Hertz Retrospectively Expires Points

The Hertz Gold Plus Rewards loyalty program has shortened the validity of its reward points without giving any notice to members. To make matters worse, Hertz has suddenly and retrospectively expired the points balances of members affected by the change.

In the past, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points would not expire as long as you maintained activity on your account at least once every 24 months. Either earning or redeeming at least one Gold Plus Rewards point – for example, by hiring a vehicle – counts as activity.

At some point, though, Hertz changed its policy so that points would expire after 18 months of account inactivity. Then, on 30 September 2023, Hertz shortened the validity period of its points to 12 months.

Hertz provided no notice to Gold Plus Rewards members, neither before nor after making this change. Instead, the company quietly updated its website after making the change.

Many members would not have even noticed this change until discovering that their points had suddenly expired. That’s because, on 30 September, Hertz wiped the points in all accounts that hadn’t seen activity in the 12 months prior to that date.

Numerous AFF members have been caught up by the change to Hertz’s points expiry, and they’re not happy. Here’s what some had to say on the forum:

Apparently Hertz changed T&Cs overnight without informing anyone and now Hertz points expire after 12 months!!
Check your account, I had a bunch of points expiring January 2024 and they are all gone 🙁
– M@rcoPolo, 16 October 2023

I was just coming to post this too! I logged into Hertz today to check something and my points have been wiped!
I reached out to them on Facebook. When they said points expire in 12 months I mentioned they had not updated that and there was no email to alert me to points about to expire. I’ve requested they reinstate my points.
– Daver6, 16 October 2023

What does Hertz have to say?

Australian Frequent Flyer requested comment from Hertz about this recent change to the expiration of its loyalty program’s points.

A Hertz spokesperson told us in a statement:

Hertz Gold Plus Rewards is all about rewarding our loyal Hertz customers. The more frequently a loyal member rents a car, the more points they earn – and the faster they reach upgraded loyalty tier status and enjoy enhanced benefits. To ensure that our program remains focused on rewarding loyalty, we reduced the inactivity rental period from 18 months to 12 months, effective September 30, 2023. As long as a member rents a car once in a rolling 12-month period, they continue to grow their points balance. If a member did not complete a rental with Hertz in the 12-month period prior to September 30, 2023, their previously accumulated points have expired.

Statement from Hertz

That’s some impressive PR spin! Yes, that’s right: Hertz says that this change is to ensure its program “remains focused on rewarding loyalty”. Yet, those members whose points suddenly expired probably aren’t feeling very rewarded right now…

Hertz’ own terms & conditions still show a 24-month points expiry

According to the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards terms & conditions, “Hertz has the right to change, limit or modify Program rules, Rewards, Reward structure and Gold Plus Rewards Point levels at any time with or without notice.”

However, as of the time of writing, the same terms & conditions also state that “Points do not expire as long as the member has any Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program activity within the previous 24 months”.

In other words, several weeks after Hertz retrospectively expired a lot of its members’ points, its terms & conditions still haven’t been updated to reflect this change.

We asked Hertz about this. They told us that “We are actively reviewing and updating all website pages where the policy is mentioned to ensure information is current and accurate”.

This is poor form for any loyalty program

Technically, it seems that the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards T&Cs allow Hertz to make these kind of unannounced changes. However, it is very poor form to make such a change and apply it retrospectively without even giving members any notice about the change.

This is barely acceptable behaviour for any loyalty program and makes it difficult for members to trust the program into the future. Members of any loyalty program deserve better than this.

If you are a Hertz customer, going forward, you may want to consider crediting any points you earn from car rentals directly into a frequent flyer program rather than collecting Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.