What Capital One Venture unlocks

If you already hold the Capital One Venture, you're one step from Hertz Five Star status: US cardholders 21 and older enroll through the card's Benefits tab, and the status shows up in your Hertz account 24 to 72 hours later.

From there, the free route keeps going. Hertz matches Five Star into Sixt Platinum worldwide, which renews every 12 months, and Sixt Platinum in turn earns a match into Avis President's Club — Avis's top tier — once you email proof of your Sixt status to Avis; that match holds for about a year. It's the best ceiling the card reaches without paying for anything or renting a single car.

There's a second, longer route to Enterprise Plus Platinum. Five Star first matches into Avis Preferred Plus, which — with 25 or more rentals in a year — can be matched again into Hertz President's Circle, and President's Circle then matches into Enterprise Plus Platinum in the US and Canada. The Avis-to-Hertz leg is a once-per-five-years move, and keeping Enterprise's Platinum tier afterward takes 24 rentals or 85 rental days a year, so this chain is only worth chasing if you're already renting enough to clear those numbers.