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How to Enroll in Hertz President’s Circle Elite Status With Capital One Venture X Credit Card [2022]

• A few readers reached out to me and said that their Hertz accounts are not updated to President’s Circle status after enrolling through the Capital One site after waiting over 72 hours. My experience yielded the same result, so I reached out to Hertz and provided an additional method to successfully enroll in President’s Circle elite status with Hertz. See the update below under the How to section. 

With the loss of the partnership between United and Hertz, you will no longer receive the Hertz President’s Circle status through the Chase United Club Infinite Credit Card . However, the recently launched Capital One Venture X Credit Card  offers an automatic complimentary Hertz President’s Circle elite status for cardmembers. 

Table of Contents

What is Hertz President’s Circle

How to earn hertz president’s circle status.

• Rent 20 times (15 for 2021 due to COVID-19) Or,
• Spend $4,000 ($3,000 for 2021 due to COVID-19)
• Avis President’s Club
• Avis Preferred Plus above 25 rentals
• Enterprise Plus Platinum
• National Executive Elite
• Europcar Privilege Elite
• Direct Link to Request Hertz Status Match

What are the Hertz President’s Circle Benefits

• Skip the rental counter and go straight to your car with e-return. 
• Receive confirmed guaranteed one-car-class upgrades at participating locations.
• Earn 50% bonus on Gold Plus Rewards points on all qualified rentals.
• Access to dedicated customer service phone number at 1-888-444-8600 .
• Enjoy the freedom to choose any vehicle in the President’s Circle section of the Hertz Ultimate Choice at select locations. You can view participating locations here . 
• Free additional driver. 

President’s Circle Status For Venture X Card’s Authorized Users

How to enroll in hertz president’s circle elite status with capital one venture x credit card.

• You can text Hertz at 1-855-800-2166 . 
• Let them know that you want to enroll in Hertz President’s Circle through Capital One Venture X Credit Card benefit. If you already enrolled but still do not see your status updated, let them know that too.  
• Follow the text message prompts to answer any Hertz agent’s questions. They are very slow in replying, though. So please be patient, but they will respond. 
• All is said and done, the agent texted me that: 
• “I have manually upgraded the account to President’s Circle.” 
• I logged into my Hertz account online , and sure enough, my status now shows President’s Circle status. 
• Sign in to your Capital One account online or the Capital One mobile app.
• Select your Capital One Venture X credit card . 
• Click on the Redeem button. 
• Click on the Benefits tab.
• Click on the Hertz Presidential’s Circle Status benefit tile. 
• Click on Learn More in the popup window. 
• A new page window will open. Follow the screen to directly enroll in and request an upgrade to Hertz President’s Circle status with your existing Hertz Gold Plus Rewards account. See the screenshot below. 
• If you never had a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards account before, click on the Enroll and get President’s Circle status  link on the webpage. Follow the prompts to enroll in the program and upgrade to Hertz President’s Circle status accordingly. 
• The process to request Hertz President’s Circle status for the Venture X credit card’s authorized user is the same.
• After successful enrollment, allow 24-72 hours for President’s Circle status to be applied to your Hertz account. 

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The Guide to Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Program

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Like many other rental car companies, Hertz offers a loyalty program for its most valued members. Those who rent from Hertz frequently can enjoy perks like free car rentals, complimentary upgrades and additional bonus points. You may be wondering how you can take advantage of these loyalty perks. Let’s take a look at Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, how the program works and the best ways to benefit from being a member.

Join Hertz Gold Plus Rewards

Like any other loyalty program, you’ll need to sign up for an account in order to begin earning points with Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. Signing up is easy, and there is no Hertz Gold Plus Rewards cost to join. Membership is free.

» Learn more: The best travel credit cards right now

Hertz Gold Plus Rewards benefits

There are three levels of elite status in the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program.

This level is the base level and the one you’ll receive once you sign up. As a Gold member, you’re entitled to a free additional driver and the ability to earn 1 point per dollar spent. Plus, after seven qualifying rentals, you’ll earn the ability to have Five Star elite status treatment for a day.

Hertz Five Star

Five Star elite status is achieved after spending $2,000 or completing 10 rentals. As a Five Star member, you’ll have more options for car rentals and may receive complimentary upgrades on your bookings. Your earning rate also increases — you’ll receive 1.25 points for every dollar you spend.

American Express and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards have teamed up to offer complimentary Five Star elite status for select cardmembers. Along with the complimentary status, you’ll also get up to a 15% discount on reservations.

Hertz President’s Circle

Hertz’s highest level of elite status, President’s Circle, grants you the ability to earn 1.5 points for every dollar spent, as well as guaranteed upgrades with all bookings. This status can be earned after 15 qualifying rentals or spending $3,000 with the program.

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card comes with complimentary President’s Circle elite status for the cardholder and any authorized users. *Upon enrollment, accessible through the Capital One website or mobile app, eligible cardholders will remain at upgraded status level through December 31, 2024. Please note, enrolling through the normal Hertz Gold Plus Rewards enrollment process (e.g. at  Hertz.com ) will not automatically detect a cardholder as being eligible for the program and cardholders will not be automatically upgraded to the applicable status tier. Additional terms apply.

» Learn more: How to avoid long lines at rental car counters

Airline and hotel partners

If you’d rather skip out on earning points towards rental cars , you can also opt to earn airline miles or hotel points.

Airline partners

Hertz has many different airline partners. The number of miles you can earn will vary according to the type and length of rental as well as Hertz’s agreement with each partner. You’ll want to check the dedicated page for detailed information. Here are all of Hertz’s airline partners:

Aegean Airlines.

Aeromexico.

Air France.

Air Transat.

Alaska Airlines.

All Nippon Airways (ANA).

American Airlines.

Asia Miles.

Asiana Airlines.

Avianca Airlines.

China Airlines.

Delta Air Lines.

El Al Israel Airlines.

Flying Blue.

Frontier Airlines.

Hainan Airlines.

Icelandair.

Korean Air.

Kuwait Airways.

Malaysia Airlines.

Marco Polo Club.

Middle East Airlines.

Miles and More.

Nikhil Airlines.

Philippine Airlines.

Porter Airlines.

Qatar Airways.

Royal Brunei Airlines.

Royal Jordanian.

Singapore Airlines.

Southwest Airlines.

Spirit Airlines.

TAP Portugal.

Thai Airways.

Turkish Airlines.

United Airlines.

Virgin Atlantic.

Virgin Australia.

Hotel partners

Hertz has far fewer hotel partners than it does airline partners, but these limited options still offer ways for you to earn points:

IHG One Rewards : Earn 125 points per day.

Marriott Bonvoy : Earn 500 points per rental.

Accor Live Limitless: Earn 3 Accor Live Limitless Rewards Points for every euro spent with Hertz.

» Learn more: The best credit cards for rental cars

How to redeem Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points for max value

Hertz has varying award charts to redeem your Gold Plus Rewards points — standard reward and AnyDay rewards. Standard rates are cheapest, while AnyDay rewards enjoy no blackout dates.

Along with the difference between these two options, you’ll be charged different quantities of rewards based on:

Length of rental.

Country of rental.

Type of car.

