What’s the Hertz President’s Circle benefit on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card?

Complimentary Hertz President’s Circle status is a neat benefit to have on a credit card like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. It is a status that will save you all the hassle of Hertz’s notoriously bad customer service while still getting that cheap rental car.

It can be great for folks who don’t enjoy air travel or would just prefer a shorter distance vacay. I’ve noticed that renting a car is especially popular for my friends who live in major cities and don’t own a car. They usually are just looking for a little weekend getaway outside of the city.

How do you activate the Hertz President’s Circle on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card?

Once you have your Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, you need to sign into your Capital One account online or on Capital One’s mobile app. You will then select the Explore rewards and benefits tile. Afterwards, you choose your card account and follow the prompts. Finally, you submit your request and you’ll receive the President’s Circle status in 24-72 hours.

And a reminder to enroll for this President’s Circle status benefit on Capital One and not Hertz.

What do you get with the Hertz President’s Circle benefit?

Folks who have the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card have amazing benefits with the Hertz President’s Circle:

• Freedom to choose your ride: Get access to the widest variety of available vehicles through the Gold Plus Rewards program.
• Complimentary guaranteed upgrades: Enjoy one free car-class upgrade, with upgrades available up to a full-size vehicle.
• Exclusive support line: You can reach a dedicated customer service agent through the President’s Circle call center for member-specific rental assistance.
• Top-tier earning rate: Earn 1.5 Hertz Points for every dollar spent on Hertz car rentals

What’s an experience with Hertz President’s Circle like?

I of course wouldn’t talk about Hertz President’s Circle benefit without mentioning my experience. When I headed to the Hertz store to check out my rental car, my name was on the board so I could easily get my car.

The Ultimate Choice benefit let me pick any car available in the designated parking lot. It's important to also note that you can only get Ultimate Choice benefits when booking the correct fare class of car; that is to say, if you book an economy car, you won't get Ultimate Choice benefits.

You can also add a free driver as long as they live in the same household as you (fine print is that they need to be a partner).

What credit cards have the Hertz President’s Circle benefit?

There are a bunch of credit cards that have the Hertz President’s Circle status benefit. To name a few:

• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
• American Express Platinum Card®
• Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®
• Emirates Skywards Premium World Elite Mastercard®
• Emirates Skywards Rewards World Elite Mastercard®
• Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard®
• Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard®

The Hertz President’s Circle status on all of these cards is a nice added benefit. But remember that it doesn’t mean you should get any of these cards just for the status—President Circle's is a nice to have, not a must have status.

And by the way the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has a fantastic welcome offer going on right now.

How does Hertz stack up to other rental car companies?

To explain how Hertz operates, I want to talk about my experience with Hertz before I had the Hertz President’s Circle benefit.

Before I talk about my really bad experience with Hertz, I want to say that I’ve had 3-4 rentals where I had no problems.

So for this particularly disastrous rental, I went on Hertz’s website and reserved a car using my AAA membership which got me 20% off. Hertz already has arguably the best prices out there so it was quite the deal. When the day came to rent the car, Hertz called me and informed me that they did not have a car for me. I asked when one would be available and they couldn’t give me a specific answer besides late morning or early afternoon.

It’s important to note that Hertz does NOT guarantee a car when you book (part of the reason their cars are so cheap). Anyways, I was kind of in panic mode. I needed the car ASAP and wasn’t sure what to do. I decided to call around to some other Hertz stores to see what they had available.

I went to a store near my house (what a mess). I had talked to someone over the phone and they gave me a rate for a Tesla. The associate in person when I arrived was nice and was about to give me the keys. But then when the manager overheard that my sister was 21, she said they couldn’t give me the car since Teslas were for folks over 25. Wish they had told me that beforehand. It was time to try another Hertz.

This next store that I had called had a car available—an electric KIA SUV. I figured it would do the job. Little did I know that the battery was half full. So I decided to charge it after I got the keys. The issue is that KIA electric cars can’t charge at Tesla superchargers. And the chargers that you could charge at were slow. When I say slow, I’m saying that it took 3-4 hours to fully charge the car from an empty battery. By the way it was wintertime which only increased the time to charge the battery.

Hertz is widely regarded as the cheapest rental car company but also the one with the WORST customer service. While President's Circle doesn't necessarily guarantee anything here, I feel like it could have helped improve my overall experience here.

Personally, I’ll always choose Hertz because I’m a cheap bastard and have had mostly good experiences. I would much rather pay $100 for a 3 day rental with Hertz than $300 for the same rental with a company like Enterprise (a very well-respected rental car company).

Final Remarks

Hertz President’s Circle status can definitely save you 99% of the customer service hassle that usually goes on with Hertz as a company. Basically as long as there is a car on the lot, you’re all set.

I wouldn’t say that you should get the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card simply for the Hertz President’s Circle status but it’s definitely a nice benefit that comes with the card. If you find yourself traveling a lot where you need to rent a car, this could be incredibly valuable.