Today’s Daily Getaway: The Hertz Deal That Started Good And Ended Badly

Seriously, if I had written this post when Daily Getaways went live, I’d have a pretty big helping of egg on my face.  Hertz Gold Rewards points have traditionally been a good value.  One-way rentals have traditionally been one of the ways that I’ve used to save our family a ton of cash.  They’re one of the recent changes that really isn’t horrible, at least in the daily version.  That’s the report from Brian at The Gate.  He’s got a great chart of all the changes.

It gets worse, in that Hertz has also instituted a pretty egregious cancelation penalty for award reservations that are cancelled after more than 24 hours.  In short, the changes are bad.

Once you’ve reviewed Brian’s chart, if you still think that Hertz points are in your future, you’ll find 3 offers today:

• 7,500 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points for $280 (3.7 cents each)
• 20,000 points for $560 (2.8 cents each)
• 25,000 points for $698 (2.8 cents each)

It’s worth noting there’s some funny language in the description about length of rental, whereas the redemption and terms and conditions seem to clearly indicate you’re buying points to use as you please.

The Final Two Pennies

I actually think there’s still some value here, specifically in one-way rentals of less than a week.  Surely, not as much as before the big devaluation.  And, I truly hate that Hertz did this with no notice.  But, you may find some value in these offers.  You want to be sure that the dates you’re looking at are available for standard awards, not anytime awards.  That would be a big pain point on top of a big pain point.  Where I once might have felt okay with you buying Hertz points speculatively, I wouldn’t be doing so now.

I’m guessing the recent devaluation will quell some of the demand for these offers.  While I don’t think they’ll sell out immediately, I could definitely be wrong on demand. I expected that the Universal Orlando tickets wouldn’t immediately sell out yesterday. As of late last night, that offer was still available.  So, folks are being smart.

If you’re interested in these, I still think it makes sense to be ready a few minutes before 1pm EDT.  It’s also worth noting that some folks will put these packages into their shopping cart and then have buyer’s remorse (or lose their connection trying to finish the transaction).  If you’re truly committed, hang out for about 15 minutes after a sell-out and keep clicking refresh on your browser.  You just might get lucky.  I’ll do my best to send an update on Twitter.

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