Blogging For National Car Rental For The Next Two Weeks

May 20, 2011 - Rick

Rookie winning tip from last week goes to Chris D ! Thanks, you are in the May $100 gift card drawing!Hello to all you National Car Rental fans out there. For the next two weeks, I’ll be sharing travel tips I have used successfully in the past to significantly lower our travel expenses. To all my regular readers, don’t worry: I’ll keep you updated on our current free tripto the Greek Isles, Croatia, and Amsterdam while at the same time mixing in past articles from the blog to help keep our techniques fresh and available for your use.National has offered some nice giveaways as part of this promotion, and in the near future (when we get home), we’ll figure out a way to give away five free rental car nights, Victorinox carry-on bags, and (if I don’t keep this one for myself…) a one-year upgrade to Emerald Club Executive Elite status.

The beauty of this assignment for me is that I am under no obligation to conform to anybody’s list of topics or programs. I have been given free reign on what I will discuss. My idea was this: I’ll alternate days with past travel technique articles and then the next day fill you in on the doings of our free trip. Katy will supply the photos and comments and suggestions will still be welcome.

As many of you know, I am not a big rental car fan. The reason: When I arrive at my destination, I want to keep moving. When I hit my destination, I don’t want to stand in another line at a rental car counter and fill out paperwork. That is the one thing that intrigues me about this “Choose Any Car” concept you hear John McEnroe screaming about on the TV ads. That, to me, sounds like a significant time saver and may push me into considering renting more cars.

I’d love to hear your comments on how smoothly the “bypass the rental counter” works with National.

Tomorrow: “We are off to Greece!”

PS: Sorry I didn’t get to comment back on all of yesterday’s comments from readers. I spent the day in Miami with my son Andrew, who lives in Australia. He is in the country for just a short time. I’ll try to catch up tomorrow.

Carol in MN

I signed up for AwardWallet shortly after reading Shannon's recommendation and am very glad I did. Can I still get the free upgrade to a plus account and, if so, how??
René

@Carol

Simple. Go to my account. Pick upgrade to plus account. It will ask you how much you want to pay. Look to the left and pick use coupon. Type in:

FrugalTravelGuy

Then click next and it will apply the $5 coupon. You are all set for 6 months. I had been paying $15 a year for mileagemanager.com since it does all this plus search's for low level FF seats but they can not seem to work it to look for one way trips on DELTA (the only way to find real low seats) so I will be done with them this year and use AwardWallet only.
Robert

Definitely interested in a free upgrade for Awardwallet. A great product in anycase.
Anonymous

Frugal Guy, shouldn't you be including a disclaimer for the cash and free services that you receive from Credit Sesame for all of the referrals over to their site?? It's apparent that there's a referral/tracking ID in the link that goes over to their site.

Thank you.
FrugalTravelGuy

Anon: if it is important for you that I receive a referral that is FREE for you then here is my notice of referral. I also receive free advertising on awardwallet which is another FREE service for u and with my referral code you get upgraded to plus service FREE. My endorsement of these products is not related to anything I receive from them other than a great product with awardwallet and a free credit score each month with creditsesame
Anonymous

How secure is CreditSesame? You do have to provide your SS#, of course. If it's new, I'm a bit concerned. How extensive was your due diligence on C.S.?
Chris G

Am I the only person that can not stand to continue reading messages where people are upset that the FTG gets referral fees/bonuses? He is providing a valuable blog that has netted my family over 1.4 million points since last July. Why should he have to post that he gets referrals for bringing some of these great deals to our attention. If you don't like the deals, don't apply for them – simple as that. It shouldn't matter if FTG gets a nickel or a million bucks per application – only do the deal if it makes sense for you. Personally, I actually enjoy knowing that I am applying for deals that possibly get FTG a referral bonus since he has given my family several great vacations at a substantial discount with many more in future.

FTG,
It definitely shows great character on your part that you even publish these replies on your site – I can't believe how many people are jealous that you get referral bonuses because of your reputation and the content you provide. I know you won't let the naysayers get your down – Keep up the good work!
Wes

Hi Rick, we have been very satisifed plus members of Award Wallet for about a year. Look fwd to meeting Jeff and Alexi at ORD DO in Oct. One of the many AW features I really like is one clicking your ff program to open vs individually putting in your user id/pw. Am trying CreditSesame and like the macro look at our credit.
gpapadop

Yeah, same here, I resisted this for a long time and tried out several tools. But this is the best, I wonder how I lived without it! It is actually updating my balances right now in the background:-)

Does AW have an Android app? If yes, how do we bring it up? Searching for it brings up some other apps…
Anonymous

Just so there is no confusion CreditSesame does not give you a FICO score. It is pretty much useless FAKO but I am sure Rick will disagree.
wes

+1, very well said Chris G,
ditto for our family–thank you FTG Team (Rick,Katy,Shannon,Andrew &IT guy)for nurturing our ffmile/hotel points hobby daily..special thanks for Rick's continued commitment(time/resources) to our military men and women too.
SoCal Dude

@ Rene

Can this free upgrade to Plus Account be used if we already have a Plus Account? I'm trying but doesn't seem to be working. Thanks!
Ang

Hey Rick –

I am a big fan of AwardWallet, use it all the time!

