How to get a free rental car

Goooooood morning and welcome back to Daily Drop!

Today, we’ve got some simple tips for racking up free hotel points and earning free car rentals.

Let’s dive in:

• 🚗 How to get a free rental car

• 🏨 Free 1,500 Marriott points (takes 30 seconds)

• 🧶 The sweater that doesn’t travel like a sweater

🚗 How to get a free rental car

Car rentals are one of those expenses that sneak up on you, and are generally harder to optimize than flights and hotels.

So anytime there’s a way to get a free day without jumping through hoops, it’s worth considering.

National Car Rental just brought back its “One, Two, Free” promo, and the concept is refreshingly simple:

Rent a car twice… and you get a free rental day.

What you actually need to do

You’ll need to register for the promo and credit your rentals to National’s Emerald Club program (i.e., don’t choose to earn airline miles).

From there:

• Complete two rentals of at least two days each

• Earn one free rental day

That’s it.

You can repeat the cycle multiple times between April 6 and June 7. Since the free days are valid until the end of the year, you don’t need to rush to use them.

Why this is worth paying attention to

On its own, a free rental day might not sound like much.

But if you’re already planning a couple of trips where you need a car, this effectively turns into a rebate on something you were going to pay for anyway.

Here’s where it gets interesting

If you have longer rental periods, the number of free days you earn is higher. It’s a little complicated, but let me break it down.

You earn your free day after two “eligible rentals.”

But longer rental periods give you multiple “eligible rentals,” according to this chart:

So here’s an example:

Let’s say you take a 20-day road trip across the U.S., then complete another 3-day rental after that.

The 20-day rental would give you 5 “eligible rentals,” and the 3-day rental would give you one “eligible rental.”

That means you would have completed 6 “eligible rentals,” unlocking 3 free days (since you earn 1 free day for every 2 eligible rentals).

I feel like they could’ve simplified this (or at least used less annoying terminology), but the point is: Longer trips = more free rental days.

How to save a little money

Plenty of U.S. credit cards offer solid insurance for rental cars when you use them to pay.

Personally, I use this card for all car rentals – which means I can save a little cash by not having to buy supplemental insurance.

A couple of things to keep in mind

To trigger the promo, bookings need to be made directly with National, and you need to book a Midsize or higher car category (read the full terms here).

I know I said it earlier, but you also need to register for this offer and make sure your bookings fall in the promo window.

Otherwise, this is a great opportunity for any road trippers out there looking for a laid-back spring trip.

🏨 Free 1,500 Marriott points (takes 30 seconds)

I’ll just get straight to the point on this one:

Right now, you can get 1,500 Marriott Bonvoy points just for linking your Uber and Marriott accounts.

No spending requirement. No booking anything. No weird hoops.

Just… connect the two accounts and you’re done.

This is one of those things where you should just do it immediately and then come back to finish the newsletter. I’ll wait for you, don’t worry.

What you get after linking

The 1,500 points are the easy win.

But the real value is that once your accounts are connected, you’ll casually start earning Marriott Bonvoy points on things you’re already doing anyway:

• Uber rides

  • 3x points on premium rides (UberXL, Black, SUV, etc.)

  • 2x on UberX rides to/from airports

  • 2x on UberX Reserve rides

• Uber Eats

  • 1x points on orders over $40

  • 2x if you order while staying at certain Marriott brands

It’s not life-changing… but it is one of those passive-earn setups that just runs in the background.

After all, who are we to say no to free points?

There’s also a small status perk

If you pay for Uber One annually, you’ll also get Marriott Silver Elite status thrown in.

Is Silver status exciting? Not really.

You’ll get a few small perks like bonus points and late checkout, but nothing that’s going to dramatically change your life.

That said, if you’re already paying for Uber One anyway, it’s a nice little add-on for doing absolutely nothing extra.

If you really care about Marriott status, the easier path is opening a Marriott co-branded credit card, which could get you automatic Silver, Gold, or even Platinum elite status.

Anyway, this is a simple way to earn some easy points. You need to link your accounts by tomorrow to get that 1,500-point bonus, so hurry up.

That’s it, folks. Hope you have a great rest of your Monday.

See you next time,

59.4370° N, 24.7536° E

With contributions by Sam Anthony.