Mile Nerd

Reader Mary wrote, “I see lots of info on your blog on airfare and hotels but haven’t seen anything really about car rentals.” Good point, Mary! Car rentals are a little different than hotels/flights, but there are some basic things to keep in mind…

• Join the loyalty program before you pick up your car (ex: Avis Preferred). Yeah, you can earn some points, but skipping lines after a long flight is a better benefit.
• Claim any car rental status you are owed from credit cards. Through my American Express Platinum card, I got National Executive status. 
• Take advantage of status matching. When I received my National Executive status, I emailed Hertz and was instantly bumped up to Five Star membership there.
• Miles/Points – In November, I rented a Cadillac in Maui using a bunch of Hertz points I’d saved up. Besides using hard-to-earn and weird-to-redeem car rental points, there are more “traditional” mile/point options available. You can rent cars using your American Airlines miles, British Airways miles, Citi Thank You points, and Ultimate Rewards points (among others).
• CarRentalSavers – Pretty solid source for rental coupons.
• FatWallet, SlickDeals, & Flyertalk – There are so many sources for coupons and codes, including these.
• Costco Travel – I’ve used it many times. Very simple. Always good for solid deals if you’re a Costco member. Occasionally, you will find spectacular prices.
• Autoslash – I’ve stopped using it, but I know a few are still loyal for some strange reason.
• Priceline – My most common two ways to rent cars are by using codes and by placing Priceline bids. Just remember, if you decide to bid on Priceline, review all fees so you can set your price nice and low. You can find some bid history at BetterBidding.com. 

Last weekend, I saw a movie called “Lone Survivor.” One sentence review…it was surprisingly great. Anyway, I’m going to steal a quote from the film and use it way out of context…

“Anything in life worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation is for cowards.”

Some of you just furrowed your brows. It’s a special breed of people who nod their heads after reading that quote. So where am I going with this? Well, I will now sum up the difference between “regular mile nerds” and “next-level nerds” in 2 traits. These are the only real qualities that separate “small time” from “big time.”

1. Lack of moderation – That quote above is not something you’re born with. It’s a learned behavior that “next-level nerds” have. They hit deals hard. Very hard. Uncomfortably hard, at least for most regular nerds. Whether too lazy or too scared to take chances, regular nerds want to wait for feedback from others. They aren’t comfortable testing the waters on their own. They’re tentative. Look guys, when someone has 10 million miles in an Award Wallet account, it’s not by luck. They’re manufacturing giant amounts of spending…churning credit cards…churning brokerage deals…buying/reselling in big amounts from portal deals…and on and on. Recently, my friend Rick and I were remembering the Months Of Miles promo from 2011. We hit it hard, but not just because of our lack of moderation…
2. Reading the small print – Regular nerds skim everything and aren’t very detail-oriented. They are looking to follow, rather than research. “Next-level nerds” find possible loopholes and then scour the fine print. They become detectives, looking for any possible flaw to their theory. When the Months Of Miles deal hit, Rick and I started drooling. We had already gone through the details. We were looking for limitations, but it turned out the promo was unlimited. A magical thing. That’s why we hit it hard. Because, beyond courage, we had read the small print.