I received a clueless holiday message from this chief executive officer in my e-mail account on Monday, December 16, 2024 at 7:53 in the evening.
A Clueless Holiday Message From This Chief Executive Officer
The chief executive officer in question is Gil West of Hertz Global Holdings, Incorporated. Although I am almost certain he did not write the following message himself, this is the exact verbiage of the message:
Hi, Brian,
I’ve always believed that the journey is shaped not only by its destination but also by the people you share it with. As we near the end of 2024, I want to take a moment to express my deep appreciation for you – we know you have a choice in travel, and we are truly grateful that you’ve chosen Hertz.
Having spent over 30 years in the travel industry focused on driving operational excellence, I joined Hertz earlier this year with the mission to deliver a better experience that ensures Hertz truly lives up to its century-long legacy of service, innovation, and trust.
Powered by our people and new technology, 2025 is focused on innovation to make it faster and easier than ever to rent or buy cars from us. I’m excited to share a few of the initiatives that we have started to roll out:
- Enhancing our app and digital experience to make it faster and easier to create and modify reservations tailored to your travel needs and preferences.
- Refreshing our vehicle fleet with the latest makes and models to give you more options on the road.
- Empowering our teams with enhanced tools and resources to provide faster, more effective support – whether in person, online, or on the phone.
- Upgrading Hertz Gold Plus Rewards® to deliver more value to our loyal members with every mile.
- Expanding Hertz Car Sales locations to offer you great value on quality pre-owned cars.
Again, thank you for continuing this journey with us. We look forward to showing you our appreciation through these initiatives and many more to come. Wishing you and your loved ones a safe, happy, and restful holiday season.
Sincerely,
Gil West
Chief Executive Officer
The Hertz Corporation
The part of the message with which I especially have an issue is “Upgrading Hertz Gold Plus Rewards® to deliver more value to our loyal members with every mile.” Perhaps he is unaware of the most recent — and unfair — of a series of devaluations of the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards membership program that points expire five years after you earned them — no matter what — and any activity in the membership account no longer extends them effective as of Tuesday, December 31, 2024.
I find far less value in the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards membership program that even six month ago — especially with such a hard expiration policy that was given with only six months notice. Apparently, many members of FlyerTalk agree with me, as evidenced by this long and unbelievable discussion which resoundingly refutes almost every point that was mentioned in the e-mail message.
Since that policy was announced, I have tried to use the points in my Hertz Gold Plus Rewards membership account in many places. Either:
- The country in which the Hertz facility is located does not participate in the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program
- Points could not be redeemed at the time that I needed a rental car
- Redeeming points was not sensible when the cost of the rental almost equaled the cost of the rental without redeeming points
- Points could only be redeemed for one day and not the entire time which I needed the rental — and even then, I did not receive a discount; so the points were refunded to my Hertz Gold Plus Rewards membership account to expire anyway
- Points cannot be redeemed for anything else other than renting a vehicle
Moreover, Hertz has failed me with regards to service in the past with at least two examples: this experience and this experience.
Final Boarding Call
This is an open note to Gil West and other seemingly clueless leaders of companies: if you want your company to devalue what you offer, you can do so any time you like; and as much as you like, as that is your right…
…but please don’t insult our intelligence by sending out to your customers ridiculous vitriol that is filled with nothing but meaningless words of euphemistic falsehoods that border on outright lies.
Doing so simply does not look good and causes your customers to view your company with a negative perception that can one day hurt the very business relationships you think you are trying to foster and cultivate. Instead, why not put your money where your mouth is and actually improve your products and services for your customers? I would rather experience that than receive some useless vapid and empty correspondence…
…but I never was an executive of a major corporation; so what do I know?…
All photographs ©2022 by Brian Cohen.