Whether or not it’s a one-way rental.

Single day standard reward rentals can cost as little as 750 points. This figure doubles for an Anyday rewards rental, with the going rate starting at 1,500 points for one day. Obviously, if you aren’t worried about blackout dates, booking a standard reward can really maximize your points.

If you’re looking for a weekly rental, you can save yourself some points if you book for a full seven days. A weekly rental can be as short as five days or as long as seven, but with the standard rewards redemption you’ll pay 3,750 points either way. With a seven-day rental you are essentially getting the last two days of the rental for free.

» Learn more: Credit cards with elite car rental perks

Is joining the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards loyalty program worth it?

It’s always a good idea to join a loyalty program. Even if you’re an infrequent renter, the ability to score a free second driver and earn a few points makes it worth signing up. This is true whether you’re looking to join Hertz Gold Plus Rewards or any other programs — it’s free and takes very little time investment.

Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points expire after 12 months of no rental activity.

Keep in mind that if you’ve earned elite status with Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, you can also parlay that into elite status with other rental car companies. National , for example, will give you a status match from 40 other car rental, airline and hotel loyalty programs.

However, you’ll also want to consider whether booking a rental car directly with Hertz is a good idea. The rental car industry sees frequent swings in pricing and you may be able to find cheaper results with an online travel agency such as Priceline or Costco. AutoSlash is also a great asset when searching for cheap rental cars; this site will search and find a variety of rates from every provider in order to score you the best rates.

» Learn more: How to get car rental elite status through airline or hotel status

The bottom line

There’s no reason not to join the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program, especially if you’re often on the road. With generous benefits for its top-tier members, such as guaranteed upgrades, it can more than make it worth it to join. Just be sure to check pricing among a variety of sites before booking to make sure you get the best deal possible.

How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2024 , including those best for:

Flexibility, point transfers and a large bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

No annual fee: Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card

Flat-rate travel rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Bonus travel rewards and high-end perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®

Luxury perks: The Platinum Card® from American Express

Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

on Chase's website

1x-5x 5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases.

60,000 Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 when you redeem through Chase Travel℠.

1x-10x Earn 5x total points on flights and 10x total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Travel℠ immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Earn 3x points on other travel and dining & 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases.

60,000 Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Travel℠.

on Capital One's website

2x-10x Earn unlimited 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel, Earn unlimited 2X miles on all other purchases.

75,000 Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.

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Pluses and Minuses of Using Capital One Travel for a Rental Car

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I want to share with you some pluses and minuses of renting a car through the new Capital One Travel portal. There has been a lot of talk about this new portal lately. As soon as I read about it, these rental car issues immediately came to mind. Some are good, while others are bad. I’ve now confirmed my original thoughts and want to share them with you.

Table of Contents

Short Intro: Capital One Travel

All the buzz about the Capital One Travel portal is due to the new Capital One Venture X card. Why? Firstly, if you have this card, you get an annual $300 to spend in this travel portal. Secondly, the elevated earning ratios on the card are all tied to the portal.

You get 10x earning on hotels and rental cars booked in the portal, plus 5x on flights booked in the portal. If you book elsewhere, you get just 2x on any of these travel bookings. Huge difference. Thus, the Capital One Travel portal becomes a big deal here.

However, it has a combination of strengths and weaknesses for all users.

Booking a Rental Car with Capital One Travel

Let’s look at the positives and negatives here.

First, you get $300 to use for free each year with the Venture X card. Second, it’s an Online Travel Agency (OTA), which will find and compare prices from numerous companies. This saves you time, since you don’t have to go to every company’s website one by one. Third, you can apply your Capital One Venture Miles to your purchase to erase the cost–just like you can do with Chase and Amex.

Importantly, all of the tests I did with Capital One’s travel portal and other OTAs found the same “lowest price” on a rental car search.

Lastly, the previous issue of Hertz cars not showing up in the results has been fixed, so now the search function is overall pretty good.

One of the key features of the Venture X card is that you should get Hertz President’s Circle status (top tier). Have you ever tried to add your Hertz loyalty number to a rental car booking made through an OTA–not just Capital One Travel, but any site like this? News flash: even if you can somehow try, it doesn’t work. This is the issue that jumped out at me immediately.

You essentially have 2 options:

• Book the cheapest car through the portal, so you can get the extra points earning / use your $300 annual credit
• Book directly with Hertz, so you can enjoy your status perks, but you can’t use the $300/earn extra points

That is…bonkers.

Lest You Think There’s a Workaround…

I bet you’re thinking there should be a good workaround coming soon. I want to put that idea to rest. You’re thinking you can just call Hertz and add your number later, right? Wrong.

On multiple occasions, I have tried to book via an OTA for a cheaper price and then add my Hertz loyalty number later. This way, I could get the lower price but still get the “skip the line” privileges. Hertz has no way of adding your number after the fact.

But Here’s What You CAN Do

There’s a workaround for “get the best price + use my loyalty number”, but it doesn’t help us with the Capital One situation. You can call Hertz at (800) 654-3131 and ask them to add your loyalty number. They’ll tell you that they can’t, and you can ask them to recreate the booking at the same price plus add your loyalty number. You now get the price and the loyalty privileges. It shouldn’t take that much work, but success!

Capital One Issues Remain

But this doesn’t help you with the issues on Capital One Travel rental car search results. If Hertz (or any other company) cancels the reservation you made in the portal and then makes a new booking over the phone, you now booked directly with them. You don’t get the bonus points on your card from booking through the portal, and you can’t use your $300 credit on the portal.

We’re back to 2 options:

• You can get the perks of your status
• Or you can get the perks of the travel portal

Capital One Travel amazingly offers 2 perks that you can’t use together. It’s simply incredible.

Final Thoughts

I saw this rental car issue with Capital One Travel from a mile away. Now that I’ve tested it out on a few dummy bookings, my predictions came true. You can use your status with Hertz by booking directly, or you can use your portal perks by booking that way. However, you can’t get the Hertz perks in the portal and can’t get the portal perks when booking with Hertz.

Given the fact that Capital One is touting this Hertz status pretty hard, you’d figure someone would’ve thought about these things. Apparently not.

When it comes time to book your next rental car, you’ll have to decide which is more important to you: the $300 credit/increased points earning or the perks with Hertz.

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I’m not sure if this issue has been fixed, but I recently booked a car rental through the portal, entered my hertz rewards number, and it immediately shows my rental on my hertz account. I hope my status will be acknowledged! But if not, I wanted to use the $300 for this rental specifically.

Not sure if this is new, but Hertz is now showing up in the CapOne travel portal.

Dr. Jay – it is new! You got here before I could finish my ‘to do’ list and get here to update this. Thanks for commenting to remind me. I only noticed it late last night, so I’m not sure when it went live.

I’m wondering if this is a bug or a feature.

Christian – meaning the inability to add your Hertz number? Seems standard across the OTAs. I’ve never been able to make a booking with Priceline, Auto Slash, etc. where I could get Hertz to see my number and connect it to my loyalty account to attach the benefits (skip the line is literally the 1 benefit I care about, nothing else matters to me).

