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:
- : 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.
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.