I saw an advertisement in the front section of todays San Francisco Chronicle for a remarkable deal from Hertz.
The car rental company is offering a free weekend day through the end of March. This is not a buy one or two, and get one free type of deal. It is simply one free day.
All that you have to pay is the applicable tax, which for car rentals in California is very low, although airport imposed concession fees can be higher, depending on the individual airport. (Hertz has many non-airport locations which are not subject to these fees and, unless you’re flying in, they are usually more convenient anyway for local rentals in big cities.)
Click on Continue reading for the fine print and examples.
Here is the fine print:
– applies only for weekend rentals (pick-up after 12 noon on Thursday, drop-off by 12 noon on Sunday)
– applies to all participating locations in the U.S. except metro NYC, Florida and Hawaii
– good for economy through full-size vehicles
– a customer may use it only once per month
– good for rentals through 31 March 2009
– use promotional code (PC) 127595
– book online at hertz.com or at (800) 654-2210
– click here to see the Hertz website page for this promotion
Chico is one of the participating locations
Randomly, I made a booking for Chico at hertz.com using a pick-up date of Friday, 16 January, at 10 a.m., with a drop-off the following day and time.
The total price for an economy car (Hyundai Accent or similar) came to $2.21.
For 15 cents more I could upgrade to a compact car (Ford Focus or similar) and for 29 cents to an intermediate (Mazda 6 or similar).
Big spender!
Trying a couple of other locations using the same criteria I found rates of $2.76 for the downtown Oakland Marriott Hotel location, $15.82 at the Oakland Airport (higher concession fees), and $6.42 at the Portland, Ore. airport.
Obviously (and this is what Hertz is hoping for) you can add additional weekend days and pay the already low weekend rate for those days but you are under no obligation to do so.
Reminder for Chico folks: Hertz at the airport is only open until 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays so plan accordingly.
If you come across any similar deals with other car rental companies let us all know by commenting back.
A “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” post is coming soon about car-sharing in general and Hertzs announcement that it is entering this new line of business.
