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TPG reader Heather sent me a message on Facebook to ask about rental cars:
Booking through the Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal is probably your best bet. As a Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholder, you’ll get 1.25 cents per point toward travel expenses. That redemption value is below average, but I’ve found that Chase often has excellent rental car rates, so at least the low value isn’t compounded by inflated prices. Furthermore, you’ll still be still eligible for the primary rental insurance offered by Sapphire Preferred, so long as you redeem points specifically from that account.
United lets you book rental cars directly using MileagePlus miles, but the rates are terrible. For example, a four-day rental in San Francisco over Fourth of July weekend prices out at 33,550 miles (or higher if you want to actually pick your own car). By comparison, Priceline has cars for the same dates starting from $210 total. That works out to a redemption value of roughly 0.6 cents per point, which is just tragic.
Southwest doesn’t let you redeem points directly for rental cars; however, you can redeem for vouchers from National, Alamo, Budget, Hertz and Avis at a rate of 1 cent per point. Not only is that a poor redemption value, but also those vouchers come with restrictions and may be subject to expiration. In my opinion, you’d be better off paying cash.
There are some other good options. You can get decent value by booking rental cars through the ThankYou Travel Center if you have the Citi ThankYou Premier Card. You won’t get the benefit of primary insurance like you do with Sapphire Preferred, but you’ll get 1.25 cents per point, and Citi offers comparable rates on rental cars. I value Ultimate Rewards points highly, so I’d rather spend ThankYou points if all else is equal.
Another good option would be to redeem fixed-value rewards like Barclaycard Arrival miles or Capital One Venture miles. You’ll get a lower redemption rate of 1 cent per mile, but that’s the best you can do with those rewards anyway. Again, you won’t be eligible for the Sapphire Preferred insurance, but you’ll earn rewards for charging the rental cost to whichever card you use.
For more on maximizing car rentals and Ultimate Rewards points, check out these posts:
If you have any other questions, please tweet me @thepointsguy, message me on Facebook or send me an email at info@thepointsguy.com.
Source: thepointsguy.com