Amex Platinum Hertz 4 Hour Grace Period
In this hobby (and in life) we are bombarded with product after product after product. This one does that well and that one has this cool feature. Credit cards are among the biggest offenders. Even the worst of credit card products seemingly has pages of “features and benefits”. Most of these of course are useless, but you aren’t supposed to know that, because “VALUE”. Thankfully the Amex Platinum Hertz 4 hour grace period is a benefit that really does add value. Let’s take a look.
Current Amex Travel Rewards Credit Card Offers
Amex Platinum Car Rental Benefits
One of the cards that I do get value out of is my American Express Platinum Card. You probably know about the card’s $200 airline incidental credit, hotel elite status and airline lounge access, but there are some smaller benefits that aren’t covered as often. One of them is rental car elite status. While this post isn’t about rental car status specifically, as a recap you get:
- Avis Preferred
- Hertz Gold
- National Executive
Having those statuses is nice, but there is one more small interesting perk of the American Express Platinum card when it comes to car rentals. It’s called the Amex Platinum Hertz 4 Hour Grace Period benefit. Or at least that is what I call it! 🙂
This perk comes exclusively when renting from Hertz. Here is how American Express describes it:
A 4-hour no charge grace period before an extra day charge is applied when returning the vehicle in Hertz Corporate Europe locations, the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Middle East (with exception of UAE and Bahrain who offer 2 hours grace period) and selected European Franchise countries (see participating countries).
Amex Platinum Hertz 4 Hour Grace Period – Explanation
How many times have you needed a car for just slightly longer than 24 hours? This little perk makes it possible. On a recent trip to Edmonton I was able to take advantage of the Amex Platinum Hertz 4 hour grace period benefit.
On the trip I landed late Friday night/Saturday morning (1am) and stayed by the airport. I then flew home on Sunday afternoon. I could have rented a car for two days, but instead decided that I would just rent the car in the morning. Here is what my rental looked like:
As you can see, the system automatically knows to price it at one day, even though my rental is 28 hours total! Not a bad deal at all.
Current Amex Travel Rewards Credit Card Offers
How to Get the Amex Platinum Hertz 4 Hour Grace Period
American Express Platinum cardholders are eligible for the following perks with Hertz:
- Up to 15% off, best publicly available rates at participating Hertz locations worldwide. In the US and Canada Cardmembers will receive up to 20% off rentals on similar rates.
- Up to 25% off best publicly available rates on Hertz Prestige Collection when a Saturday night is included in the rental period. Available in Hertz Corporate Europe locations (see participating countries), US, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden.
- A 4-hour no charge grace period before an extra day charge is applied when returning the vehicle in Hertz Corporate Europe locations, the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Middle East (with exception of UAE and Bahrain who offer 2 hours grace period) and selected European Franchise countries (see participating countries). Asia, with the exception of China, offers a 2-hour no charge grace period, except on optional extras like portable phones.
- A One-car-class upgrade subject to availability, with restrictions in some locations (does not include Prestige collection). See Participating Countries for more details.
To get all of these perks when reserving a car, enter code 633306 in the discount box on the Hertz website as shown below.
Conclusion
In my opinion it is always important to shop around for rental cars and I use a number of tools to do that. In this case knowing that I had the Amex Platinum Hertz 4 Hour grace period saved me from having to rent the car a second day and their overall rate was very good as well. My final savings was 50% over other rental firms, I enjoyed the Hertz Gold service and received an upgrade. All in all it was a nice win and a small bit more “value” from my Amex Platinum card.
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Do you have codes or links for Avis and National as well as how to get the status applied to your account?
Here is the information on how to enroll for each program.
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/benefits/detail/car-rental-privileges/platinum
Awesome information. Didn’t know this. Thanks for the inside info. By the way, I have always used CDP 2029445 with my Amex Platinum card and got great rates and automatic upgrades even if I rent a premium vehicle. I love the service Hertz has always given me. They treat me right.
