American Express Platinum Card travel benefits

With the Carte de Platine^MD from American Express, I enjoy the following benefits:

• Unlimited complimentary access to Priority Pass lounges for the cardholder AND one guest (the only card to offer this with the Carte de Platine entreprise^MD d’American Express)
• Hotel status at SPG (and therefore Marriott) / Hilton Honors / Radisson Rewards
• Annual credit of $200 for my trips
• Access to the Fine Hotels & Resorts service which can be advantageous as described here
• An improved accrual rate of 1.25 bonus points/dollar across the board
• Various privileged partnerships with companies like …. Hertz.

Not to mention that it’s the card of choice to start a strategy of accumulating hundreds of thousands of Membership Rewards points / Aeroplan miles.

HERTZ benefits with the American Express Platinum Card

But let’s get to the point of this article: the benefits of Hertz. By mentioning the partner code CDP# 705500 in your reservation, you get a preferential rate. Typically, this rate is often the same as that found with memberships like CAA.

However, this time, I was pleasantly surprised by the unbeatable rate offered by Hertz and American Express Platinum.

You benefit from a discount of up to 25%, and this also applies to high-end vehicles. Check out this incredible discount when paying directly for a rental vs. the counter rate for a top-of-the-line vehicle.

The price is almost identical to regular vehicles / SUVs.

Of course, I went through all the usual sites to book a rental car(Auto-Europe being surely one of the most competitive), and I couldn’t find better!

Beyond the rate, there are two other benefits that are not well known: the addition of an extra driver is free AND you have a 4-hour grace period to return your vehicle (only available to American Express Platinum cardholders)! This must be configured when you make your reservation(and not bring the vehicle back 4 hours late!).

That’s fine with us! After two days of driving around New Orleans without a car, we wanted to pick it up on Saturday morning at 8am, but not return it until 12pm on the day we left! This is a benefit to keep in mind so you don’t have to pay for an extra day!

Here is the detailed fare (it includes the 250 US$ fee for the one-way trip we make between New Orleans and Savannah):

Obviously, since I charge the rental fee to my American ExpressCarte de Platine^MDI don’t need to subscribe to the insurances proposed by the rental agency, saving me several hundreds of dollars (look at the daily cost for the different insurances: just the deductible removal for damage & theft costs CA$ 42.58 / day on this vehicle, that is CA$ 596.12 over the 2 weeks! My American Express Platinum card is once again well worth it! ).

Also, pay attention to one thing: the type of vehicles covered (some luxury brands may be declined by your credit card) and the amount of the vehicle covered. Most cards will cover a vehicle with a selling price of up to $65,000 CAD. For the American Express Platinum card, we are talking about CA$85,000!

Thanks to all this, we were able to enjoy a top-of-the-line SUV: Infiniti QX60. This one offers 7 seats, which allowed us to convert it into 5 seats and a very large trunk… which was not too much, believe me (luggage + stroller…).

We had indeed chosen to take our big stroller, the BOB Revolution, since we were going to do a lot of beaches (much more useful in the sand with its real tires!). Convenient to carry in your travel suitcase.

We usually use the Mountain Buggy Nano stroller which has the great advantage of being able to be taken in the cabin!

Bottom line

First time I used Hertz services with my American Express Platinum card, and I must admit that I was completely satisfied! To be repeated… if the rates remain as competitive!