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Capital One Says “Extension” for President’s Circle Benefit is Possible

Victoria M. Walker

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Possible Devaluation of Capital One’s Premium Card

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This morning, there was big news in the world of credit cards: a popular travel credit card will no longer offer Hertz’s top-level President’s Circle perk after the end of the year.

But that’s not all to the story — let’s take a look at the news and what happens next.

Capital One’s contract with Hertz is slated to end at the end of the year, and the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card President’s Circle may be going away. As Thrifty Traveler reported , the language to the terms and conditions of the card said the benefit would end on December 31, 2024.

Upgraded Points reached out to Capital One for clarification, and this is what the issuer had to say.

“Our current Hertz benefit contract is slated to end on December 31, 2024, as disclosed since the launch of Venture X,” a spokesperson for Capital One said. “We are continuing to find ways to offer unique experiences to cardholders that they are passionate about and can share with friends and family.”

“We are currently in the process of evaluating the benefit, including the potential extension of the benefit , and will be in touch when there are updates,” the spokesperson continued.

Indeed, language on Capital One’s website implies that the benefit would always end at the end of 2024 . It’s unclear whether Venture X cardholders will be downgraded to Five Star or see their membership lapse altogether.

Hertz offers 2 status tiers: Five Star and President’s Circle .

As a reminder, the Capital One Venture X card comes with the Hertz President’s Circle as a benefit for signing up for the card. Earning that status without the card requires 15 or more rentals or at least $3,000 spent in a 12-month period.

With President’s Circle, you’ll receive all of the benefits of Five Star Plus , plus the following:

• 1.5x points for every $1 spent
• 24-hour advance reservation airport guarantee
• Guaranteed one-class upgrade
• 50% bonus on Gold Plus Rewards Points on all qualified rentals
• After each of your 30th and 40th rentals, a one-rental-free upgrade to any available car on the lot
• After each of your 15th, 20th, and 40th rentals, a one-rental Hertz Valet terminal drive back at select airport locations

If you do end up losing President’s Circle status through the Capital One Venture X card, other cards like The Platinum Card ®  from American Express and The Business Platinum Card ®  from American Express come with the status (enrollment required). Delta Platinum Medallion, Diamond Medallion, and Marriott Ambassador Elite members also receive President’s Circle status.

Capital One may remove the President’s Circle benefit from the Capital One Venture X card at the end of the year, which would be disappointing news for cardholders. However, the issuer says a “potential extension” of the program is possible.

But, for what it’s worth, all of its other travel benefits appear unchanged. You’ll still receive Priority Pass lounge access (though Capital One axed non-lounge benefits back in 2022 ), Global Entry  and  TSA PreCheck credits, and a $300 annual travel credit . Despite the devaluation, these benefits make the card still worth the $395 annual fee ( rates & fees ), given other premium cards have yearly fees topping $500 or more.

For rates and fees of The Platinum Card ® from American Express, click here . For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card ® from American Express, click here .

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About Victoria M. Walker

Victoria holds a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the Howard University School of Communications and is an award-winning journalist, travel reporter, and the founder of the “Carrying On with Victoria M. Walker” newsletter.

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Capital One Venture X losing Hertz President's Circle status at the end of the year

When we talk about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card , we tend to focus on its reasonable $395 annual fee (see rates and fees ) that still unlocks valuable perks — including a $300 annual travel credit through Capital One Travel, extensive airport lounge access and the option to add up to four authorized users without any additional fees (see rates and fees ).

On top of these major perks, cardholders currently receive rental car benefits through complimentary Hertz President's Circle status .* However, this perk will soon end.

The Venture X's fine print indicates that the Hertz President's Circle status is now only available through Dec. 31, 2024. A Capital One representative has confirmed that this is the end date for the benefit, as first reported by Thrifty Traveler .

President's Circle status conferred some solid perks for Hertz renters, including bonus Gold Rewards points on rentals, upgrades (subject to availability) and a wider selection of vehicles to select from the Ultimate Choice lot. Our tests even found that you'd still enjoy these benefits when booking through Capital One Travel to earn 10 miles per dollar spent.

Unfortunately, this will no longer be available in 2025.

This benefit cut is consistent with a pattern we've seen from Capital One recently. The issuer removed Priority Pass restaurant access in late 2022 and announced last month that holders of the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and Capital One Spark Miles for Business will lose their two annual airport lounge passes beginning Jan. 1, 2025.

While seeing a card lose a benefit without a replacement is always disappointing, this removal will not likely be a deal breaker for most cardholders. The lounge access, annual $300 travel credit, and a solid earning rate of two Capital One miles per dollar spent provide enough value for most cardholders to easily justify the $395 annual fee . The issuer even opened two new lounges in 2023 — at Washington D.C.'s Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Denver International Airport (DEN).

However, if car rental status is an important perk to you, consider switching to The Platinum Card® from American Express when this Venture X benefit goes away. With the Amex Platinum, you'll get rental car benefits from complimentary Hertz President's Circle status plus status with Avis and National. Many other cards offer rental car status , and some of them also include primary car rental coverage .

Alternatively, you can snag automatic Hertz elite status as a Delta Medallion member. In fact, both Platinum and Diamond Medallions are eligible for complimentary President's Circle status.

* Upon enrollment, accessible through the Capital One website or mobile app, eligible cardholders will remain at upgraded status level through Dec. 31, 2024. Please note that enrolling through the normal Hertz Gold Plus Rewards enrollment process (e.g., at hertz.com) will not automatically detect a cardholder as being eligible for the program, and cardholders will not be automatically upgraded to the applicable status tier. Additional terms apply.

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How Hertz’s bet on Teslas went horribly sideways

LIKE anyone habituated to the excesses of Wall Street, Tom Wagner and Greg O’Hara knew how to throw a party.

On the night of Nov 9, 2021, guests emerging from the oversize elevator at Zero Bond, the members-only Manhattan social club frequented by Kim Kardashian and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, were greeted with flutes of Champagne. Offerings of sliced raw tuna on crispy rice and roasted maitake mushrooms awaited them as heads turned to admire an Andy Warhol and a Keith Haring, while New Order throbbed in the background. On every cocktail napkin, emblazoned with Hertz’s familiar yellow and black, was “Let’s Go!”—the slogan for its splashy new ad campaign starring seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.

Earlier that day, Hertz Global Holdings, the rental-car giant that careened into bankruptcy during the first two months of Covid-19 burdened with a bad balance sheet and generations of even worse management, had raised US$1.3 billion in an initial public offering (IPO). Somehow, in slightly more than five months, Wagner and O’Hara had pulled off one of the greatest turnarounds in corporate history.

By the time Wagner’s hedge fund, Knighthead Capital Management, and O’Hara’s private equity firm, Certares Management, bought Hertz in a June 2021 bankruptcy auction, the company had slashed its debt and cut 15,000 jobs. Neither Wagner nor O’Hara had any experience in the industry, but to the self-styled disrupters in an archaic business, that was a virtue. They would run financial analyses that clearly showed the future of rental cars was in electric vehicles (EVs). “We felt we could position Hertz in a completely different way,” Wagner told Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview just before the IPO.

