Get National Executive Elite Status With Amex

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Frequent Miler has reported that it’s now possible to get top-tier status with National just by registering through a link aimed at Amex cardholders and, having just gone through the sign-up process myself, I’m happy to confirm that it works and that it takes just a few minutes.

National Executive Elite Status

Outside of promotions you need to make 25 paid rentals or have 85 paid rental days in a calendar year to attain National’s top-tier Executive Elite status.

a screenshot of a car rental calendar

In return, these are the benefits you can expect:

  • Choose Rewards — Choose  from Free Rental Days, frequent flyer miles or hotel rewards. Redeem your free days around the globe.
  • Priority Service — Get expedited services when renting in Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Earn With Enterprise — Rent at participating Enterprise Rent-A-Car locations to earn Free Rental Days and higher status with Emerald Club.
  • Emerald Alerts — Receive helpful email reminders to give you the rental information you need exactly when you need it.
  • Drop & Go® — With convenient email receipts, just drop off your car and go (if your car has not been damaged during the rental).
  • Executive Area Access — Choose any car (Fullsize and above) in the Executive Area and only pay the Midsize rate (in US and Canada).
  • Fastest Free Rental Days — Earn 1 rental credit for every qualified car rental. Free Rental Day = 5 credits.
  • Guaranteed Upgrades — You’re always guaranteed a free upgrade when you reserve using the Midsize rate (in US and Canada).
  • Private Airport Delivery — We’ll have your car waiting at most private airports within 50 miles of us. (in US and Canada)
  • No Second Driver Fees — Never pay extra when family members and business associates do the driving (excluding rentals in Europe).
  • Special Offers — Receive exclusive members-only discounts and offers through our seasonal emails.
  • Special Pricing on Premier Selection — Enjoy exclusive pricing when you upgrade to Premier Selection at the rental lot. (in US and Canada)

The highlight here is the access you get to the “Executive Area” when booking a midsize car. I’ve used a similar benefit through Hertz President’s Circle and saved a LOT of money when I’ve needed larger cars than normal.

Getting National Executive Elite Status

You can either get an existing National Account upgraded or you can create a new account from scratch – I chose to do the latter.

This is the link you’ll need and, when you see a button which reads “Elite Executive Enrolment” on the page that opens up, click on it.

a screenshot of a website

From here you just need to follow the instructions.

I went through the process in under 5 minutes and, at the end of it, National confirmed my new found status:a screenshot of a website

This is particularly useful to me as my Hertz President’s Circle status is about to run out at the end of January and I’ve been wondering how I’ll survive without it 🙂

The icing on the cake is this:

a close up of a sign

As I’ve clicked the link and signed up procedure in January 2019 my National Executive Elite status should be valid though February 2021….and that will be useful for a status match back to Hertz in a couple of year’s time 🙂

Good Info To Have

Greg at Frequent Miler has this good piece of info to add:

When booking with a 3rd party via a prepaid rate you can still pickup the car in the emerald aisle (or executive aisle in this case) and give them your National Club number when you exit. Sometimes autoslash offers post-paid rates where you can add your National Club number from the get-go.

That’s very good news as, often, I find considerably better rates through 3rd party providers than I do through National.

I may not earn status credits or credit towards future rentals if I book through a 3rd party but I don’t really care about those – getting access to the Executive Aisle is the big thing for me.

Bottom Line

I can’t see a downside here and this should be a great offer for just about everybody (except perhaps for those who earn National status the hard way and will now have freeloaders like me picking up cars in the Executive aisle too 🙂 ).

If anyone has experience with National please let me know what they’re like – I’ve been ties to Hertz or Avis for years so any info will be gratefully received.

4 COMMENTS

  1. I signed up but I only got Executive status. What did I do wrong or is it because my Amex is from Germany?

    • I’m not sure what the rules are for Amex Platinum Cards from Germany so I’m not in a very good position to help out.

      What I can say is that Greg (from the Frequent Miler blog) had his National Status upgraded from Executive and he has a US Platinum Card so the upgrade is definitely possible.

  2. Process was a little too easy. Clicked the GetStarted button and it used my cached credentials to login and did the upgrade without asking confirmation. Noticed it changed the ContractID to AMEXEE. As a test I tried making reservation for same period as an upcoming reservation. Seems to indicate the rates for Executive are about 20% higher than Emerald Isle (for the same vehicle). This might be due to now having access to higher class vehicles.

Comments are closed.