Hertz sharply devalues its loyalty program with little warning to members

In the fast-paced world of points and miles, the landscape is always shifting. Good deals can abruptly emerge — or expire — overnight.

Two days ago, on Aug. 7, Hertz sent a nondescript email to its loyalty members with a small blub mentioning an adjustment to Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points values. Some investigation shows that these changes are notably bad. You can count on your Hertz points being worth almost 30% less.

Let's look at these latest changes to Hertz Gold Plus Rewards.

Hertz points are now worth significantly less

Hertz uses a fixed award chart with prices for various types of rentals. The value you'll get for your points fluctuates depending on:

• Your rental car type.
• The length of your rental.
• Whether you're renting one-way or round-trip.
• When you rent.

Quick math shows that many award prices have increased by around 27%. That's a huge devaluation — and doubly annoying for anyone with a large stash of Hertz points, as Hertz provided a discreet warning of these changes on Sunday via email.

To better illustrate this change, we've made a quick comparison of the old and new prices for a single-day round-trip rental with Hertz.

That said, finding standard award space for a Hertz redemption is tough — many months don't have a single redemption available at this level in some popular destinations. Because of this, many travelers may opt for an AnyDay award instead. These have also shot up in price, with a one-day round-trip rental going from 1,500 points per day to 1,900 points per day, also representing a 27% increase.

You can find Hertz's current award chart here. And you can find the old award chart here (for the time being).

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Hertz partners with Delta Air Lines and other travel companies for points earning. So, instead of earning Hertz points for your rental, you can credit your earnings to a different program. In the past, we've advised against this strategy, as Hertz points have offered more average value than airline miles. However, this devaluation makes crediting miles to airlines a less objectionable idea.

Related: The complete guide to Hertz Gold Plus Rewards

Bottom line

Hertz has unexpectedly devalued its rewards by more than 20%, leaving loyal renters high and dry. It's a disingenuous move when travel brands give hardly any warning for drastic changes like this.

If you've got a huge pile of rewards, be they hotel points, airline miles or rental car points, it's a good idea not to sit on them for long. Loyalty programs sometimes take swift action to reduce the value you can receive from your rewards.