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[Disclosure: Emily and I get a referral for the links to the cards in this post, except for the Citi Thank You Premier where our link for 25,000 points isn't as good as the public offer for 30,000 points. Thanks for using our links!]
I haven t seen this blogged or written about in much detail elsewhere. And it may very well be SINGLE most useful tip which I share this year! I m somewhat embarrassed that it took me this long to find out one of the most useful benefits of Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi Thank You points.
The secret best travel clubs weapon to slashing hundreds of dollars in car rentals is to book car rentals with cash (or you can redeem points) through best travel clubs the Chase Ultimate Rewards , Citi Thank You or Capital One travel portals.
These rates were MUCH lower than any of the other rates which I found. In this post, I will explain how to use the Chase Ultimate Rewards and the Citi Thank You portal since they appear to be run by the same company and have identical terms conditions and appearance.
You can redeem Citi Thank You points for 1 cent per point or Chase Ultimate Rewards points for 1 cent per point or 1.25 cents per point depending on which Chase Ultimate Rewards card you have. Or you can pay cash.
The only difference is in the rental car cancellation policy. Chase Ultimate Rewards has NO cancellation fee for rentals cancelled before 2 days of pick-up, but Citi Thank You portal charges best travel clubs $15 for changes before 2 days of pick-up. Both sites have a fee of 1-day s rental charges if you cancel within 2 days, and no refund for no-shows.
You can access the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to select airlines or hotels, and can redeem Chase Ultimate rewards points for 1.25 cents towards travel with the:
You get access to the Chase Ultimate Rewards best travel clubs travel portal, can redeem Chase Ultimate rewards best travel clubs points for 1 cent (as opposed to 1.25 cents) towards travel, but can t transfer Ultimate Rewards points to select airlines or hotels with the:
Note that Chase Ultimate Rewards does NOT charge a change fee for cancelling a rental car outside of 2 days from pick-up, and you pay 1 day s rental if you cancel within 2 days. However, no-shows get no refund. I also preferred calling Chase Ultimate Rewards to cancel the rental best travel clubs than calling the Citi Thank You folks.
However, Emily and I both have only Citi Thank You Premier cards, so I was unable to see if other Citi Thank You accounts had access to the same great rental car rates. I suspect all Citi Thank You accounts have access to the discounted rental car rates.
Here are more ways to earn Citi Thank You points. Citi Thank You points can be transferred from 1 Thank You point account to another, but they are quirky, so read this post to learn more about losing Citi Thank You points after cancelling a Citi Thank You point credit card.
Note that you will pay a $15 change fee for ANY changes/cancellation best travel clubs to a rental best travel clubs car within 2 days (unlike Chase where you pay nothing for changes). You also pay 1 day s rental charge if you cancel within 2 days. And no-shows get no refund.
I preferred calling Chase Ultimate Rewards to cancel the rental than calling the Citi Thank You folks, because the Citi Thank You folks kept transferring my call whereas the Chase rep cheerfully cancelled my rental!
A) ~6 Days in Tampa - The cheapest rate from the 1st post in the series was $286 for a very restricted reservation from Hotwire. But the rate from the Chase Ultimate Rewards Citi Thank You portals is $156 or a savings of $130!
B) 1 Week Day in New York - The cheapest rate for a car from the 1st post in the series was $117 through Costco Travel. But the rate from the Chase Ultimate Rewards Citi Thank You portal is $46 or a savings of $71!
C) ~1 Week in Maui - The cheapest best travel clubs rate from 1st post in the series was $362 for a very restricted reservation from Hotwire. But the rate from the Chase Ultimate Rewards Citi Thank You portal is $207 or a savings of $155!
However, you can cancel a reservation for FREE (only with Chase Ultimate Rewards Points) up to to 2 days before pick-up by calling 1-866-951-6592. However, you will pay $15 for each change if you use Citi Thank You points.
If you cancel the reservation within 2 days of the pick-up date, for both Citi Thank You Points best travel clubs and Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you have to pay a fine equal to one day s rental best travel clubs cost (which best travel clubs is usually pretty reasonable.)
2. Pay With Cash, Points, or Both. One of the best features of the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal is that you can pay for your rental with a charge to your credit card, points, or a combination of cash and points.
