Click here to view a list of cards that come with Hertz President’s Circle status.
Amex Platinum Hertz benefits are one of the rare premium card perks you actually feel in the moment, standing in a parking garage at eleven at night, walking past a line of forty people to pick your own car off a row and drive off. No counter. No upsell pitch. No twenty minutes of someone explaining why you need their insurance.
The Platinum Card from American Express is one of the few premium travel cards that hands you top-tier rental car elite status outright, without renting a single car first. Normally Hertz President’s Circle takes fifteen qualifying rentals or three thousand dollars of spending in a calendar year. With an eligible Amex card you skip straight to it.
There is a catch this year, and it is a real one. American Express is requiring cardholders who already enrolled to enroll all over again, and the deadline is December 31, 2026. If you activated this benefit two years ago and forgot about it, which is exactly what most people did, you are on the clock.
Here is everything the benefit actually includes, what the re-enrollment involves, and where it may fall short.
What Amex Platinum Hertz Benefits Actually Include
There are three separate things bundled under the Car Rental Privileges section of your Amex account, and people conflate them constantly.
The first is elite status. Eligible Platinum cardholders get complimentary Hertz Gold Plus Rewards President’s Circle, the top published tier of the program.
The second is a corporate discount rate. Amex has a negotiated rate code with Hertz that attaches to your Hertz profile when you enroll. It carries a discount off standard rates and, more valuably, a four hour grace period on returns.
The third is rental car insurance, which is not really a Hertz benefit at all but gets lumped in because it is the other thing your card does at a rental counter. Your Platinum card includes secondary coverage automatically. Primary coverage costs extra and is not included at any annual fee, which surprises people paying $895 a year.
Those three are separate systems with separate enrollment. Status can be active while the discount code has fallen off your profile, which is precisely what the re-enrollment is about.
The December 31, 2026 Re-Enrollment Deadline
American Express began emailing eligible cardholders around July 13, 2026, telling them that a new enrollment experience for the Hertz status benefit requires everyone to re-enroll, even people who enrolled years ago and have had the benefit working fine ever since.
The email states that if you do not complete enrollment by December 31, 2026, Hertz may remove your access to the American Express Customer Discount Program from your Hertz Gold Plus profile, and you may lose access to President’s Circle status. It also says you can restore the status afterward by completing the enrollment process.
So this is not a devaluation. Nothing about the benefit is getting worse. It is an administrative reset, and the only real risk is inertia. The failure case is not losing the perk permanently, it is showing up in Denver in October, walking to the President’s Circle aisle out of habit, and finding out you are back to being a regular Gold member with a Nissan Versa reserved.
One more wrinkle worth knowing. Some cardholders report a status expiration date of January 1, 2027 showing in their Hertz account. If that is what you see, your existing status holds until that date regardless of when you re-link. Re-enrolling now simply carries it forward. This detail comes from cardholder reports rather than an Amex statement, so treat it as a reasonable read rather than a guarantee.
How To Activate And Link Your Amex Platinum Hertz Benefit
The process is the same whether you are enrolling for the first time or re-enrolling, and it takes about two minutes when it works.
Log in at americanexpress.com and go to the Benefits section of your account. Find the Car Rental Privileges tile and select Learn More. Choose Enroll Now, enter your Hertz Gold Plus Rewards number, and accept the terms.
Amex says to allow up to 72 hours for the enrollment to process and that you will get a confirmation when it is done. That processing window is the entire argument for doing this now rather than the week of a trip. Re-linking the night before a rental and hoping it clears in time is how you end up at the counter with none of it working.
If you are not already a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards member, join first at hertz.com. It is free, and you need the membership number before Amex will link anything.
When Enrollment Fails And How To Fix It
This is where the new enrollment experience has been rough, and it is worth knowing before you start so you do not assume you did something wrong.
The most commonly reported failure is an email mismatch. If the email address on your Amex account and the one on your Hertz Gold Plus profile are different, the link gets rejected. Cardholders who changed the email on their Hertz account to match Amex, re-ran the enrollment, and then switched the Hertz email back afterward have reported that working. That is a workaround from user reports, not an Amex-sanctioned procedure, so your mileage genuinely may vary.
