When you have frequent flyer miles or hotel points, each bank, airline and hotel chain has its own rules about sharing, gifting or transferring your points/miles to someone else.
Some banks allow you to transfer points as long as the person also has an account with said bank. On the other hand, American Express only allows you to transfer points to accounts held by your spouse or authorized users. Meanwhile, the legacy airlines allow you to transfer miles to others who also have accounts in their respective frequent flyer programs, but you’ll most likely have to pay a fee per mile (it’s a small fee but even at 1 or 2 cents per mile, that adds up), on top of a processing fee. So a 10,000-mile transfer could wind up costing over $150 by you’re done with the fees.
Car rental companies, unfortunately, are equally as persnickety. They all have their own rules, and some transfer points and others, well, don’t have points to transfer ;-). Here’s the low-down on each of the major players:
Alamo (owned by Enterprise): They don’t have a point program (they instead allow you to earn miles and points for partner companies) so there’s nothing that can be transferred.
Avis: Avis has their Avis Preferred program but you’re not allowed to transfer the credit towards service levels or benefits you earn by renting with the company.
Budget (owned by Avis): They have no points program (they instead allow you to earn miles and points for partner companies), so there’s nothing to be transferred.
Dollar (owned by Hertz): Dollar offers Renter Rewards points but they are account holder specific and cannot be shared with family or friends.
Enterprise: Enterprise has its Enterprise Plus program. Members are allowed to transfer between 500 and 7,500 points, in increments of 500, to another Enterprise Plus Member. A maximum of one transfer per calendar year from an Enterprise Plus account and a maximum of one transfer per calendar year into an Enterprise Plus account are allowed.
Hertz: Hertz has their Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program. Gold Plus Rewards Points are only transferable to a member’s spouse or domestic partner who has their own Gold Plus Rewards membership.
National (owned by Enterprise): National offers its Emerald Club membership. Emerald Club members can transfer 3 free days per year to an immediate family member. Immediate family members include any family member that has the same home address.
Silvercar: Silvercar’s Premium Rewards program was launched in 2019. There are no provisions at this time to transfer your rewards to someone else. Silvercar also recently closed all of its airport locations, so there are not many places left to use those rewards.
Sixt: Sixt is not involved in any rewards programs.
Thrifty (owned by Hertz): Thrifty offers a program called Blue Chip Rewards. Renter Rewards are account holder specific and can’t be shared.
Out of the ten largest car rental companies in the U.S., Enterprise, Hertz and National (the latter of which is owned by Enterprise) are the only ones that allow you to transfer points (or in National’s case, free days). And all three have caveats and limitations.
So if you think you’ll rack up a bunch of car rental points and give them away, well, think again.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
