National rental credits?

[Liz]

I see I have four rental credits with National. Anyone know how many you need to earn a free day? Probably lots.

 

[n2mm]

You need 7 if you are Emerald Aisle and 6 if you are Executive Aisle. I love the reward credits. I used 2 free rewards last year and you can combine them. You can not use them with a coupon, however. I had 2 free days and used them both at one time and it took $45 off of my bill. I presently have 1 free day and 4 rewards, so am saving until I get a couple of days to use. They do, however, expire. The ones earned last year expire Dec. 31, 2005 and the ones I've earned already this year expire Dec. 31, 2006. I'm saving my free days to apply to a minivan rental that I need for September. Last year they ran a special and all rewards earned during the spring were doubled, hope they do it again since I have a 16 day rental for May and a 9 day rental for September.

 

[Dan Murphy]

How do the reward points accrue? Is it a point per rental period, or related to dollars spent or number of days, or something else?

 

[n2mm]

I think you can get most of this information on the nationalcar.com website, but I follow it too. You earn 1 reward for every 4 days you rent (8 day rental = 2 reward points). However, you also would earn 1 reward if you rented for less than 4 days (if you rented for the weekend you would still receive 1 point if it's less than 4 days). Last spring (May to Sep) they were doubling the reward points, which helped me accure alot of points. I'm hoping they run that special again this year.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Thanks much, n2mm. I will check the National site too, sounds great.

 

[Liz]

That's good that you don't really need all that many points to get a free day but awful that they expire so fast!!! If my four points from 2004 expire at the end of this year I don't see how I'll benefit from them at all. I should earn 4 points from my June 2005 rental but we don't have any trips planned between then and the end of the year.

Thanks for the info though.

 

[n2mm]

I forgot to mention, that you need to make sure your profile on EA is up to date. You need to make sure you have selected reward points, not frequent flyer miles.