That's a good overview, but they left out car rental elite status which can be a big one! Amex Platinum discounts on car rentals have been better for me than any others I've tried (by at least $50-100 per rental) and I've been getting German luxury sedans for Kia prices.
Go to the Membership - Benefits tab in your online account and you'll see links for everything. Also if you plan to add an authorized user (or 3 for the same price), it's best to wait until you get a targeted offer of Membership Rewards points for doing so.
@iced wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:That's a good overview, but they left out car rental elite status which can be a big one! Amex Platinum discounts on car rentals have been better for me than any others I've tried (by at least $50-100 per rental) and I've been getting German luxury sedans for Kia prices.
Go to the Membership - Benefits tab in your online account and you'll see links for everything. Also if you plan to add an authorized user (or 3 for the same price), it's best to wait until you get a targeted offer of Membership Rewards points for doing so.
I'd like to hear more about these discounts. While I don't have the Platinum, I do have or have had Emerald Club (National), President's Circle (Hertz), and President's Club (Avis) and have never once received a BMW/Audi/Mercedes for the intermediate/mid-size price (where a Kia would be) so I know this isn't due to status.
The National Emerald Club Executive also carries over to Enterprise; I got a BMW 328i last year at SFO by reserving a "Luxury" car for the mid-size price. I have a confirmed Mercedes-Benz C300 (P4 car type) at ORD next month through Hertz (Gold Plus, not President's Circle unfortunately). I haven't tested out Avis yet (Preferred status, not President's Club). On the Car Rental Privileges page of the Amex Platinum membership benefits there are coupon codes, plus when you tie the card to your accounts with those rental companies there is a corporate discount code tied to booking with the Amex Platinum that results in certain discounts and pricing options.
@iced wrote:Bear with me for a few more questions.
The SFO rental I'll chalk up to a lucky hit, particularly being SFO where things are already elite-heavy.
For the ORD rental, how are you seeing exactly what car you're getting that far in advance? When I book a mid-size, I find out what car I'm getting via text when I land and my name's up on the board (at most places, some smaller airports I'm still visiting a counter to get keys). Did you book this as a mid-size and they instant-upgraded you months in advance, or was this a Prestige rental from the beginning? I don't know how else 5-Star is getting a P4 a month in advance on a mid-size booking when PC doesn't.
Corp rates make sense; I suspect they're the same corp rates I'm seeing through employer since they book through American Express Travel. I imagine they're using the combined purchasing to leverage discounts for both corporations and Platinum holders, and my experience has been corp discounts are pretty much on par with each other within that channel. They're not significant, maybe 30% or so. I still pay $250ish per week for a mid-size, though I'll often get a full-size or a SUV (though if they put me in a SUV I go to the counter to go back to a sedan).
No problem at all answering the questions! It reminds me of another reason why the Platinum card (and AU fee) pays for itself even if I don't really put that much spend on it (Amex Offers, rare rentals, and airfare). At SFO, I had a Luxury class reservation (which was priced the same as mid-size due to the Amex corporate code and Amex coupon code. When I landed, my options were a number of Cadillac XTS and a duet of BMW 328i, so I chose one of the BMWs. As for the ORD rental, yes it was a Prestige rental when I booked it back in January.
I think the difference here is that these are special rates on the reservation itself, not upgrades due to status at the time of rental. So for instance, it might have $250/week for a midsize, $350/week for a full-size, $475/week for a SUV, $250/week for luxury, or $250/week for Prestige as the options when booking. FWIW the same Amex discounts have me in an Intermediate for 5 days in Cancun for $47, which is less than a round-trip cab from the airport to the hotel for the 4 of us. I tested other corporate codes from elite status elsewhere (and a few "found" codes) and the Amex Platinum corporate was always noticably cheaper.