Hertz’s new owners were making a fully charged bet to swap Hertz’s petrol-powered rental-car fleet for EVs. The company announced an unprecedented order for 100,000 Teslas and struck an exclusive deal to supply EVs to Uber drivers. It planned to build out a national, and eventually global, charging network at Hertz’s thousands of locations, with ambitions to become the service manager for the autonomous-driving era.

Wagner was also ski buddies with Brady, then quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and persuaded him to be its new celebrity frontman. Brady, who in his prime joked that he was the slowest man in the NFL, would show, in Hertz’s words, that the company “is making EV rentals fast”—a play on the company’s 1970s commercials, with OJ Simpson vaulting down staircases touting “The superstar in rent-a-car.”

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It was a pitch-perfect strategy for an economy just rebounding from the pandemic, seizing on America’s newfound love for travel, the public’s fascination with Elon Musk and the stock market’s willingness to throw money at anything with an EV story. The November IPO valued Hertz at US$15.3 billion, more than two-and-a-half times the US$5.9 billion Wagner and O’Hara had paid to buy it out of bankruptcy.

With demand for car rentals surging and cash flowing in, the company authorised a US$2 billion stock buyback. Soon, Hertz would announce that Stephen Scherr, the recently retired chief financial officer at Goldman Sachs Group, was joining to lead its EV transformation as chief executive officer.

By early 2024 it was clear the massive bet on electrification was a catastrophe. Musk had slashed Tesla prices by as much as 30 per cent, sending the value of Hertz’s EVs plummeting. Wagner and O’Hara’s plan was filled with countless other miscalculations that only deepened the wound.

All that talk of a radical makeover for a tired industry has gone silent, and the company is now doubling down on gas guzzlers. Hertz shares have fallen 74 per cent since the IPO festivities at Zero Bond, there’s finger-pointing in the boardroom over who bears responsibility, and Scherr, who never saw himself as a fix-it guy, is gone. Gil West, a seasoned operations executive, on Apr 1 became Hertz’s sixth CEO in 10 years. It is his turn to try to clean up the mess.

While most people were in lockdown in the summer of 2020, Wagner and O’Hara were on the prowl. Wagner specialised in taking chances on troubled companies. Since quitting Goldman Sachs in 2008 to co-found Knighthead, he’d scored big on several high-profile bankruptcies, including Puerto Rico’s main power producer; PG&E, the electric utility whose equipment sparked some of California’s worst wildfires; and Lehman Brothers.

Among his peers, Wagner was known not only for a cocksureness common to ex-traders but also for a fierce work ethic and meticulous attention to detail. O’Hara, who started his career in information technology, eventually jumped to JPMorgan Chase & Co to help arrange multibillion-dollar buyouts. In 2012 he started Certares to invest in travel, tourism and hospitality and made a name for himself buying a 50 per cent stake in American Express Global Business Travel as well as part of Tripadvisor.

Together they raised a US$1.5 billion fund to snap up travel and leisure companies such as Hertz that had been crushed by the pandemic and might eventually soar once the economy reopened. It was a binary bet: If Covid could be tamed or beaten, there was, potentially, a huge upside in any industry that had ground to a halt because of shelter-in-place orders. Plus, because Hertz was bankrupt, the company stood a good chance of restructuring much of its debt, renegotiating contracts and slashing costs.

This was not the first time investors had spotted a moneymaking opportunity in Hertz. In 2014, Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist, saw so much potential that he waged a proxy battle for control of the company. Automakers once saw it as a great side business, too. General Motors owned it through the 1930s and ‘40s. Ford Motor bought it in 1987 and moved its offices from Manhattan to Park Ridge, New Jersey, before unloading it to a group of private equity buyers in 2005.

Ever since Hertz returned to the public markets in 2006, a parade of CEOs had tried—and mostly failed—to solve its problems. In 2012, while Mark Frissora was in charge, Hertz successfully waged a bidding war against Avis Budget Group for rival Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group. The purchase gave Hertz key budget brands, but it also added to the company’s large and expensive debt, a bedevilling legacy of the 2005 buyout. Frissora tried to save money by keeping old, tired-looking cars in service rather than refresh the fleet. US regulators fined Hertz for, among other things, failing to disclose the impact of that tactic on maintenance costs and on its premium brand.

Icahn forced out Frissora, but over the next six years, no matter who was running the company, the stock kept sliding. Then-CEO John Tague’s bet on compacts and family sedans coincided with a 2016 plunge in fuel prices, which revived demand for SUVs and left Hertz with an inventory of used vehicles few people wanted to buy.

Tague, who was replaced by Kathy Marinello the following year, initiated a US$1 billion overhaul of its car-tracking, reservation and scheduling systems that was so ineffective Hertz is still working to replace it. By the time Icahn sold his position in May 2020, days after the company filed for bankruptcy protection, he’d lost almost US$1.6 billion.

Wagner and O’Hara arrived with a far more ambitious plan for the century-old company: electrification. A few years earlier, Knighthead had studied the disruptive potential of EVs and autonomous driving.

Now, Wagner was fully geeking out on the future of mobility, convinced it was inevitable that batteries would displace petrol and self-driving would eliminate the need for single-family cars. At the time, Tesla was selling every car it could make, and global EV sales were about to double after growing by almost 50 per cent in 2020. Musk predicted that Teslas were on the verge of being able to drive themselves and that eventually they could earn money for their owners as robotaxis for hire instead of sitting idle in a garage or parking lot.

If Hertz went all-in on EVs, it could gain a yearslong advantage over Enterprise Holdings and Avis by positioning itself for exclusive deals with ride-hailing services and automakers. It would be more profitable, too, because EVs were so much cheaper to operate, easier to maintain and safer, they figured. Meanwhile, O’Hara was touting the synergies with Certares’ network of travel agencies and its expertise in technology. He boasted of being able to solve the chronic software issues, and he even forecast the company would make an additional US$150 million a year in profit, thanks to the rental business it’d get from his Amex GBT.

If Hertz could get the software engineering right, renting might actually be a pleasure rather than a necessary evil. When booking a Tesla, you would get an app notification with a handy map showing where exactly to find it. The car would automatically unlock as you approached, recognise you by name, adjust the seats, mirrors and temperature to your preferred settings, upload your favourite playlist on, say, Spotify and display your destination as well as the expected battery consumption and charging options along the way. Returning the vehicle would be a similarly painless experience.

When Hertz finally held an auction to sell itself in May 2021, Wagner and O’Hara, backed by Apollo Global Management, beat the runner-up with an offer that was some US$200 million higher. “They had a huge embedded advantage in the bidding process, because they saw so much more value than a mere turnaround,” Jim Millstein, the investment banker who represented Wagner and O’Hara at the auction, told Businessweek at the time.

Mark Fields, a former Ford CEO whom Wagner and O’Hara recruited as a Hertz director, agreed to serve as the company’s interim chief, but they needed a leader for the long term. Days after Scherr announced his retirement as CFO of Goldman in September 2021, he received a call from a former colleague at the firm. Jeff Nedelman, by then a partner of O’Hara’s, wanted to know if Scherr would be interested in taking the job at Hertz, where he would be working for Wagner, another Goldman alum.