On the other hand, compared to several other companies, Hertz’s rental costs are insane. Every time I’ve rented I have found the same car at Budget or Alamo for literally half the price.
Yeah this varies greatly by market. It is something to keep in mind, but won’t always be the cheapest way. In my case it was significantly cheaper.
Awesome, I travel for roller coasters too!
Question about Platinum AMEX benefits….do you get hotels points when you book through FHR? I booked Ritz Carlton Budapest through FHR and did not receive any points. The stay shows up, but points are zero. For some reason I thought that points are earned on FHR…….
Depends. You can decide if its worth it to fight. Its yes and no. The greatest benefit of booking through FHR unlike OTC reservations is that youre supposed to still earn points and elite stay credits in your hotel loyalty program. Not always the case. Just depends.
I ended up contacting Marriott and the rep said points are “not earned on any third party booking”. I will definitely take the 3rd night free, $100 F&B credit, and comp breakfast over points, but was hoping through FHR to get the points also.
Do you have to type in that number code? I thought when you link your Hertz account to your Platinum card it automatically uses the code for AMEX platinum, at least it does that for me.
According to their terms you have to enter that number and I had to, but perhaps my account wasn’t linked correctly.
Great tip. Never noticed this. Just saved at least $30 on an upcoming 28-hour rental. Anyhow, I just went in through my Amex Platinum, since I had never joined Hertz Gold, and I got the same rate with the default connection as with putting in the 211762 code (see comment above) … which only makes sense.
By the way, dropped the Hertz rental down through Autoslash.com, specifying the 28 hour window, and got a further discounted rate via Autoslash.com that incorporated without any trouble the idea of 28 hours at a one-day rate. By which I mean that Autoslash.com gave me a new Hertz confirmation number that I double-checked (after entering into Hertz.com), and Hertz is definitely giving my all discounts (this Amex Plat thing + whatever magic Autoslash.com applies). And looking across the Autoslash.com alternatives at other rental car companies, including the terrible ones, the savings is more like $60 minimum.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing!
Hertz is usually never cheap enough for this code to matter. Much rather pay half as much with Avis and stack with a weekend coupon and then “pay” for the extra day. Ends up less.
Which avis promo code do you use?
Do you think this works on the one way 4 hour rental? I actually need about 7 hours for a one way rental and this would be magical if it worked for that
I think it has a minimum of one day.
I have a few things to add to this. First of all, the CDP you give is for AMEX PLATINUM EMEA. The CDP for PLATINUM CARD FROM AMEX is 211762. I use the 211762 CDP frequently, as I’ve found it gives a slightly bigger discount in many circumstances. Also, if you dip in to the 4 hr grace period, you have to pay for an extra day of rental taxes and fees, which can be noticeable on rentals from airports with low rates but high taxes and fees.
+1 thanks for explaining. I booked a 24 hour rental and returned it 3.5 hours late. They collected an additional $8.09 and couldn’t tell me why, which lead me here for if others had similar experiences. Sounds like that is to be expected. And similarly, if you don’t know for sure you need to go 4 hours over, it’s better to book 24 hours to avoid overpaying the second day if it doesn’t matter.
Didn’t know this before. Thanks for sharing.
Just reserved a car yesterday with PayNow using Citi card.
After reading this today, modified my rental with the code and got $10 refund.
Shawn, you could discuss the free companion fare from Amex Plat in the future?
that topic has been discussed all around the internet already. you can easily look that up sir.
Do you have to pay with the Amex Platinum to benefit from the 4 hour window?
In my experience no, although I believe you are supposed to.
I only book car rentals with a card that has primary cover.
I have previously used this and paid with the Sapphire Preferred, although I cannot guarantee it will work. With that said, I do always carry my Platinum card just in case.
do you have to use your amex card to get these perks?
Do you have to pay with the platinum card?
So the next question has to be, can you use this code without the credit card? I am a government employee and use the Hertz government leisure rate a few times a year. I have never been asked to produce government ID and with gold plus I normally go straight to my car and there is not be much of a chance for them to ask me for ID.