Today’s Daily Getaway deal is for Hertz points with several different packages available for sale ranging from $252 to $698. Here are the options:

5,500 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards for $252 (~4.58 cents per point, 45 available)
13,200 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards for $428 (~3.24 cents per point, 35 available)
16,500 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards for $698 (~4.23 cents per point, 50 available)

To get an idea of how many Hertz points you need for a rental, their full award chart is here but here are some highlights:

If we assume you can buy the middle package today and get the lowest cost per point for Hertz points at ~3.24 cents each, then a free rental day cost around $21.87 while a free weekly rental costs only $89.16 by buying points today. A specialty vehicle weekly rental (which is defined as minivans, convertibles and certain SUVs) costs $142.56. Obviously rental prices vary greatly based on the market, but those weekly rates are great deals in most major markets.

For example, I am going to Hawaii next week and will be in Maui for a week. I decided to rent a convertible because why not. The listed rate was almost $600 but since I had Hertz points it costs me 4400 points which as pointed out above is a cost of $142.56 if you buy points today. That’s a fantastic deal for a weekly convertible rental in Maui! 

While the points can be quite valuable, I do want to point out one drawback which is the Hertz website sucks. It constantly does not let me redeem my points for cars by telling me I don’t have enough points (I do) or giving me the option to use points for just one day out of a weekly rental instead of using points for the full week. Better yet, calling customer service is a nightmare and they are generally unhelpful in my experience (I got into a screaming match with a supervisor the other night booking the convertible above but that’s another long story).

In short, she refused to book it so let me share my one BIG tip to solve this problem – Use the Hertz Twitter team. The Hertz Twitter team is fantastic – they are knowledge, responsive and I’ve never had an issue. For this rental with the convertible above, the rep on the phone claimed no standard convertibles were available which wasn’t true since I could book it paying cash. So I ended up booking it with cash and asking the Twitter team to convert the paid rental to a free weekly rental on points. This is my second big tip – if you are told a car is unavailable but you see it being available by paying cash, book it with cash and then change it to points. It took all of 3 minutes for them to adjust it and my confirmation was updated to pay just the mandatory fees.

Depending on your rental car habits, this deal is not for everyone. If you are an infrequent renter, I wouldn’t want to tie up cash in Hertz points that have already devalued once in 2013 and might again soon. The infrequent renter will be better off using Priceline, Costco Travel or the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal most of the time. Even for relatively frequent renters, I find Hertz points are the most valuable for weekly rentals, one way rentals and specialty vehicle rentals. I would not use my points on multi-day rentals as 3/4 days is almost the same price as taking the car for the week. There are a limited number of packages available today so good luck!