[Disclosure: Emily and I get a referral for the links to the cards in this post, except for the Citi Thank You Premier where our link for 25,000 points isn't as good as the public offer for 30,000 points. Thanks for using our links!]
I haven’t seen this blogged or written about in much detail elsewhere. And it may very well be SINGLE most useful tip which I share this year! I’m somewhat embarrassed that it took me this long to find out one of the most useful benefits of Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi Thank You points.
The secret weapon to slashing hundreds of dollars in car rentals is to book car rentals with cash (or you can redeem points) through the Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You or Capital One travel portals.
The Keys to Cheaper Rentals
These rates were MUCH lower than any of the other rates which I found. In this post, I will explain how to use the Chase Ultimate Rewards and the Citi Thank You portal since they appear to be run by the same company and have identical terms & conditions and appearance.
You can redeem Citi Thank You points for 1 cent per point or Chase Ultimate Rewards points for 1 cent per point or 1.25 cents per point depending on which Chase Ultimate Rewards card you have. Or you can pay cash.
The only difference is in the rental car cancellation policy. Chase Ultimate Rewards has NO cancellation fee for rentals cancelled before 2 days of pick-up, but Citi Thank You portal charges $15 for changes before 2 days of pick-up. Both sites have a fee of 1-day’s rental charges if you cancel within 2 days, and no refund for no-shows.
~6 Days Rental in Tampa | ~1 Day Rental in New York (La Guardia) | ~7 Days Rental in Maui | Cancellation Policy |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotwire | $286 | $131 | -$362 Economy Sedan -$487 SUV | VERY Restrictive. No refunds, cancellations or modifications after booking. |
| Costco Travel | $330 | $117 | - $401 Sedan - $386 SUV | Can cancel, change, or no-show with no penalty |
| Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal | $156 | $46 | $207 | Can cancel/change for free within 2 days of pick-up. 1 day car rental penalty for cancellations within 2 days. No refund for no-shows. |
| Citi Thank You Portal | $156 | $46 | $207 | Can cancel/change for $15 within 2 days of pick-up. 1 day car rental penalty for cancellations within 2 days. No refund for no-shows. |
| Winner | Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You Points | Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You Points | Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You Points |
Rentals from BOTH the Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi Thank You portal were the same cash price in my tests!
Cheap Car Rentals Series:
- Part 1 – Finding The MOST You Should Pay With Hotwire & Costco Travel
- Part 2 – Save Hundreds of Dollars by Using the Chase Ultimate Rewards or Citi Thank You Portal!
- Southwest Airlines’ Car Rentals
- How to Use Capital One Miles/Points For Cheap Rentals
- Using Airline Miles for Car Rentals
- Part 6 – riceline’s “Name Your Own Price”
- Part 5 – National Car Rental’s “Last Minute Specials”
- Let Autoslash Do The Work
- Using Hertz Coupons & Discounts
- Using Airline Discount Codes & Earning Miles for Rentals
Chase Ultimate Rewards
In short, you get access to the Ultimate Rewards portal and their terrific rental car deals with any Chase Ultimate Rewards point card.
You can access the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to select airlines or hotels, and can redeem Chase Ultimate rewards points for 1.25 cents towards travel with the:
You get access to the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, can redeem Chase Ultimate rewards points for 1 cent (as opposed to 1.25 cents) towards travel, but can’t transfer Ultimate Rewards points to select airlines or hotels with the:
These cards also have NO annual fee, so they could be worth keeping just for access to the cheap rental deals!
I verified that the cash price for the car rental was the same whether you used a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Freedom, Chase Ink Bold or a Chase Ink Plus.
Note that Chase Ultimate Rewards does NOT charge a change fee for cancelling a rental car outside of 2 days from pick-up, and you pay 1 day’s rental if you cancel within 2 days. However, no-shows get no refund. I also preferred calling Chase Ultimate Rewards to cancel the rental than calling the Citi Thank You folks.
