How do I save money on booking car rentals?

When it comes to booking your next vacation, you may or may not need a car to get around depending on where you’re going. When I traveled to Europe with my family and my friends, I didn’t need a car to get around thanks to the extensive coverage and availability of public transportation around Europe.

Whenever I travel to a destination with ample public transportation options available, I try to stick to relying on public transportation as it will most likely be cheaper to rely on trains and buses to get around for the duration of my trip rather than renting a car.

This upcoming January, my family and I are planning to travel to Hawaii. We will be traveling to two islands: O’ahu and Maui. O’ahu is known for having the best public transportation options among the Hawaiian islands, as the island has a bus system and a light rail metro system, mainly concentrated in the Hawaiian capital city of Honolulu.

While you could rely on public transportation to simply get around Honolulu, it becomes more difficult if you want to venture to different parts of the island, such as if you want to surfing at beaches with big waves on the North Shore. Additionally, while Maui has a bus system that serves major areas on the island, my family plans on venturing to Hana and the summit of Haleakala, which are both not served by public transportation options.

Therefore, my family decided it was necessary to rent a car for the entire duration of our trip in Hawaii. Having your own car allows for convenience and free will of transportation by the means of your own schedule, which is very valuable when you’re trying to relax and enjoy a laid-back vacation.

Booking Directly with a Car Agency

The first and main option that usually comes to mind when booking a car is to book directly with a car agency through their website. My family and I are traditionally Hertz loyalists, as our American Express Platinum Card® grants us complimentary Hertz Gold Plus Rewards President’s Circle status, which typically requires completing 15 rentals or spending at least $3,000 in a calendar year on car rentals to be eligible for the status.

President’s Circle is Hertz’s top-tier status, coming with a plethora of benefits and perks that elevate your car rental experience. Some of these perks include, but are not limited to:

• Guaranteed upgrades: You’re eligible for a guaranteed one-class car upgrade, depending on the Hertz location you’re renting from has your upgraded car in stock.

• Bonus points: You’ll earn 50% more Hertz points for every dollar you spend on car rentals.

• Widest Ultimate Choice availability: If you’re renting your car from a Hertz location with an Ultimate Choice lot, you’ll have the best access to the widest selection of cars in the lot.

• Dedicated phone line: Whenever you need assistance, you can access a direct phone line for President’s Circle members only.

If you’d like to read more about the Hertz President’s Circle status and the benefits it provides, we have a whole article written here about the loyalty program.

On top of having Hertz President’s Circle, my family also enjoys the benefits of having a AAA membership. If you have a valid AAA membership, you can enjoy a discounted rate when renting cars from Hertz. This rate has helped us save hundreds of dollars over all of the car rentals we have booked, and is a massively underrated perk.

If you have a AAA membership, you can apply the discounted rate by visiting the Hertz website at https://www.hertz.com/us/en/deals-and-offers/aaa-deals and entering your zip code and details to confirm your membership at your regional AAA club.

For my family’s Hawaii trip, we will be in O’ahu for 4 days and Maui for 3 days. Since you can’t easily transport cars between the Hawaiian islands, my family needed to split our car rentals for the trip into two reservations, one from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) in O’ahu and the other from Kahului Airport (OGG) in Maui.

Booking our car rental for Honolulu directly with Hertz would cost $312.63 for a fullsize sedan with our AAA rate applied. Additionally, our free President Circle’s upgrade isn’t accounted for in the booking, meaning that we could get an SUV depending on availability when we pick up the car in Honolulu.

While it would be about $20 cheaper to pay for the car now instead of paying at pick-up, we would be forfeiting free canclellation up to the pick-up time, which is a major disadvantage. Since my family prefers flexibility and the ability to change our reservation if anything comes up, we are willing to pay the extra money to pay later and enjoy flexible changes/cancellations.

For our car rental in Maui, booking directly with Hertz using our AAA rate would cost $384.25 for an intermediate SUV. Since we plan on driving up the summit of Haleakala volcano, as well as the winds and twists of the road to Hana, we wanted to invest in a SUV as SUVs are better-built for driving in off-roading conditions.

If we were to pay with cash directly with Hertz, my family’s car rentals for our week-long Hawaii trip would cost nearly $700. Unfortunately, this is quite expensive. We started considering other options on how we could save money, but we didn’t want to rent with another car rental agency besides Hertz since we didn’t want to give up our President’s Circle benefits.

Suddenly, I remembered that you can book car rentals through certain credit card portals, most notably Chase Travel℠.

Booking Through Chase Travel℠

One of the major benefits of using Chase’s travel portal is that you can use your Chase points to save money on any booking, whether for a flight, hotel, or a car rental. Additionally, you may be able to access better prices than what is publicly available by booking through Chase Travel℠.

When I looked for our Honolulu car rental through Chase Travel℠, I noticed that I could book the same full-size sedan car we wanted for just $278.05, compared to Hertz’s AAA rate of $312.63. Additionally, we would still be able to enjoy free cancellation up to the time of pick-up. However, the best benefit of using Chase Travel℠ is that we were able to apply our Chase Sapphire Reserve® points at the 1.5x rate we earned them for so we wouldn’t need to spend any money out-of-pocket for the car rental.

For our Maui car rental, we could book the intermediate SUV for $326.85, compared to Hertz’s AAA rate of $384.25. If my family were to pay for both of the car rentals out-of-pocket when booking through Chase Travel℠, we would save almost $100 since booking through Chase Travel℠ allowed us to enjoy cheaper rates than if we were to book directly with Hertz.

When redeeming our Chase Sapphire Reserve® points at a 1.5x rate, which is only possible for points earned prior to October 26, 2025, we were able to use about 40,000 points to save all the money we would’ve shelled out of our wallets to pay for the car rentals.

However, you might be wondering, “Would you lose your President’s Circle benefits since you booked with Chase Travel℠ rather than directly with Hertz?” Luckily, since Chase Travel℠ provides you with the reservation numbers after booking, we were able to link our reservations to our Hertz account, meaning that we’ll enjoy the lower Chase Travel℠ rate, free cancellation, and we’ll still be able to enjoy all of our President’s Circle perks.

Final Remarks

Renting a car can feel overwhelming, especially when prices surge and every agency seems to offer a slightly different rate. But as my family’s Hawaii trip planning showed, a little bit of strategy can go a long way. By comparing direct booking rates with loyalty-based discounts (like Hertz President’s Circle and AAA) and checking credit card travel portals such as Chase Travel℠, we uncovered meaningful savings without giving up flexibility or elite benefits.

Even better, being able to link Chase Travel℠ reservations to our Hertz account meant we still enjoyed all of our President’s Circle perks, including guaranteed upgrades, bonus points, and preferred vehicle selection, while paying significantly less out of pocket.

At the end of the day, booking a car rental doesn’t need to be a “pick one” scenario between cost and convenience. With the right mix of loyalty programs, travel portal pricing, and flexible award redemptions, you really can get the best of both worlds. If you’re planning an upcoming trip, whether to Hawaii or anywhere else, it’s worth taking a few extra minutes to compare your options. The savings can be well worth it.