Scherr was apprehensive. Most of his 28 years at Goldman had been in investment banking. He knew finance, how to structure deals and raise capital. Running a nuts-and-bolts company such as Hertz was altogether different, but Wagner and O’Hara were offering the chance to lead an industry transformation. Plus, he could make a killing. If he stayed four years and Hertz shares hit the most aggressive targets in his incentive plan, he’d have about US$325 million to play with and still be under 65. He took the job.

To those around him, Scherr was a surprising choice. At Goldman, he would always been considered smart, logical, level-headed and articulate, if loquacious at times. One former colleague said he had off-the-charts “EQ and IQ”. Aside from a career at Wall Street’s most prestigious firm, there was little on his résumé to suggest he’d do well at Hertz.

By the time Scherr started his new job on Feb 28, 2022, the key pieces of Hertz’s strategy were in place. The Tesla deal had come together in part because of another Goldman player, CEO David Solomon. Solomon had connected Wagner and O’Hara to some of the world’s biggest carmakers in the hope of finding one or two that might be able to supply EVs. But it was clear only Tesla was making enough at the time to sell in volume.

The order for 100,000 Tesla Model 3’s and Model Y’s, hammered out in secret negotiations over nine months, often with Musk himself, seemed like a coup for both companies. Hertz got a jump on Enterprise and Avis, the latter of which was just running small experiments renting out EVs. On the day of the announcement in October 2021, shares of Tesla surged 13 per cent, and its market value topped US$1 trillion for the first time.

The Uber relationship, unveiled 48 hours later, solved a different problem. By renting as many as 50,000 of its Model 3’s to Uber drivers at a fixed weekly rate, Hertz would not only develop a new market but also increase the utilization—and thus profitability—of each vehicle. The third critical deal was with Carvana, the car retailer that operates vehicular vending machines. It enabled Hertz to sell cars directly to consumers and fetch better prices than the company typically got at dealer auctions, potentially saving tens of millions a year. “Our approach is very strategic and very deliberate in terms of how we want to disrupt ourselves,” said Fields at the time, “and, hopefully, disrupt the industry”.

Scherr did not want to give up his New York existence and move to Florida, where Hertz was based, and the board agreed that was fine. Back in 2013, Frissora had relocated the headquarters from New Jersey to Estero, Florida, a pricey playground for wealthy retirees where he had a vacation home.

The locale had become a problem for a succession of Hertz leaders who did not want to move there, and the company had a hard time wooing the transportation industry talent it needed. While Scherr was in Estero most days and sometimes stayed over weekends, he would also open a new Hertz office in Manhattan, a short drive from his Upper East Side apartment. Looking back, some members of the board now wonder if they should have insisted he live in Florida full time, especially as challenges began piling up.

During Scherr’s first year on the job, the rental-car business boomed. Yet Hertz, which was never known for efficiency, kept reporting lower margins than Avis. Over the course of 2022, directors began pressing Scherr, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who, like several others in this story, asked not to be named discussing private matters. Why, they asked, was Hertz not squeezing more revenue from its available cars or making more progress on its technology upgrades? Why were Uber drivers falling behind on payments? Scherr, they noted, had also ditched a practice Fields brought over from Ford to grade management performance.

The science of car rentals is predicting where demand will be greatest and making sure that is where the vehicles are. In the race to staff up quickly coming out of the pandemic, Hertz hired contract workers to haul cars to markets that experienced surges in rental demand, such as Miami and Los Angeles. But the contractors were expensive, and Hertz took a long time to replace them with less costly full-time hires.

The company’s perpetual IT troubles also compounded inefficiencies. Because Hertz typically has hundreds of thousands of vehicles on the road, it needs to know in real time when and where they will be returned, cleaned and gassed up and ready to be rented again. Similarly, its desk agents and customer service staff need to know if a car’s been damaged and when it is likely to be back in service. If any of that gets lost in translation, it can quickly devolve into a headache for the customer.

Over the years, Hertz invested in plenty of software and cloud services, but it ended up with a jumbled mess of technology for different parts of the business and chronically failed to get those programmes working in tandem. As a result, too often travellers showed up to find that the cars they’d booked were unavailable.

Sometimes the kludgy system erroneously showed cars as missing, resulting in hundreds of innocent Hertz customers getting arrested on charges of stealing rentals they would actually returned. (In 2022, Hertz paid US$168 million to settle 364 of those claims.) Avis, which operates a fleet 25 per cent bigger than Hertz’s and generates 28 per cent more revenue, has 2,500 fewer employees. Hertz had promised shareholders at the time of the IPO that US$300 million of the cost cuts it had modelled would be permanent. The board wanted results from Scherr.

At about the same time in late 2022, the first fissures in the EV strategy began showing. Internally, some longtime Hertz managers who would experienced the ups and downs of used-car prices over the years warned against making such a huge wager on Teslas. They knew that betting wrong on which models to buy is a profit killer for rental companies, which rely on strong returns when they eventually sell the cars into the used-vehicle market.

Wagner and O’Hara pressed ahead with their plan anyway. EVs were hot with consumers and investors, and the calculations showed that Hertz would not just make money renting them at higher rates but also save on maintenance costs. The company followed the mammoth Tesla order with five-year agreements in 2022 to buy as many as 65,000 EVs from Polestar, the venture between Volvo Car and China’s Geely Automobile Holdings, and 175,000 from GM.

In the field, everything started looking different from what was on the spreadsheets. Unlike EV owners comfortable with the idea of charging a car battery at home and on the road, business travellers and vacationers suffered from range anxiety and did not want the hassle or worry of having to find a charger in the wild.

Rudy Gardner, who as president of Teamsters Local 922 represents Hertz workers at Washington, DC’s Dulles and Reagan National airports, says travellers after a long flight would arrive at those Hertz locations to find that Teslas were the only vehicles available. “People did not want to charge them,” he said. “At the end of the night that is all we had left, so they would go to Avis.”

Lack of demand was such a problem that Scherr started a programme where Hertz agreed to share certain data on EV rentals with cities such as Atlanta, Denver and New York so they would install more charging stations. Other deals gave customers who rented Teslas for three days an extra day free or offered free charging to anyone who returned an EV with at least a 30 per cent full battery. The company even made symbolic efforts, like donating an EV to a New York technical school for mechanics to learn how to repair it. None of it made a difference.

There were other charging issues, too. While the company had installed its own charging network as part of the electrification push that started in 2021, some older airports, such as New Jersey’s Newark, do not get enough power from the electricity grid or lack the infrastructure to support the number of so-called Superchargers that Hertz needed to get EVs back on the road in a half-hour or less. Once a Tesla was returned to those locations, Hertz employees often had to drive them for miles to find a Supercharger, which added yet more expense.

Early in 2023, another warning light flashed. Delays due to repair were increasing across Hertz’s entire fleet, and collision costs were jumping, too, but initially neither Scherr nor anyone else could explain why. It was not for at least another quarter that his team broke down the aggregate data and showed the board that the culprit in both cases were Teslas.