How to access The Ultimate Rewards Portal:
Step 1. Log in to the Ultimate Rewards portal
Step 2. Click on “Travel” in the top menu bar, and then click on “Flights, Hotels, & Car Rentals”
Logging Into The Ultimate Rewards Portal
Step 3. Search for your car rental.
CITI THANK YOU POINTS
In short, you get access to the Ultimate Rewards portal and their terrific rental car deals with any credit card, bank account, or other Citi product which earns Thank You points.
However, Emily and I both have only Citi Thank You Premier cards, so I was unable to see if other Citi Thank You accounts had access to the same great rental car rates. I suspect all Citi Thank You accounts have access to the discounted rental car rates.
Here’s a list of current Citi credit cards which earn Thank You points:
Here are more ways to earn Citi Thank You points. Citi Thank You points can be transferred from 1 Thank You point account to another, but they are quirky, so read this post to learn more about losing Citi Thank You points after cancelling a Citi Thank You point credit card.
It could be worth it to have a fee-free Citi Thank You card (Citi Forward and Preferred have no annual fee) just for access to the cheap rental deals!
How to access The Thank You Portal:
Step 1. Log in to the Thank You portal
Step 2. Click on “Book Travel” in the top menu bar, and then click on “Cars” under the “Travel Center”
Logging Into The Thank You Portal
Step 3. Search for your car rental.
Note that you will pay a $15 change fee for ANY changes/cancellation to a rental car within 2 days (unlike Chase where you pay nothing for changes). You also pay 1 day’s rental charge if you cancel within 2 days. And no-shows get no refund.
I preferred calling Chase Ultimate Rewards to cancel the rental than calling the Citi Thank You folks, because the Citi Thank You folks kept transferring my call whereas the Chase rep cheerfully cancelled my rental!
Price Comparisons
[Note that price comparisons between rental agencies were made on the same day, but posted later.]
A) ~6 Days in Tampa - The cheapest rate from the 1st post in the series was $286 for a very restricted reservation from Hotwire. But the rate from the Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You portals is $156 or a savings of $130!
The Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You portals save 45% off the Hotwire rate with MORE flexibility for cancellations!
Saving 45% of Hotwire With Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You Points
B) 1 Week Day in New York - The cheapest rate for a car from the 1st post in the series was $117 through Costco Travel. But the rate from the Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You portal is $46 or a savings of $71!
The Chase Ultimate & Citi Thank You portals save 60% off the Costco Travel rate with almost as much flexibility!
Saving 60% With Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You Points
C) ~1 Week in Maui - The cheapest rate from 1st post in the series was $362 for a very restricted reservation from Hotwire. But the rate from the Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You portal is $207 or a savings of $155!
The Chase Ultimate & Citi Thank You portal saves 43% off the Hotwire rate with MORE flexibility for cancellations!
Saving 60% With Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You Points
Using Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You Points for Car Rentals
1. Restrictions and Refunds. The Chase Ultimate Reward & Citi Thank You portal do NOT let you book 1-way car rentals.
However, you can cancel a reservation for FREE (only with Chase Ultimate Rewards Points) up to to 2 days before pick-up by calling 1-866-951-6592. However, you will pay $15 for each change if you use Citi Thank You points.
If you cancel the reservation within 2 days of the pick-up date, for both Citi Thank You Points and Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you have to pay a fine equal to one day’s rental cost (which is usually pretty reasonable.)
You don’t get ANY refund if you no-show and don’t pick up your car. So always cancel your reservation if you don’t plan on renting the car.
2. Pay With Cash, Points, or Both. One of the best features of the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal is that you can pay for your rental with a charge to your credit card, points, or a combination of cash and points.
Pay With Cash or Points
In some cases, you won’t get the option to pay for the rental using cash (see image below), but you can always choose to pay with 1 point and charge the balance to your credit card (which is like saving your points and paying with cash!)
You Can Even Pay With 1 point!
3. Earning Miles/Points. I haven’t made enough reservations to see if I can add an airline or car rental frequent traveler number and earn miles/points for the reservation. I suspect that I won’t be able to earn miles/points for the reservation.
