A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a question regarding an issue that they are having with National’s Emerald Club, which refuses to give a rental credit due to the location being non-participating.
Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.
You can access National here.
Here’s the message from the reader:
I just wanted to let you know about an issue I had with National car rental and that they don’t seem to want to fix.
I have an elite status with them and rented a car at the Dubai airport in September. I found out later from the branch that they don’t participate in the Emerald program and therefore they wouldn’t give any credits for the rental.
I contacted the National customer service and turns out that no list of participating locations is available anywhere!!
The customer service agents were confused and completely unhelpful sending pre-worded messages that made not sense..
We were in touch with National’s parent (Enterprise Holdings) that provided us with the following list:
Where can I earn Emerald Club rewards:
- United States and Canada
- Asia Pacific: Australia, Cebu, Guam, New Zealand, Palau, Saipan
- Europe, Middle East and Africa: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom
- Latin America and Caribbean: Argentina, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao (Netherlands Antilles), Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, St. Barthelemy, St. Maarten, Suriname, Tortola, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay
Where can I redeem Emerald Club program free days:
- United States and Canada
- Asia Pacific: Australia, Guam, New Zealand, Palau, Saipan
- Europe, Middle East and Africa: Czech Republic, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom
- Latin America and Caribbean: Argentina, Aruba, Belize, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao (Netherlands Antilles), Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, St. Barthelemy, St. Maarten, Suriname, Tortola, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay
Note from the spokesperson:
Our member/customer services team does have access to information regarding the availability of Emerald Club at National Locations and should have been able to provide this information to the customer. We apologize for the miscommunication.
Additionally, we are working on adding updated information regarding the locations to our website. I’ve included that information here for you. It’s also worth noting that, as it is in this case, there is a small number of our franchise countries that do not yet participate in the program.
Right now approximately 12 out of our more than 90 countries and territories are not in our Emerald Club program. However, we are continually working to update that on a regular basis.
National’s Emerald Club T&Cs are 200 Pages Long!
Conclusion
It is a bit of a minefield when it comes to getting credit for international rentals with many car rental companies. However, there is no excuse not to flag that a location is a non-loyalty program participating during the booking process.
When I lived in the US back in the 2010s, I mainly rented from National due to Emerald/Executive Aisle access and plentiful promotions (free rental days that I used for one-way rentals).
