How to redeem points and miles for car rentals

From credit card discounts to negotiated rates for groups and companies, it’s no secret that there are many ways to avoid paying full price for a rental car.

But regardless of how frequently you rent, you should be up to speed on using points and miles for rental cars. In this guide, we’ll highlight how you can redeem rewards for your next car rental and save money.

Related: Check your receipt — 5 hidden rental car fees to look out for

Using rental car rewards

Most major rental car companies have loyalty programs that let you earn and redeem points for car rentals. Here’s a quick overview of what you should know about the most popular rental car rewards programs.

Avis Preferred: Avis Preferred members earn 1 point per dollar spent on rentals and at least 100 points per booking. You’ll need at least 700 points for a free car rental with a base rate of up to $50, and there are no blackout dates. Plus, you can rent various accessories for 250 points per day.

Budget Fastbreak: Budget doesn’t have a points system. Instead, members currently earn $25 in Budget Bucks for every two qualifying paid rentals. You can use Budget Bucks to save money on future rentals.

Dollar Express Rewards: Redemptions start at 500 points per day on the weekends and 625 points per day on weekdays. Since members earn 1 point per dollar spent on rentals, earning a free day takes at least $500 worth of paid rentals.

Enterprise Plus: Enterprise doesn’t have an award chart, so the number of points you’ll need for a free day will vary based on the details of your rental. Members earn 1 point per dollar spent on paid rentals, and elite members earn 10% to 20% bonus points.

Hertz Gold Plus Rewards: Free Hertz rentals start at 950 points per day at the standard level, although blackout dates apply; free rentals without restrictions start at 1,900 points per day. Base-tier Gold members earn 1 point per dollar spent on rentals, while Five Star and President’s Circle members earn a bonus of 25% and 50%, respectively.

National Emerald Club: Like Budget, National doesn’t have a points program but instead allows members to earn credits for free rental days. You earn one credit for every qualified car rental. Depending on your status tier, you’ll earn one free day after five to seven rental credits.

Related: 9 rental car rewards programs you need to know about

How to redeem credit card rewards for car rentals

If you have a card that earns cash back or transferable rewards, you can redeem your rewards for car rentals.

Although the process varies slightly from one card to the next, cash-back rewards are typically the easiest. For example, if you have a cash-back rewards card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited®, you can request cash back as a statement credit or bank deposit and then use it to effectively pay for your rental car (or any other expense).

You can also redeem Capital One miles to reimburse yourself for virtually any travel-related purchase charged to your card within the last 90 days. You can redeem Capital One miles at a fixed rate of 1 cent per mile. For example, for a $100 rental car charge, you’d need to redeem 10,000 miles.

The Chase Travel℠ portal is another place to redeem points for car rentals. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, your points are worth 1.5 cents each when booking rental cars through the portal. If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you can redeem points for rental cars at a rate of 1.25 cents per point through the portal.

You can also use American Express Membership Rewards points for rental cars through Amex’s Pay with Points feature. However, doing so won’t give you a high value for your points.

Should you redeem airline miles for car rentals?

Some airlines allow members to redeem miles for rental cars, but don’t expect to maximize your rewards this way. Airlines often provide much better redemption rates for flights.

But, to give you an idea of what to expect, here’s how many miles you’d need for a given one-day weekday car rental at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) booked through three major airlines: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

Related: 10 mistakes to avoid when redeeming frequent flyer miles

American Airlines

American Airlines allows you to book car rentals through Avis and Budget using either cash or miles. If you hold American Airlines status or a cobranded American Airlines credit card, you’ll get a discount of up to 30% on the price in miles. To check rates, start your search here.

You can also pay for your rental car using a combination of American Airlines miles and cash.

Additionally, you can earn 2 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent on paid car rentals when you start here. For the same dates, I could reserve an economy car starting at $164 that would earn 328 miles, as well as Loyalty Points to get me closer to my next status tier. If I redeemed American Airlines miles for this rental, I’d get a redemption rate of around 1.1 cents per mile, significantly lower than TPG’s July 2024 valuation of 1.55 cents each.

Related: Best uses of American Airlines AAdvantage miles

Delta Air Lines

Delta partners with most major car rental companies, allowing you to earn at least 2 SkyMiles per dollar spent on rentals when you book through Delta’s portal — but you don’t have the option to pay with miles. The only way to redeem SkyMiles for a car rental is to book a bundled package through Delta Vacations.

To do so, search for a vacation package here. You’ll need to choose your hotel and flights first, then add a rental car as an extra. Toggle the price from dollars to miles to see how many SkyMiles your car will cost.

The same car costs $130 through Delta Vacations, providing a value of 1.15 cents per mile — right on par with TPG’s July 2024 valuation for SkyMiles. That’s not a bad way to use your SkyMiles, but it’s harder to redeem them for car rentals when the rental must be part of a vacation package.

Related: 16 ways to earn more Delta SkyMiles, from using credit cards to online shopping

United Airlines

You can redeem United MileagePlus miles for Avis and Budget rental cars here. As expected, this isn’t the best use of United miles.

The same $164 weekday rental I mentioned above would cost 14,700 MileagePlus miles, giving you a value of 1.1 cents per mile — lower than our July 2024 valuation of 1.35 cents apiece.

Related: Flights, credit cards and more: How to earn miles with the United MileagePlus program

Bottom line

Redeeming points and miles for rental cars often won’t provide the best redemption value. As such, I’d typically recommend using cash-back rewards to offset the cost of your rental or redeeming rewards from a rental car loyalty program instead.

You can get a decent redemption value when you redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points for a rental car through the Chase Travel portal, but there are often better ways to maximize Chase points.