However, you can sometimes earns airline miles for short reservations, like say this offer for 1,500 US Air miles for a 2 day or longer rental (targeted to US Air Preferred members, but works for most). In some cases, particularly for short rentals, it make sense to forgo the lower cash price from the Chase Ultimate Rewards/Citi Thank You portal and earn miles for the rental. But do the math for yourself!
4. Bypassing Airport Rental Car Counters. I’m also not sure if you can add your rental car number to the reservation so that you can skip checking in at the rental car counter and go straight to the car. I tried calling Avis to add my number to a reservation, but was told I couldn’t do it because the rate would increase if they associated my Avis number with the reservation.
But I’ll gladly wait for 15 to 20 minutes at the airport to save hundreds of dollars!
5. Personal Observations. The Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You portal has beaten other sites 80% to 90% of the time, but this is MY experience. The portals are usually the cheapest site for longer rentals (1 week+) or for rentals during the weekday, but may not always be the best for weekend rentals (where Costco Travel & other sites may have the edge).
Sometimes you will see only 1 rental car provider or the rates will be comparable to elsewhere. But the rates usually reduce and you can see more providers if you check back in a few hours.
SUVs and mini-vans also aren’t always available, but check for yourself, since your experience will be different!
Bottom Line:
In my experience, the Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi Thank You portal often have the lowest price on car rentals. And you can redeem cash, points, or a combination of cash and points for a car rental!
The cancellation and change policy on these car rentals are also MUCH better than the rigid Hotwire policy. The Chase Ultimate Rewards portal doesn’t charge for cancellations up to 2-days from pick-up, while the Citi Thank You Portal charges $15 for each change. Both sites have a fee of 1-day’s rental charges if you cancel within 2 days, and no refund for no-shows.
Please share your story in the comments if you’ve used the Chase Ultimate Rewards or Citi Thank You portal for car rentals!
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I have earned and redeemed millions of airline miles and hotel points to travel the world for free. Now I'm blogging to help more people do the same! 
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Thanks for the great report! But I was going to rent a car on the Chase portal when I see “Cancellations or modifications received at any time may be subject to the applicable Supplier fee. Such fee will appear on your monthly card statement as “Trip Charges.” Car cancellations received within two (2) days of pick-up date will be subject to a Supplier cancellation fee equal to the charge for a one-day rental, if applicable.” This sounds scary…some unspecified Supplier fee will be charged. Has the policy changed since the time you wrote the report?
Awesome to know! I have yet to need to rent a car, but if I need to I will now do so through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal
Great tips, as always!
@Carol – It was there when I first wrote the post.
@Jessie – Thanks!
I just wanted to say thanks, this saved me at least a couple of hundred dollars on car rentals, even though I only used 10 points/rental!
@Josh – Glad it helped and thanks for sharing!
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Great post! I had previously booked with a coupon code and an employee contract code, and I was still able to save $40 on my six day rental at LAX in May and upgrade to a nicer vehicle by going through the Chase UR portal. Thanks!
Miler-Is Carol’s comment true? If we cancel before the 2 day mark we are “subject” to a supplier fee?
Hi,
Thank you very much for these reports on car rental. I would not find the value of Chase UR portal if I didn’t read your post.
I have one more question regarding the insurance. I booked 3-day rental at SFO via Chase UR, which is the lowest price I could find (more than 100 dollars less than second lowest fare elsewhere, thanks again for your posts here). However, the Chase UR portal only accept Visa or Master card. It means that I cannot put the car rental charges to my AMEX card, which has the valuable car rental premium insurance ($24.99 for up to 30 days).
As I have been keeping putting my car rental charges to my AMEX for almost 3 years , I could just decline any insurance that the car rental company offered, which is usually at a higher price. Now I really have no idea regarding the insurance cost. Do you know how to get this information before I pick up the car? I want to put the rental cost and insurance cost together to compare among all sites.
Thanks,
Yi
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Hi Daraius,
I was looking at booking a flight through Ultimate Rewards. On Tuesday the flight I wanted from LAX-Bogota was about 48K points RT with Copa and I checked it the next day and it went up to 50, 592 points. I was wondering if you think the points needed would decrease or continue to increase and should I just book it now? The flight isn’t until late November 2013. Thank you
@Joshua – I haven’t been charged a fee for cancelling before 2 weeks.