With electric motors and drivetrains, Teslas were indeed cheaper to maintain than a traditional car, as Wagner and O’Hara predicted in their financial models. The problem was how often they crashed. Newbie Tesla drivers who were not used to the car’s instantaneous acceleration and immediate braking were running into obstacles or getting rear-ended, sometimes even before they left the rental lot. Hertz’s Teslas got into accidents four times more often than the company’s other vehicles.

Unlike major automakers, Tesla does not have an extensive network of franchised dealers to help with service and repair, leaving owners subject to the company’s availability and schedule. Some of Hertz’s Teslas were idled for extended periods as a result. “They couldn’t get parts, even simple things like an outside mirror,” says Alex Rojas, the business agent representing Hertz workers for Teamsters Local 222 in Salt Lake City. “They just sat there for weeks not getting rented and not making money.”

When Hertz was able to get its Teslas fixed, the costs were exorbitant compared with those of repairing other makes. A radar assembly for the Autopilot driver-assist system can cost US$1,500 to replace and as much as US$3,000 to calibrate. Many Teslas had to be junked altogether, because a crash could result in a permanent misalignment of the body panels or because the risk of battery damage made them uninsurable. That, combined with the higher rate of accidents than on Hertz’s other vehicles, led to a spike in repair bills. In 2023, Hertz reported the cost of operating its vehicles was US$5.5 billion, up 13 per cent from the previous year and 39 per cent from 2021, partly because of collision and damage.

If Wagner and O’Hara were caught off guard by setbacks with the Teslas, they certainly did not imagine that Musk would wage a price war. Hertz management had always been wary of its relationship with the unpredictable Tesla CEO, but he would caused embarrassment only once, in 2021, when he tweeted, accurately, that Hertz would pay full price for the cars it bought, rather than get a fleet discount as it often did from other automakers.

Then, late in the evening on Jan 12, 2023, Tesla published a new price list on its website. There were discounts on every car in the lineup— Model Y crossovers were selling for US$53,000, a drop of 20 per cent. Scherr at the time planned to increase Hertz’s EV allotment from 10 per cent of the fleet to 25 per cent by the end of 2024. That implied buying tens of thousands more vehicles, whether Teslas, Polestars or Chevy Bolts. “I’m obviously a happier and a better buyer at a lower price point than not,” he said on an April 2023 conference call. The cuts would benefit his ride-hailing business, too. “Our EV fleet is the most affordable entry point for drivers to get into those EVs and use them,” Scherr said.

But what initially seemed like a boon exploded like a bomb. By October 2023, Musk, intent on defending Tesla’s share of an increasingly competitive EV market, had slashed prices multiple times. The warnings Wagner and O’Hara had brushed off were proving all too prescient. Musk’s price cuts forced Hertz to revalue all of its Teslas and played a major role in a tripling of Hertz’s depreciation costs to US$2 billion last year.

In the boardroom, frustration was mounting. Scherr started each meeting with a two- and sometimes three-hour discourse about the state of the company, with no slide presentation. By the third quarter of 2023, directors were asking one another if Scherr’s background in finance left him ill-prepared for the immense challenges he faced with Hertz’s EV fleet and with the performance improvements they’d demanded. As the situation deteriorated, some wanted less of an overview from Scherr and more time to grill members of the company’s operations team on how they were tackling specific problems.

Meanwhile, little of the US$150 million in profit O’Hara forecast from rentals through Amex GBT had materialised, and O’Hara himself had moved to Italy and stepped down as Hertz chairman in January 2023. (He returned to the board a year later.) Scherr, according to people with knowledge of the situation, called Paul Abbott, the CEO of GBT, multiple times to find out what happened and got nowhere. (Abbott declined to comment.)

The pressure that had been building for months finally came to a head over how to address the EV debacle. Scherr, drawing on his Goldman schooling in risk management, had come to see the Teslas as nothing more than a bad trade and wanted to dump them quickly. Wagner, who champions EVs almost as loudly as Musk does, disagreed.

As one of Hertz’s two controlling shareholders, he demanded that the company look at every alternative to “defleeting” the Teslas. For two months the sides debated until Wagner finally conceded that getting rid of the Teslas was the only option. In December, Hertz reversed course on electrification and began unloading 20,000 EVs, many on its own used-car website. Buyers who previously could only dream of owning a Model 3 could now purchase one with 85,000 miles for as little as US$18,000 thanks to the Hertz sell-off.

Scherr had had enough. He would joined Hertz to lead a revolution, not deal with one crisis after another. On Jan 8 he walked through the revolving doors of Manhattan’s 280 Park Ave. and rode an elevator to Knighthead’s 22nd-floor offices for a 10 am appointment with Wagner, who was still unhappy with Hertz’s new direction. After spending the Christmas break contemplating his life and prospects, according to people familiar with the exchange, Scherr had come to deliver a message: He wanted out. “This isn’t the job I signed up for,” he said.

Turning around Hertz now falls to Gil West, an operations specialist who’s worked in the trenches of transportation companies and is definitely not a banker. West, formerly chief operating officer at Delta Air Lines during the carrier’s merger with Northwest Airlines, was originally Wagner and O’Hara’s first choice for the Hertz top job, but at the time he was tied up as COO of Cruise, GM’s self-driving car division. In December, GM dismissed him along with eight other executives in the struggling unit, and he was suddenly available.

Meantime, a couple of Wagner and O’Hara’s strategies are working. Uber drivers have put more than one billion miles on EVs rented from Hertz. Carvana has helped the company recover more value from used vehicles. Now that Hertz has written down its Teslas and is replacing EVs with gas-powered cars, damage and depreciation costs should not be as big of a problem. But the company West inherits is no longer the herald of humanity’s mobile future. If anything, it resembles the one Icahn hoped to fix—with bloated costs, vexing IT issues and a misguided bet on the wrong vehicles.

Brady, Hertz’s human embodiment of a Tesla, is still on the payroll. After retiring from football, he extended his contract with the company and also joined Wagner to buy a UK soccer club. In his most recent Hertz ad from May, Brady is still pitching EVs, only this time there’s none of Musk’s cars in sight. Since the IPO, Knighthead and Certares have not sold any Hertz shares, even as the company bought back US$3 billion of stock to 2023. As a result, Wagner and O’Hara—and the investors in their funds—are sitting on a loss of about US$220 million, or 11 per cent, on the investment.

By piling into EVs as car prices were peaking, a fact visible at every showroom in the country, the two had made the most classic of Wall Street errors, buying high and selling low. In many respects, they are no different from any of the hapless investors in Tesla, or Rivian Automotive, or Lucid Group, or Polestar, who are now licking their wounds as global EV demand slows and the prospects grow dimmer for full electrification of the auto industry. Wagner has made controversial bets before and stuck through them. To him, Hertz is no different. With the confidence of a born trader, he still believes his bet will be proven right in the end. “My strong suspicion,” he says, “is that in the not-too-distant future we will have figured all this stuff out”. BLOOMBERG

KEYWORDS IN THIS ARTICLE

• Hertz’s CEO to step down as car renter unwinds bet on EVs
• Hertz to sell 20,000 EVs in shift back to petrol-powered cars

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Ukraine again reported bringing war deep into Russia with attacks on Moscow and border region

Aptopix russia ukraine drone attack.

