You might recall from a few months ago that I broke up with Hertz. It wasn’t a pleasant break up, but they rarely are! To help me get over my break up, TWG readers suggested I look to National Car Rental for rental cars. And so I did. This week, National Car Rental has been in the news because there’s a National Car Rental status match going on. That’s fine BUT it’s only good for two months. If you’ve got a car rental coming up through the end of this year, this status match may be useful. But don’t forget, if you have the American Express Platinum Charge Card (any variety), you can get FREE Executive Status from National Car Rental.
Typically, earning this status requires renting from National Car Rental at least 12 times per year, so the feature has value. If you already have the American Express Platinum Charge Card, you can enroll in the National’s Executive Program. Just login to your account, and select National.
Image source: https://www.nationalcar.com/en_US/car-rental/loyalty/enrollment/benefits.html
What does Executive Status offer you?
Upgraded cars at the mid size rental rate is one benefit. National Car Rental lets you choose the car of your choice from special aisles of cars for a mid-size rate. You bypass the counter and choose any car from one of two sections: Emerald Aisle for base members, which features mid and full-sized cars, and the upgraded Executive Selection reserved for Executive members. This area features full sized, premium, SUV, and occasional luxury vehicles. You can learn more here.
National Car Rental is unique in that you’re not assigned a specific stall number to pick up your car. You just show up at the designated aisle and pick the car of your choice. You’ll also get a discount on reserved rentals. If you don’t want to use the Executive Selection, you can guarantee a car class of your choosing: full, mid-size, luxury, premium, etc. As an Executive member, you’ll pay a rate one car class lower than what you reserve. This means you can get a premium vehicle for a full-size rate every time.
I keep my American Express Platinum Charge Card for many reasons, and now that I’m using National Car Rental, this is a handy benefit, too. Do you take advantage of your Emerald Executive benefit that comes with your Platinum card?
P.S. After you rent your car, let AutoSlash track the price and alert you when the price drops.
The status match must be *requested* by the end of this year. Per the terms: “Matched status is valid through February 28 of the second calendar year following the member’s status match approval.” Mine went through Esther quickly. I haven’t used National in decades (so long that I wasn’t even in their system), so it’ll be interesting giving them another try while also taking advantage of this quarter’s SkyMiles new partner bonus (for partners you haven’t used this year).
Esther = rather. Wish there were an edit option!
HI Carl, Thanks for your data points. I didn’t see anything that mentioned the status going beyond this year. Interesting. I’ll check into it. Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!
Also don’t forget the chase Sapphire Reserve (among a couple others) offers Executive status as well :)
Good reminder, Steven. Thanks. SO many cards, so many benefits :)