@Yi – Some Visa and MasterCards do have insurance, but may not be as good as the AMEX insurance. If you buy insurance from the rental company it will almost certainly be more than $24.99.
@Bryan Battle - The amount of points varies and depends on the dollar price of the ticket. I can’t predict if ticket prices will increase or decrease, though!
Hi Daraius,
I was wondering if I would be able to book a car reservation under my brother’s name but using my mom’s UR account. We’re taking a trip together, and he would be the designated driver, but he doesn’t have an UR account himself and the UR portal is much cheaper than anything else out there. Thanks!
@Kelly – You can book a car for someone else through the UR portal. But I’m not sure if the credit card insurance would apply since your mom isn’t the driver. But you personal insurance may cover you, but check your policy!
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I think with Chase UR, once you go to pay, say for a rental car, the field is prepopulated with your Chase UR credit card on file so there is no way to use another credit card to meet spend. The INK cards don’t give any bonus for renting, the discount is built into the rate, so no complaints. Still it would be nice to use say a Hyatt card or Costco True Earnings card which pay back 2 on car rentals. Then again, you wouldn’t get the low price to begin with. Zalyn seems to come very close sometimes beating UR on price so it’s not a bad choice if you want to meet spend with a card of your choosing.
@Kent C - You’re right that you can’t use a different credit card when you use the Ultimate Rewards portal, but you can use a different credit card if you go through the Capital One portal. If you have a Sapphire Preferred, you should be able to get 2X points for travel and an extra 1X point for using the Ultimate Rewards portal for 3X points in all. I’ve heard lots of good things about Zalyn, but it seems so complex to use (to me!)
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Good post. For my upcoming rental, I still am seeing lower rates with the certain corporate codes by about $100 for the total rental. Now, what I will say, is that the rates using these methods are very good and better than most which I have found elsewhere. Thanks for the informative post, though, regardless.
@DaveRamseyIsDangerous – Nothing like using a corporate code if you are eligible for it!
Good info. I used my wife’s Thank You card and was only 5800 pts ($58) for 3 days in Dallas for compact. During the check out process, you can put anyone as the driver – it does not have to be the person on the Citi TY card. Of course, points come off the cardholder’s TY point account. Or I could have booked for Cash for $58 – a good deal, but we have points to use.
@SAPMAN – You can put anyone’s name on the reservation, but if you’re using the credit card insurance, the driver should be the cardholder. But it is a good deal!
Darius,
I’ve looked at the chase portal a couple of times, but it always seems to be more expensive than the rental companies direct web site. I’ve only looked at sfo and lax locations, so maybe that has something to do with it, but I am not seeing any savings. Am I missing something?
@Scott - I can’t comment specifically, but no one site will get you the best rate all the time. The UR portal isn’t the best for me all the time, but it does often get me a lower rate.
Thanks! I was able to find a great deal using this method and will definitely use in the future, but I would note that it doesn’t seem to be so great if you need a flexible rental, or don’t want to pay in advance, as the terms say no refunds for early returns.
@Zacklur - That’s true. You can’t return the rental early and get points or cash back.
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I logged into Thank You portal using my ID from my no annual fee AT&T Universal MC. I was able to get a rental from Avis for $233 from with cash only for a 4 night Wed-Sun rental in Austin. Cheapest rate I could find elsewhere was $333. Thanks for the tip and the extra $100.
I’m thinking of booking a rental car through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards portal using points from my wife’s Sapphire Preferred card. I was wondering if I just use points will I still get the collision coverage that I would get by using the Sapphire card?
@Joeheg – Glad you were able to save the $100!
@Ken – I don’t believe you will get the coverage if you use points entirely for the rental. But you should get the coverage if you pay cash.
Hi, Darius,
So, the price does not cover the insurance such as: Collision Waiver, etc., right?
@Carl – It doesn’t cover insurance etc.
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