In some cases, you won t get the option to pay for the rental using cash (see image below), but you can always choose best travel clubs to pay with 1 point and charge the balance to your credit card (which is like saving your points and paying with cash!)
3. Earning Miles/Points. I haven t made enough reservations to see if I can add an airline or car rental frequent traveler number and earn miles/points for the reservation. best travel clubs I suspect that I won t be able to earn miles/points for the reservation.
best travel clubs However, you can sometimes earns airline best travel clubs miles for short reservations, like say this offer for 1,500 US Air miles for a 2 day or longer best travel clubs rental (targeted to US Air Preferred members, but works for most). In some cases, best travel clubs particularly for short rentals, it make sense to forgo the lower cash price from the Chase Ultimate best travel clubs Rewards/Citi best travel clubs Thank You portal and earn miles for the rental. But do the math for yourself!
4. Bypassing Airport Rental best travel clubs Car Counters. I m also not sure if you can add your rental car number to the reservation so that you can skip checking in at the rental car counter and go straight to the car. I tried calling Avis to add my number to a reservation, but was told I couldn t do it because the rate would increase best travel clubs if they associated my Avis number with the reservation.
5. Personal Observations. The Chase Ultimate Rewards Citi Thank You portal has beaten best travel clubs other sites 80% to 90% of the time, but this is MY experience. The portals are usually the cheapest site for longer rentals (1 week+) or for rentals during the weekday, but may not always be the best for weekend rentals (where Costco Travel other sites may have the edge ).
In my experience, the Chase Ultimate Rewards Citi Thank You portal often have the lowest price on car rentals. And you can redeem cash , points , or a combination of cash and points for a car rental!
The cancellation and change policy on these car rentals are also MUCH better than the rigid Hotwire best travel clubs policy. The Chase Ultimate Rewards portal doesn t charge for cancellations up to 2-days from pick-up, while the Citi Thank You Portal charges $15 for each change. Both sites have a fee of 1-day s rental charges if you cancel within 2 days, and no refund for no-shows.
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Looks good. I tried a dummy reservation connected with an upcoming trip and the prices here were about 20% lower than anything kayak.com found. Thanks for the tip. It looks like this is a winner when you know confidently that you won t need to make any change within the final two days before a reservation.
There are coupons showing in my car rental section under Special Offers which offer things like a complimentary upgrade, and a free day of GPS use can you use these on top of the already great savings found in this portal (i.e. book a compact car and get a free upgrade to an intermediate car, all while already getting the lowest available price)?
Great story as usual; FYI, United allows you to use miles and money for rental cars and hotels; the miles/points are almost similar to Chase but on occasion I have found some hotels available on United and not on Chase
guera As far as changing the credit card used for rental in the Ultimate Rewards portal I just tried and you have to use the credit card that you linked into the portal with the credit card number pre-filled out cannot best travel clubs be changed. Oh well I rented via the other day via my Sapphire card will have to just hope nothing happens . I needed a full size SUV for 7 days and the price was MUCH cheaper.
My last rental was in Maui $218 for a week, vs $300+ at other rental agencies. Was so much cheaper I worried it was a price glitch. best travel clubs Kept calling best travel clubs UR Travel CS to confirm the rental. Finally stopped being so obsessive and went on faith it worked out just fine! The agency (Dollar) even stayed open past the posted closing time to handle a late-arrival flight I appreciated that.
I should mention that the rental is handled as a tour package rental, best travel clubs eg the only way to confirm it is thru the UR Travel Dept, or the car rental agency itself. The rez does _not_ show up in the rental co s online best travel clubs rez system, so you can t see it online. best travel clubs No worries tho, it worked like a charm.
@seaturtleguy @DaveS @Clare @Tony @Lively @Food Wine and Miles @Wes Glad you found it useful! The trade-off is that you have to cancel within 2 days to avoid fees and that it may take longer to get the car at the airport, but the savings are quite enticing.
@Joe @Acker @Dan - 1-way rentals are tough to get for less, but the best bet could be using rental car points. I ll post about this later, but the Capital One travel portal could be better best travel clubs for 1-way rentals.
@Scott best travel clubs The Citi Thank You portal seems to price out the rentals at the same price as the Ultimate Rewards portal. Ha! I called them a few times as well to
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