The second is a name mismatch. Several people were rejected over first and last name differences that turned out to be middle name or middle initial discrepancies between the two profiles. Amex directs you to contact Hertz for these, which is its own adventure.
The third is a card selector bug. At least one cardholder reported that clicking Enroll Now flipped their active card to a closed account, returned an ineligibility error, and then bounced them back to the main benefits page when they switched back. If this happens to you repeatedly, it is not user error. Try from a different browser or the Amex app, and if it persists, call the number on the back of your card.
Give yourself the 72 hour buffer either way.
Which American Express Cards Qualify For Hertz President’s Circle
President’s Circle through Amex is not limited to the standard Platinum. Six cards carry it, including two Delta products that most people do not realize are eligible:
- The Platinum Card from American Express
- The Business Platinum Card from American Express
- The Platinum Card from American Express for Schwab
- The Platinum Card from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley
- Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express Card
- Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business American Express Card
Centurion cardholders also receive President’s Circle, though that is sourced from third-party coverage rather than an Amex page. If you have a Centurion card, you have a relationship manager who can answer this in about four seconds.
What Hertz President’s Circle Status Gets You At The Counter
Elite status with rental car companies is mostly hype. This one is not, and the reason is specific.
The headline perk is a guaranteed one-car-class upgrade at participating locations. Not space available, not if the manager is in a good mood. Guaranteed, subject to availability at that location, which in practice means you reserve a midsize and drive off in a full size or a small SUV most of the time.
You also get access to the President’s Circle section at Hertz Ultimate Choice locations, which is the aisle with the better cars in it. The gap between the Gold aisle and the President’s Circle aisle at a busy airport is the difference between a beige sedan with 40,000 miles and something you would not be embarrassed to park at a hotel.
Beyond that, President’s Circle carries a 50 percent bonus on points earned from qualifying rentals, guaranteed vehicle availability, a dedicated customer service line, and a free additional driver for a spouse or domestic partner at participating locations. The counter skip and the free additional driver are technically lower-tier Gold Plus perks, but you get them too.
The honest read: the upgrade and the aisle access are the real value. The points bonus is nice and the dedicated phone line matters exactly once, on the day something goes badly wrong.
The Four Hour Grace Period And What It Is Worth
This is the most underrated part of the whole package and the one that produces actual dollars.
Rental car pricing works on 24 hour blocks. Pick up at 10am Friday, return at 2pm Monday, and most companies bill you for four days even though you had the car for three days and four hours. That fourth day can cost as much as the previous three combined at airport rates.
The Amex corporate rate includes a four hour no-charge grace period before an extra day charge applies. In the United States, Canada, Latin America, corporate Europe, and much of the Middle East, that means a three day and four hour rental prices as three days. The Middle East carves out the UAE and Bahrain at two hours, and Asia outside China runs two hours as well.
The critical mechanic: this has to be built into the reservation at booking. You cannot return the car four hours late and argue about it afterward. The rate has to be priced with the grace period included from the start.
On the discount code itself. The Amex Corporate Discount Program code will attach automatically to your Hertz account once you complete enrollment through Amex.
The discount percentage is slippery. Reported figures range from around 15 percent up through 25 percent, with some travelers claiming considerably more on specific bookings. Nobody publishes a fixed number because there is not one. It varies by location, vehicle class, and rate type. Price your rental both ways and see.
How To Maximize Points On A Hertz Rental
The rental itself is not a bonus category on the Platinum card, so you are earning the base rate on the charge. That is fine. The stacking happens elsewhere.
Start with the President’s Circle points bonus. The 50 percent uplift applies to points you earn on qualifying rentals, which is a straightforward multiplier on whatever the base earn works out to for your booking.
Then check Amex Offers before you book. Hertz shows up there periodically with statement credit or bonus points offers, and they are card-specific, so check every eligible card in your account rather than assuming.
Shopping portals are the third layer. Both Rakuten and the Rove Miles portal carry car rental merchants at varying rates, and portal rates move constantly enough that any number I printed here would be wrong within a month. Check both before booking and take the better one.
Amex Rental Car Insurance Versus Premium Car Rental Protection
This is where the $895 annual fee does not buy you what people assume it does.