Ukraine brought the war far from the front line into the heart of Russia again Sunday in drone penetrations that Russian authorities said damaged two office buildings a few miles (kilometers) from the Kremlin and a pig breeding complex on the countries' border.

The attacks, which Ukraine didn't acknowledge in keeping with its security policy, reflected a pattern of more frequent and deeper cross-border strikes the Kyiv government has launched since starting a counteroffensive against Russian forces in June. A precursor and the most dramatic of the strikes happenned in May on the Kremlin itself, the seat of power in the capital, Moscow.

Sunday's was the fourth such strike on the capital region this month and the third this week, showing Moscow’s vulnerability as Russia's war in Ukraine drags into its 18th month.

The Russian Defense Ministry said three drones targeted the city in an “attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime.” Air defenses shot down one drone in Odintsovo in the surrounding Moscow region, while two others were jammed and crashed into the Moscow City business district.

Photos and video showed that a drone had ripped off part of the facade of a modern skyscraper, IQ-Quarter, located 7.2 kms (4.5 miles) from the Kremlin. When the drone hit, sparks, flames and smoke spewed from the building, with debris falling on the sidewalk and street. Windows were blown out, and metal window frames were mangled. A security guard was injured, Russia's state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency officials. Russia's Ria-Novosti news agency reported the building's tenants included several government agencies.

Flights were temporarily suspended at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, and the airspace over Moscow and the outlying regions was temporarily closed.

President Vladimir Putin, who was in his hometown of St. Petersburg at the time of the attempted attacks for meetings with African leaders and a naval celebration, was briefed, his spokesman said.

Ukrainian officials didn’t acknowledge the attacks but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address: “Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.”

A Ukrainian air force spokesman also didn't claim responsibility but said the Russian people were seeing the consequences of Russia's war in Ukraine.

“All of the people who think the war ‘doesn’t concern them' — it’s already touching them,” spokesperson Yurii Ihnat told journalists Sunday.

“There’s already a certain mood in Russia: that something is flying in, and loudly,” he said. “There's no discussion of peace or calm in the Russian interior any more. They got what they wanted.”

Ihnat also referenced an early Sunday drone attack on Crimea, Ukrainian territory which Russia occupied and illegally annexed in 2014. The Russian Defense Ministry announced it had shot down 16 Ukrainian drones and neutralized eight others through electronic jamming. No casualties were reported.

Zelenskyy has vowed to take back all land Russian forces have occupied, including Crimea, and his efforts have been strengthened by the receipt and deployment of increasingly advanced Western weapons.

In the earlier attacks on Moscow, Russia's Defense Ministry reported shooting down a Ukrainian drone outside the city on Friday. Four days earlier, two drones struck the Russian capital , one of them falling in the center of the city near the Defense Ministry’s headquarters along the Moscow River about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Kremlin. The other drone hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting several upper floors.

In another attack on July 4, the Russian military said air defenses downed four drones on Moscow's outskirts and jammed a fifth that was forced down.

Russia has also blamed Ukrainian forces for attacking border areas, and on Sunday, the governor of one such region, Bryansk, said a Ukrainian strike damaged a pig breeding complex and injured three people.

In Ukraine, the air force reported Sunday it had destroyed four Russian drones above the Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Information on the attacks could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, a Russian missile strike late Saturday killed two people and wounded 20 in the city of Sumy in northeast Ukraine. A four-story vocational college building was hit, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said. Local authorities said that dormitories and teaching buildings were damaged in the blast and a fire that followed.

While the attacks continued on the war front, so did the war of words. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, issued his latest nuclear war threat in a Telegram post Sunday. In it, he claimed Russian forces were preventing a nuclear war. He contended that if Ukraine, with NATO countries' support, succeeded in its counteroffensive, including if “they seized part of our land,” then Russia would “go for the use of nuclear weapons.” Western leaders have repeatedly warned of the dangers of making such statements.

Associated Press writer Andrew Katell in New York contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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What to expect during your Global Entry appointment

April 4, 2024 | 5 min read

Travel can be filled with exciting experiences. It can also be filled with lots of waiting. But two U.S. government programs can help. TSA PreCheck® allows travelers to get through airport security lines more easily. Global Entry, which includes TSA PreCheck®, helps them get through customs faster when reentering the U.S.

Applying for Global Entry may take some effort, but it can make travel easier on both ends. Here’s how to schedule your Global Entry interview—a key part of the process—and what to expect when you get there.

Key takeaways

• Global Entry is a Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) designed to help you get through customs checkpoints more quickly after reentering the U.S.
• With Global Entry, travelers can avoid paperwork and processing to reduce wait times.
• The interview takes about 15 minutes. You’ll need to bring required documents and be prepared to answer questions. 
• Capital One travel rewards cards Venture and Venture X reimburse cardholders for up to $100 of Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® fees.*

Earn 75,000 bonus miles with Venture

Redeem your miles for flights, vacation rentals and more.

What is Global Entry?

Global Entry is a TTP administered through U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Membership in the program lasts for five years.

Global Entry allows prescreened, low-risk travelers to reenter the U.S. by air, land and sea after traveling internationally. 

Members of the Global Entry program also receive TSA PreCheck® benefits . TSA PreCheck®, like Global Entry, is a TTP. It allows travelers to get through airport security lines more easily when leaving the U.S. for a foreign country—and also when taking domestic, connecting flights after they return to the U.S.

The good news for Capital One Venture and Venture X cardholders is that they’re reimbursed for up to $100 of either Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® fees every four years.

Who can apply for Global Entry

To apply for Global Entry , you’ll need to be a U.S. citizen, legal permanent resident or citizen of one of the following countries:

• Netherlands
• South Korea
• Switzerland
• Taiwan 
• United Kingdom

Children of any age can apply for Global Entry. Those under 18 years old need the consent of a parent or legal guardian to apply. The adult doesn’t have to be a Global Entry member, but they do have to accompany the child to their interview.  

Mexican nationals can also apply for Global Entry; so can Canadian citizens and permanent residents who are members of the NEXUS program.

How to apply for Global Entry

Here are the general steps for applying for Global Entry: 

• Create a TTP account.
• Complete the application and pay the application fee.
• Schedule an interview.
• Complete the Global Entry application process by attending the interview.

How to schedule a Global Entry interview appointment

You can start the Global Entry process by creating a TTP account , completing the application and paying an application fee. Once your application for Global Entry has been conditionally approved, the next step is your interview. 

Schedule your interview at a Global Entry enrollment center

To schedule an in-person interview, sign in to your TTP account and navigate to your dashboard. Then choose a Global Entry enrollment center for your interview. Because wait times for an interview can be long, it may help to schedule your appointment far in advance. It may be possible to reschedule your interview but doing so could delay your application.

Schedule your interview at a major airport

You may prefer to have your interview coincide with your travel schedule by conducting it at a major airport . This option is available through a program known as Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival (EoA). 

With EoA, you don’t have to schedule your interview ahead of time. Simply look for the EoA signs as you approach an eligible airport’s customs area when reentering the U.S.

Schedule your membership renewal interview 

Remember, Global Entry memberships last for five years. Members can start the renewal process one year before their membership expires. 

