Earn Delta MQMs with Hertz Airport Rentals Until November 30, 2012
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Elite qualifying miles are generally pretty hard to get- you usually get them by flying on paid fares or by spending a lot on credit cards. Once in a while there will be an odd hotel promotion, but never have I seen a car rental promotion offering airline elite miles.
Leave it to Delta to be the first to offer 250 Medallion Qualifying Miles On rentals of 3 or more days booked and completed before November 30, 2012. You also earn an additional 250 bonus miles on Delta in addition to the usual 100 miles they earn per rental day (200 per day for Medallions), and up to 40% off with their discount code (though others may save you more money).
To book this offer and earn the bonuses you need to include PC# 175512 when making your booking. Delta's "discount" code CDP#16538, though you only need to use that to earn the discount- you can still earn the MQMs even if you use a different CDP.
This offer is valid on any vehicle with a completed rental of 3 days or more at a participating airport location in the US, Canada, Mexico or Puerto Rico.
Before you take advantage of this offer, make sure you've entered your Delta SkyMiles info into your Hertz #1 Club profile and use the CDP and PC codes when booking.
To take an example, on a three-day rental from LAX next weekend, I could get an economy class car for $24.21 per day plus taxes (with the 40% discount figured in), for a total of just around $100. With that rental, since I'm a Medallion, I'd be earning 200 miles per day, plus the two bonuses for a total of 850 bonus miles and 250 MQM's instead of just the usual 600 miles I'd earn.
I already like getting mileage bonuses on my car rentals, like I did with American miles renting from Avis this summer, and while this bonus isn't as big and the time frame is limited, it does have the added value of including elite-qualifying miles. Depending on how close you will be towards hitting elite status, this could potentially save you from having to do a mileage run. Remember, Delta also lets you rollover MQMs, so even if you've achieved status, you can roll these MQMs over so you start 2013 with a head start.
The most lucrative way to bank a bunch of MQMs in a short amount of time is with the Delta Reserve card, which gives you 10,000 MQM's with your first purchase and up to 30,000 more with $30,000 and $60,000 spend thresholds.