Can you help me understand the difference between Credit Karma which I currently use) and CreditSesame?

thanks!
Anton

Hello Rick, thank you for all the valuable info here – will be taking my "free" Hawaii vacation soon thanks to you. Just wanted to comment that your links don't appear in Firefox 4.0. Might be something you want to check into. Tried on 2 different computers(if I choose IE mode in Firefox, they work). Thanks again.
James

Rick,

I lovey our blog and use both of the sites you mentioned but for the sake of transparency, you should really disclose if you are getting some sort of financial compensation if people sign up. Keep up the good work!
David

Rick-

Seeing as both CreditSesame and Quizzle claim to provide your actual Experian score, any idea why my score on CreditSesame would be over 60 points higher than the one on Quizzle (787 vs 722)?

Thanks.
Lynn

I totally agree with Chris G. Thanks for all the info you share, and am pleased when it profits you!! I get amazed too, at how jealous people can get.
Gerry Hoch

I got this message when I tried to upgrade. I had a free trial of the Plus service in the past and I guess I am ineligible now.

"This coupon code is only valid for the first time users of AwardWallet Plus service. Our records indicate that you have already used AwardWallet Plus in the past; therefore, this coupon can't be used with your account."
Gerry Hoch

I had a free trial of the plus service in the past and I guess that makes me ineligible according to the message I received –

"This coupon code is only valid for the first time users of AwardWallet Plus service. Our records indicate that you have already used AwardWallet Plus in the past; therefore, this coupon can't be used with your account."
leslie

I second Chris G.'s comment.

And, I've been using AwardWallet ever since Shannon's post about it, and I love it. Very easy to use.
mberlew

Rick, nice recommendation on AwardWallet, I just entered signed up, entered all my info, and am extremely impressed. This is going to save me a lot of hassle. I just noticed I have some Hyatt points expiring in 3 months that I would have completely forgotten about. Thanks a bunch!
Roy and Lucy

@ Chris G – agree 100% with your remarks. Thanks for articulating

@ FTG – thanks for your blog and effort. Please know that there are many more of us that appreciate your work than those who don't
Carol in MN

Chris G – You are definitely not alone in your remarks about people who are upset that FTG gets referral fees/bonuses. I feel the same way!

Anon – First: If you feel the need to criticize, the least you could do is to give your name. Second: If this bothers you so much, why don't you just stop reading this blog?

FTG – You have helped me immensely and I am very grateful! You're doing a great job! Thanks!
ML

Yeah…maybe you can poll readers about whether or not we want you to supress posts from these Internet trolls. I for one am glad that you get referral bonuses, etc…why shouldn't you? How much did all of those anon posters pay last month for your excellent info…yeah…that's what I thought.
Anonymous

Would be nice if Award Wallet would also allow a free extension for those of us that have been paying for the Plus service for quite some time.
Carl

Rick, no problem regarding your referral bonuses. Your blog takes a lot of time and effort and it is only just that you are compensated, so no need for the disclaimers.

I suggest your readers use your blog as a tool, but also to shop around and compare. As you have written many times, all of the info is out there and readily available. Caveat emptor.
Bacc

I think it's great that Rick gets a referral "tip". I too have done very well using his blog. I'm off to Branson from NYC for $20 in tax using part of the old BA Chase promotion miles.
At times I share FTG's deals with friends and family (who are not as miles obsessed). When I do I include the link that gives Rick the referral. Its only fair.
Anonymous

First, I never said I didn't want FTG to receive referral bonuses….don't put words in my mouth.

What I DID say is that for the sake of TRANSPARENCY he should put a disclaimer that he is receiving a cash benefit for someone clicking on his links. I didn't sign up for awardwallet or credit sesame through his links (I already have an AW plus account, and currently use a different credit scoring service), but I did use his links for the Chase BA card and the Amex Premier Rewards, so I'm not opposed to his getting a referral, just that I think it should be DISCLOSED. If any of you are too blinded to not be able to see that from my initial post, then I am sad at your lack of comprehension.

Oh, and FTG, I don't care if your endorsement IS related to anything you receive from them, just that there should be a disclaimer that by sending (hundreds/thousands) referrals to their sites that you will be receiving something in return.
Anonymous

I'll jump on the bandwagon appreciating Chris G's comments! Rick's service here for us is invaluable! I love that he gets a bit of a kickback from my applications, funding his hobby and learning, which he then passes on to US! Keep up the good work, FTG!

Chris D.
Michael Crook

Hi Rick – Thanks for another great post. I love Award Wallet, but am not too sure about the value of Credit Sesame and Quizzle. They both say they pull from Experian, but I get scores about 50 points apart. Have you heard of other users reporting such a discrepancy?

Thanks again.
Charles Clarke

Just add a compensation disclosure to the Disclaimer you have at the bottom of the page. Quick, easy and avoids the FTC getting on your case. Though 'Anonymous' may still complain.

Blogging For National Car Rental For The Next Two Weeks

Related Posts