Using Amex points to book car rental

[denise33]

We have enough points to cover us for a week's midsize rental- Can i also use other discounts with my reward points? For instance last yr I used a coupon from Costco and got a free upgrade - has anyone ever used other discounts with Amex reward points??
THANKS!! will be booking car next week!

[RobinLyn]

I was also thinking of doing the same thing. But I wasn't sure at this point which car rental place at MCO I was going to use because our trip to WDW is the end of August. So I decided I would cash in our points for American Express travelers checks (haven't done it yet). This way I can use them at any rental company, or anywhere else for that matter. Another issue is that I have been told they charge you "full price" when you use car rental certificates. In otherwords, you can't book online, you must call to make a reservation. I haven't try it so I'm not sure if this is true. Let me know if you find out anything different. It's a great way to save, especially if they let you combine a discount with the certificates. There will probably be some deals come August so I didn't want to be stuck with one choice for renting right now.

RobinLyn:cool:

[sixcats]

I used Amex certificates 3 or 4 times. I could not add discounts in when using them. The rack rates are super high!

[denise33]

Figured - I'm thinking these reward points are not that great - we could get 2% cash rebates with other cards - the Gold card points system stinks since we have to pay yearly to even have them!!! I'll let you know what "deal" I get - when I use these points up I'll probably end my "rewards"!!
Denise