It was expensive to rent a vehicle on the Big Island of Hawaii. Given that I have been renting with Hertz on a fairly consistent basis over the years, I figured I would rent with them again for the week I was visiting Hawaii. I haven’t been too “wowed” by my rentals in Hawaii with Hertz. Despite this, I ended up having a pretty good rental experience. Read on to see what I learned about renting wit Hertz in Kona, Hawaii, USA as a Hertz President’s Circle member.

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This post is one chapter on my trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, United States of America. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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My Experience Renting as Hertz President’s Circle Member at Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport.

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I’ve maintained Hertz President’s Circle status for the past several years as a result of some heavy work travel. One of the primary benefits of Hertz President’s Choice is the Ultimate Choice aisle where you get to pick any car in the aisle and go. The marketplace has standardized this feature across many of the major rental companies in this space.

About Hertz Gold Plus Rewards:

Hertz offers a loyalty reward program called Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. The program is primarily designed to keep your driver’s licence, credit card and insurance preferences on file to allow for quicker Hertz rentals that allow for bypassing the legal formalities of the rental counter in many locations and allow you to get out on the road faster.

Hertz Gold Plus Rewards also offers the ability to earn Hertz Gold Plus Reward points. While we didn’t typically get a lot of value from car rental points, they’ve recently delivered outsized value from travel when car rental prices escalated during the pandemic when many Hertz locations reduced their vehicle fleets, driving up car prices.

Hertz Gold Plus Rewards offers three tier levels of Gold, Five Star and it’s top tier President’s Circle. It’s around the Hertz Presidents Circle level where the benefits get interesting.

Hertz President’s Circle Benefits:

Hertz’s highest tier level is Hertz President’s Circle. Hertz Presidents’ Circle offers the following benefits:

• Upgrades: Guaranteed
• Hertz Gold Rewards points earning: $1 = 1.5 points
• Hertz Ultimate Choice: Widest Selection
• Dedicated Hertz Reservation Line

With reward redemptions starting at about 950 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points, you’ll need a little bit of spend in order to get a free rental.

This leads me to my most recent experience renting from Hertz at the Kona International Airport in Hawaii, USA

Booking at Hertz Kona International Airport:

It’s pretty much essential to have a rental vehicle while you are visiting Kona. and the Big Island of Hawaii. Sights are very spread apart, and unless you plan on eating esclusively at the resort, you’ll want a vehicle. toget out and explore the island and it’s restaurants a little bit.

When I initially priced out a rental car on Kona; prices were stubbornly high. I booked through the Hertz website. My initial quote was for over $600 USD for a week five day rental. I ended up rechecking several months and weeks before our arrival. I was eventually able to get the car rate down to $400 USD,. After a little experimentation, I was then able to redeem 1,800 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards for two anytime award days. This brought my pricing down to $189 USD for the week, with the redemption.

If you are renting through a high demand period, make sure you check the rate. In our circumstances, the best rate was found between 3 – 4 weeks prior to travel.

My Experience at the Hertz Kona International Airport

I arrived into Kona International Airport on Alaska Airlines First Class Seattle – Kona. Our arrival time was scheduled for 8:50 PM. We collected our checked bags and headed over to the shuttle island.

Kona International Airport does not have an attached rental car facility. As a result, we had to take a short bus over that was quite full of travellers. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of busses tonight with the competitors Avis, National and Executive running a more frequent bus schedule than Hertz. After about an eight minute wait, we were on our way to the Hertz lot which was located about 5 minutes away.

Collecting the Car:

On arrival to the Hertz Kona International Airport lot, I went to check the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards board to check for my name and my assigned car. Hertz usually has Gold Plus Reward members names up on the board, so that they could get straight to their cards and go; bypassing any counter lines by getting straight to an assigned vehicle.

Unfortunately, despite making my reservation directly with Hertz through my online account, I didn’t see my name on the board for some reason. There is no Hertz Ultimate Choice rank at Kona International Airport (despite a manned exit gate). I ended up walking inside with my reservation number.

Unfortunately, I ended up getting stuck in a bit of a six person line that was split by general renters and those with Hertz Gold members. Since I had a bit of luggage, and no kids on this trip (helpers) to leave with MrsWT73 to deal with the luggage, I ended up getting stuck at the back of the line.

Fortunately, Hertz happened to be taking all the Gold Members first. These were split between two attendants so the wait was under ten minutes.

I never did find out what the reason was for my name missing off the board. The attendant indicated that they were incredibly busy as a result of unplanned traffic of tourists that were diverting to Kona from Maui as a result of the Lahania wildfires which had occured less than twenty four hours ago.

From my booked Intermediate car class, I ended up upgraded to a full size SUV. I was assigned a 2023 Dodge Durango with a HEMI V-8 engine. The vehicle was almost brand new; with a black HEMI leather interior featuring welcomed cooled and heated seats. I wasn’t going to complain about being issued a gas sucking SUV on this trip. A four wheel drive is mandatory for those wanting to drive up to visit The Big Islands’ Mauna Kea Observatories, and this was part of our planned activities list.

I headed out to the car for a quick inspection. Parked in Stall #25, the car was mostly clean. Despite this, they had really forgotten to clean the back side as it was pretty dirty; almost as if the car wash missed the whole back side of it.

We motored out of the lot, and over to The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort. We arrived to the resort after about a thirty minute drive.

A Rental Car is Essential On the Big Island:

Getting to our experience with the car over the week, I can’t emphasize enough how essential a rental car is while visiting the Big Island of Hawaii. During our five day stay, we put on 500 miles on the car; or approximately one hundred miles day. This is pretty high, considering that we had two full beach days during our time on the island.

The Dodge Durango with the HEMI engine was a pretty nice vehicle to drive, and a great Hertz President’s Circle upgrade. Being situated in picturesque and scenic Kona, we were able to see the car in some pretty unique spots.

The HEMI engine wasn’t very economical and was a far cry from my German Audi Mild Hybrid and an auto off feature back home. There were times that we received a reported 5 MPG when we were climbing up towards the observatories. Without an automatic off feature even installed, we burned through a fair amount of gas.

Returning at Kona International Airport:

There were no gas stations immediately at the airport. As a result, we made sure to fill up at Costco Kona at a “lowish” $4.65 USD a Gallon.

We returned the vehicle about three hours before our flight home on Alaska Airlines First Class Kona – Seattle. Even with a trip up the gravel roads to see the observatories, we weren’t too dirty and I wasn’t worried all that much about “additional cleaning charges”.

The roving Hertz agent closed out our contract. Although they didn’t have a printer, they offered to have the bill emailed to my attention. I usually have to chase Hertz. for these invoices but surprisingly, it arrived by the time I made it to the airport. Unusual miracles.

My Thoughts on Hertz President’s Circle at Kona International Airport:

While I’ve previously had high expectations of Hertz President’s Circle, I’ve learned to taper those expectations. My Kona rental was along those same lines.

While I ended up with a short delay picking up the car, I ended up getting assigned a nicer Dodge Durango. While it wasn’t the most fuel efficient rental, it was more the comfortable for our week of driving around the island. We just had a bit of an island experience with the rental in things not being ready with the same efficiency that you might find on the mainland. As the usual stressed out city slickers, we learned to take this in stride.

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If you have visited Hertz Kona Hawaii, were you satisfied with your rental ?

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