An interview may not be necessary to renew your membership. Once you’ve signed in to your TTP account, completed your renewal application and paid the renewal fee, check your account periodically for updates on next steps. If an interview is required, you may be eligible to conduct it remotely.

What to expect during the interview appointment

The Global Entry interview typically lasts about 15 minutes. In general, a CBP officer will review your application, check your documents and ask some questions. They’ll also take your fingerprints and photograph.  

Here are key ways to get ready for your interview: 

Bring required documents

Adult applicants need to bring a valid passport or a permanent resident card, if applicable, to their Global Entry appointment. One additional form of identification, such as a driver’s license or an ID card, is also required.

Children under 18 need to bring a valid passport or permanent resident card. The adult accompanying them should bring their own passport plus any additional documents, such as proof of residency, mentioned in the application. 

Lawful permanent residents of the U.S. are required to present their machine-readable permanent resident card. 

Prepare to answer questions

The in-person interview gives the CBP officer a chance to verify information about you. The questions they ask may be similar to those on the application, including these:

• Are you a citizen of the U.S.? 
• Do you plan on flying internationally into the U.S. within the next six months? 
• Have you previously applied for the Global Entry, NEXUS or SENTRI program?

How long do most Global Entry interviews take?

The interview typically takes about 15 minutes. 

How long does it take to get the results of a Global Entry interview?

To check the status of your application after your in-person interview, the CBP recommends signing in to your TTP account periodically. If the status says Pending Review, then CBP has received your application and is processing it. 

It may be helpful to know that the processing time for Global Entry can’t be expedited. 

What happens if your application is denied

When an applicant is denied Global Entry membership, they typically receive specifics about the denial in writing.

To have your application reevaluated, start by signing in to your TTP account. If you’re eligible to file a request, you should see an option to request reconsideration. 

Global Entry interview appointments in a nutshell

Global Entry is a TTP designed to help you get through U.S. customs checkpoints more quickly after reentering the country. One of the first things you’ll need to do when you apply for membership is to schedule an in-person interview with a CBP officer. 

If you’re considering applying for Global Entry, it may help to know that Capital One Venture and Venture X cardholders can receive up to a $100 credit toward their Global Entry application fee.

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What is global entry and how do you get it.

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Moscow-City: 7 surprising facts about the Russian capital’s business center

1. Guinness World Record in highlining

The record was set in 2019 by a team of seven athletes from Russia, Germany, France and Canada. They did it on September 8, on which the ‘Moscow-City Day’ is celebrated. The cord was stretched at the height of 350 m between the ‘OKO’ (“Eye”) and ‘Neva Towers’ skyscrapers. The distance between them is 245 m. The first of the athletes to cross was Friede Kuhne from Germany. The athletes didn't just walk, but also performed some daredevil tricks. Their record is 103 meters higher than the previous one set in Mexico City in December 2016.

2. Domination of Europe's top-10 highest skyscrapers

7 out of 10 Europe’s highest skyscrapers are located in Moscow-City. Earlier, the  ‘Federation Tower’ complex’s ‘Vostok’ (“East”) skyscraper was the considered the tallest in Europe.

Left to right: the lower of the ‘Neva Towers’ (296 m), Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt (300 m), Gorod Stolits (“City of Capitals”) Moscow tower (302 m), Eurasia tower (309 m), The Shard’ skyscraper in London (310 m), Mercury City Tower (339 m), Neva Towers (345 m).

However, in 2018, the construction of the 462 meter tall ‘Lakhta Center’ in Saint-Petersburg was completed, pushing ‘Vostok’ (374 m) into 2nd place. The 3rd place is taken by OKO’s southern tower (354 m).

3. The unrealized ‘Rossiya’ tower

If all the building plans of Moscow-City were realized, the ‘Lakhta Center’ in St. Petersburg wouldn't have a chance to be Europe's highest skyscraper. Boris Tkhor, the architect who designed the concept of Moscow-City, had planned for the ‘Rossiya’ tower to be the tallest. In his project, it was a 600 meter tall golden cylindrical skyscraper ending with a spire that was inspired by traditional Russian bell towers. Then, the project was reinvented by famous British architect Sir Norman Foster. He had designed ‘Rossiya’ as a pyramid ending with a spire. The skyscraper itself would have been 612 meters tall, and the height including the spire would have reached 744,5 meters (for comparison, the ‘Burj Khalifa’ in Dubai, UAE, would have been just 83,5 meters taller). Unfortunately, the investors faced a lot of economic problems, due to the 2008 financial crisis, so the ‘Rossiya’ skyscraper was never built. A shopping mall and the ‘Neva Towers’ complex was constructed at its place in 2019.

4. Changed appearance of ‘Federation Tower’

In its first project, the ‘Federation Tower’ was designed to resemble a ship with a mast and two sails. The mast was to be represented by a tall glass spire with passages between the towers. It was planned to make a high-speed lift in it. The top of the spire was going to be turned into an observation deck. But the ship lost its mast in the middle of its construction. Experts at the Moscow-city Museum based in the ‘Imperia’ (“Empire”) tower say, that the construction of the spire was stopped, firstly, due to fire safety reasons and secondly, because it posed a threat to helicopter flights – the flickering glass of the spire could potentially blind the pilots. So, the half-built construction was disassembled. However, an observation deck was opened in the ‘Vostok’ tower.

5. Open windows of ‘Federation Tower’

We all know that the windows of the upper floors in different buildings don’t usually open. Experts say that it’s not actually for people’s safety. Falling from a big height is likely to be fatal in any building. The actual reason is the ventilation system. In a skyscraper, it’s managed with a mechanical system, and the building has its own climate. But in the ‘Zapad’ (“West”) tower of the ‘Federation Tower’ complex, the windows can open. The 62nd and last floor of the tower are taken up by a restaurant called ‘Sixty’. There, the windows are equipped with a special hydraulic system. They open for a short period of time accompanied by classical music, so the guests can take breathtaking photos of Moscow.

6. Broken glass units of ‘Federation Tower’

The guests of the ‘Sixty’ restaurant at the top of the ‘Zapad’ tower can be surprised to see cracked glass window panes. It is particularly strange, if we take into consideration the special type of this glass. It is extremely solid and can’t be broken once installed. For example, during experiments people threw all sorts of heavy items at the windows, but the glass wouldn’t break. The broken glass units of ‘Zapad’ were already damaged during shipment . As each of them is curved in its own way to make the tower’s curvature smooth, making a new set of window panes and bringing them to Russia was deemed too expensive . Moreover, the investors had financial problems (again, due to the 2008 financial crisis), so the ‘Vostok’ tower even stood unfinished for several years. Eventually, the cracked window panes were installed in their place.

7. The highest restaurant in Europe

‘Birds’, another restaurant in Moscow-City, is remarkable for its location. It was opened at the end of 2019 on the 84th floor of the ‘OKO’ complex’s southern tower. Guests at the restaurant can enjoy an amazing panoramic view at a height of 336 meters. On January 28, the experts of ‘Kniga Recordov Rossii’ (“Russian Records Book”) declared ‘Birds’ the highest restaurant in Europe, a step toward an application for a Guinness World Record.

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