many things that happened with this rental that it’s hard to keep track. From booking with a third party, not getting any of my elite benefits, having my car given to another customer to eventually getting an awesome upgrade. I guess rolling with everything along the way eventually paid off in the end.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary