From its humble beginning as a group of individual rental car operators to being a household name in the car rental space, National is one of the most recognizable companies in the industry. When the company created its loyalty program, Emerald Club, in 1987, it quickly realized how valuable frequent travelers were to its bottom line, representing 10% of its revenue.
Joining the program is free, and if you’re an avid road warrior, you may be able to take advantage of its perks when you reserve a car through both National and Enterprise car rental locations worldwide.
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History
National Car Rental is an American car rental company with a history spanning over seven decades. It was founded in 1947 by a group of individual car rental operators who joined forces to start operating as one.
Throughout the decades, National Car Rental expanded its services and geographic reach, becoming a prominent player in the car rental industry, particularly through partnerships with other international car rental companies in Canada and Europe.
In 1968, it became the first rental car company to install a centralized computer system. The company changed ownership multiple times through the years. It ultimately became part of the global car rental conglomerate Enterprise Holdings, which includes the Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Alamo Rent A Car brands. Under Enterprise’s ownership, National continued to thrive and expand its presence, both in the United States and internationally.
Today, National Car Rental is known for its extensive fleet of mostly GM vehicles—since General Motors owns a large share of the company—and its loyalty program. It also serves business and leisure travelers in numerous locations worldwide. National has established itself as a trusted name in the car rental industry, offering convenience and quality service to its customers through its more than 1,500 locations globally, including Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Australia.
How To Earn National Emerald Club Rewards
There’s only one way to earn National Emerald Club rewards: by renting vehicles from National and Enterprise.
You can earn a minimum of 1 rental credit for every qualified car rental of up to seven consecutive days. For rentals longer than seven consecutive days, you will earn 1 additional credit for every four additional rental days. While earning does not accelerate with status, your redemptions become more favorable the higher up the program tiers you climb, as follows:
- Emerald Club: This entry-level tier will help you earn one rental credit for every qualified car rental. When you redeem, it takes seven credits to get one Free Rental Day.
- Executive: In this mid-tier, earning remains at one rental credit per qualified car rental; however, you will only need six credits to redeem for one Free Rental Day.
- Executive Elite: Members in this top tier earn the same one rental credit per qualified car rental but can expect more rewarding redemptions at five credits to obtain one Free Rental Day.
Elite Status
Like most rental car company loyalty programs, National’s Emerald Club is simple. You’ll climb higher into its loyalty program as you complete more rentals within a calendar year and you’ll be given additional benefits as a result.
- Emerald Club: All that’s required to achieve this level is signing up. Members receive the following benefits as part of this tier:
- Priority service: Receive expedited services for rentals in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Emerald Aisle access: You can choose any midsize car in the Emerald aisle area and only pay midsize rates for U.S. and Canada rentals.
- Upgrades in Europe: Receive a one-class upgrade when available at certain locations in Europe.
- Plus, there are no second driver fees, you’ll have the ability to earn rewards when renting with Enterprise and more.
- Executive: It takes a minimum of 12 paid rentals or 40 paid rental days within a calendar year to reach this level. Some of the perks of this level include:
- Executive Area access: Choose any full-size car or above in the Executive Area and only pay for a midsize rate in U.S. and Canadian rentals.
- Guaranteed upgrades: You are guaranteed a free upgrade when you book any vehicle between full-size and luxury class for rentals in the U.S. and Canada.
- Special pricing on Premier Selection: Enjoy special pricing when you upgrade to Premier Selection vehicles at the rental lot.
- Plus, you get all the benefits from the Emerald level, a faster way to Free Rental Days and more.
- Executive Elite: To reach this level, you will need 25 paid rentals or 85 paid rental days per calendar year. You can expect the following benefits once you get to this tier:
- Executive Area access: You can choose any vehicle full size and above in the Executive Area and only pay the midsize rate for rentals in the U.S. and Canada.
- Guaranteed upgrades: You are guaranteed an upgrade whenever you reserve any vehicle categorized as full-size to luxury in the U.S. and Canada.
- Private airport delivery: You can have your rental vehicle waiting for you on arrival at most major private airports in the U.S. when a National location is within 50 miles.
- Plus, you’ll get all the benefits from previous tiers and the fastest Free Rental Days, where just five credits equals one free rental day.
Notice that, since you can qualify for each of these tiers on either the amount of rentals or cumulative rental days, you have two different ways of earning status depending on your travel patterns.
Credit Cards
National Car Rental does not issue its own credit card. However, there are some credit cards available that might help you earn some perks with National:
- The Platinum Card® from American Express: Get Emerald Executive status with National just by registering once you get the card (terms apply).
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express: Get Emerald Executive status with National by registering once you get the card (terms apply).
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Get Emerald Executive status with National just by registering through your card.
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card: Receive Emerald Executive status with National just by registering with your card.
- Visa Infinite Cards: As a Visa Infinite cardholder, you also enjoy automatic Emerald Executive status with National just by enrolling, aside from any benefits your issuer includes.
Featured Partner Offers
Partners
National partners with several airline and hotel companies to make loyalty more rewarding. Through those partnerships, you can choose to earn airline miles or hotel points instead of points in the Emerald Club with National.
While more than a dozen partners allow you to earn within their loyalty programs instead, the earning rates are not really worth it, and you’re better off sticking to earning with National Emerald Club.
Status Matches
National lets you status match if you already hold status with another program, effectively allowing you skip the line to get to a higher tier within Emerald Club.
You can match status from American Airlines AAdvantage, United Airlines MileagePlus, Hilton Honors and more than 40 other programs by submitting all required information through National’s status match website form.
Shopping Portals
Just like most rental car companies, National Car Rental does not operate its own shopping portal for you to earn additional points through your everyday purchases. However, if you still want to stack your points-earning strategy, you can do so by going through other portals such as Top CashBack or Emirates Skywards, among others.
How To Redeem National Emerald Club Free Days
Earning credits within the National Emerald Club program is very straightforward, but the real excitement comes from redeeming them for free rentals.
Rental Redemptions
The rental credits you earn through your paid rentals will automatically convert into Free Rental Days depending on your membership status, as follows:
- Emerald: Seven credits convert to one Free Day and can be used to reserve up to a midsize rental.
- Executive: Six credits convert to one Free Day, and they are good to reserve up to a full-sized vehicle.
- Executive Elite: Five credits convert to one Free Day, and they are good for all car classes except trucks and exotic vehicles.
You can use these Free Rental Day credits to pay for reservations of up to seven consecutive days in most locations worldwide, including international destinations serviced by Enterprise. If your Free Rental Days were transferred from someone else’s account into yours, the maximum duration of your redeemed rental cannot exceed three consecutive days. Redemptions can be made online, through the National app or by calling.
Sweet Spots
Because each Free Rental Day is good for precisely that, sweet spots can be found wherever the rental base rates are high enough to be prohibitive when paid for in cash. The value of your free day follows the cash rate of that rental as it rises and falls, so you can expect to see both excellent as well as poor redemption value.
An excellent use for your Free Rental Days, however, is one-way rentals, since applying a free rental day will also cover those pesky one-way rental fees, which can be rather steep on most reservations.
Quirks
Expiration
Your Rental Credits will remain valid for as long as you remain a member of the program, with no expiration. Free Days, however, will expire on December 31 of the following year in which they were earned and will be forfeited if not redeemed before they expire.
Fees
You will be assessed no extra fees to be a member of this program, but you will still incur any applicable fees when using your points to redeem for free rentals, as the rewards offset only the base rental price. Government-mandated taxes, surcharges and fees, airport imposed fees, city tax or even add-ons like refueling, excess mileage or insurance are considered optional and cannot be covered with your rewards.
Family Pooling
National allows you to transfer up to three of your Free Days to immediate family members—spouses or domestic partners, children over the age of 21 and parents—every calendar year at no cost to you. Once transferred, those Free Days will expire a year after the transfer date.
Bottom Line
If you see yourself at a National counter picking up your rental regularly, you should consider signing up for the Emerald Club program so you can enjoy perks like free rental days, upgrades, a wide selection of vehicles and even waived second driver fees. The program is straightforward enough that it doesn’t come with a steep learning curve before you can start enjoying its benefits.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the value of my rewards?
Because your rewards are granted as Free Rental Days, they are good to offset the base cost of one-day rental. As the cash cost of those rentals goes up and down, so will the value of your Free Rental Days.
How hard is it to earn points with National?
Every paid rental will help you earn credits that can be converted into Free Rental Days. The more rentals you book through the year, the more credits you earn, and depending on your membership level, the more free days you can enjoy. It’s not possible to transfer points from other programs to National’s program.
What do I do if my credits don’t post?
If you notice that credits are missing from your account 36 hours after returning a rental, and you have confirmed that the location you rented from participates in the program, you should contact customer service.
