Hertz and United Tighten Generous Mileage-Earning Opportunity
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
For nearly three years, United has offered a generous promotion that allows you to earn up to 2,750 miles for every Hertz car rental you make through its site. And besides the promotion end date, its terms remained mostly unchanged — until now.
United will continue to run the promotion through at least September 30, but now you'll need to make a minimum two-day rental to earn the bonus miles. Given that people typically rent cars for more than two days, most should be unaffected by this change. However, some people made one-day rentals solely to leverage this promotion.
As we learned from JJ Todd, the man who's earned over 1.2 million United miles by renting cars, in a way, this promotion has often been the cheapest way to "buy" United miles. He's completed hundreds of rentals, typically for between $22-$30 each time, essentially buying miles at ~0.5 cents each — a great price considering that they're worth 1.4 cents apiece based on TPG's latest valuations.
In fact, we reached out to JJ for comment and this is what he had to say, "The Summer Promo that provided an additional 3,000 bonus miles per rental (5,250 miles total) ended on February 1. Since then, I've been earning 2,250 miles per rental, which put an end to renting multiple cars per day. Renting cars is still an important part of my points and miles strategy and my transportation needs. But the reduced mileage has me revisiting other rental car companies when the prices and promotions make the most sense. The change to a two day minimum on Hertz rentals is just a new piece of the equation. I'll still be renting from Hertz, but much more selectively."
The following earning rates will remain in place for all rentals:
- 500 miles per rental for general MileagePlus members
- 750 miles for MileagePlus Chase cardholders
- 1,000 miles for Silver and Gold elites
- 1,250 miles for Platinum, 1K and Global Services elites
Then, you'll receive an additional 1,500 miles when you book a mid-size or larger for two or more days.
If you want to take part in the promotion, head to cars.united.com, use discount code (CDP) 62455, PC#305023 and input your MileagePlus number at the time of reservation. As a reminder, there are several credit cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, that offer primary car rental coverage and will have you fully covered during an accident.
H/T: One Mile at a Time