Your Platinum card includes car rental loss and damage coverage automatically, and that coverage is secondary. Secondary means you file with your personal auto insurer first, pay your deductible, wait for them to settle, and Amex covers what is left. Your policy takes the claim. Your premium may go up. The Platinum gives you the same tier here that a no-annual-fee Amex card does.
Primary coverage exists, but you buy it separately. Premium Car Rental Protection is a flat fee per rental period rather than a daily charge, it pays first with no personal claim filed and no deductible, and it comes in two levels.
Premium Car Rental Protection: Basic vs Plus
Optional primary coverage, billed as one flat fee per rental period. Figures from the American Express plan terms.
| Coverage | Basic | Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Price per rental | $19.95FL $12.25 CA $15.95 | $24.95FL $15.25 CA $17.95 |
| Primary damage and theft | Up to $75,000 | Up to $100,000 |
| Accidental death or dismemberment | Up to $75,000CA $150,000 | Up to $100,000CA $250,000 |
| AD or D per passenger | Up to $7,500CA $150,000 | Up to $10,000FL $40,000 CA $250,000 |
| Secondary medical per person | Up to $7,500 | Up to $15,000 |
| Combined medical and AD or D max | Up to $200,000CA $350,000 | Up to $300,000CA $500,000 |
| Personal property per person | Up to $2,500$5,000 max | Up to $5,000$10,000 max |
| Max rental length | 42 days30 in WA | 42 days30 in WA |
Neither level includes liability, uninsured or underinsured motorist, personal injury protection, or disability coverage. Not available to New Hampshire residents or in the US territories. Coverage is worldwide except for vehicles rented in Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, and New Zealand. Once a card is enrolled, the fee bills automatically on every eligible rental until you cancel. Enroll or cancel at 1-800-228-6855.
The details that matter beyond the price. Coverage runs up to 42 consecutive days per rental period, dropping to 30 days for Washington State residents. It is not available to New Hampshire residents or in the US territories. Coverage is worldwide with six exceptions: vehicles rented in Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, and New Zealand are not covered, which is a genuinely important carve-out if Ireland or Italy is on your itinerary.
It also does not include liability, uninsured or underinsured motorist, personal injury protection, or disability coverage. This covers the car, not the other car.
Once you enroll a card, the fee bills automatically every time you pay for an eligible rental with it, until you cancel enrollment. Additional cards on the account get enrolled automatically. You enroll or cancel online or by phone at 1-800-228-6855.
The math is simple. If you carry full coverage with a low deductible on a personal policy and rent twice a year, secondary coverage is probably fine. If you rent frequently, do not own a car, or have a high deductible, $19.95 to skip a claim on your own policy is one of the better deals in this entire benefit stack.
Hertz Versus Avis And National On The Platinum Card
Hertz is not the only rental status in the Car Rental Privileges section, and picking correctly by trip matters more than loyalty to one brand.
Hertz vs Avis vs National On The Platinum Card
All three are free with the Platinum Card and each requires its own enrollment in the Car Rental Privileges section.
| Feature | Hertz | Avis | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status granted | President’s Circle | Preferred | Emerald Club Executive |
| Top tier of program | Yes | No | No |
| Guaranteed class upgrade | Yes | Varies | Aisle choice |
| Skip the counter | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Amex discount rate code | Yes | Varies | Varies |
| 4 hour return grace period | Yes | No | No |
| Free additional driver | Spouse or partner | Varies | Varies |
| 2026 re-enrollment required | Yes | Not announced | Not announced |
Avis status is listed as Preferred in most current coverage, though some sources describe it as Preferred Plus. Avis and National benefit details vary by location and are less consistently documented than the Hertz benefit. Confirm the specifics for each in the Car Rental Privileges section of your own Amex account. Only the Hertz benefit has an announced re-enrollment requirement as of this writing.
The short version: Hertz has the most complete package because of the discount code and the grace period, which the others do not match. National tends to win on consistency of the counter-skip experience and the Emerald Aisle, where you choose any car in the row rather than being assigned one. Avis is the fallback when the other two are sold out or badly priced at your airport.
Enroll in all three. They cost nothing and they are separate enrollments in the same section of your Amex account.
Click here to view a list of cards that come with Hertz President’s Circle status.
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