Top National Car Rental Codes For Maximum Savings

National is one of our favorite car rental companies.  Part of it is because of Emerald Aisle, and the other is, National rental car discount codes often provide some of the deepest discounts on the market for car rentals. Also known as National Car Rental, this consolidates the current best promo codes on the market. 

What Is A National Car Rental Account Number?

When you’re looking for National Car Rental coupon codes, you’re really looking for one of two things.  One is an account number and the other are coupon codes.

In naming, it’s intuitive to think that it’s the coupon codes you want to look for but in National’s case, what’s going to give you the biggest discount is the account number.

Account numbers are essentially corporate account IDs that are assigned to companies and meant for employees or members of a particular association or program.

Coupon codes on the other hand are more general codes that typically offer smaller bonus-type savings such as a free upgrade, $20 off, $50 off, etc.

The best part about these codes is that you can use them anywhere around the world.  For instance, these codes would be great to use for an 8 day Iceland itinerary, or perhaps a photography trip to Utah and Arizona?

If you’d rather not use coupon codes, make sure to try Discover Cars or RentalCars.com.  These are search engines similar to Kayak and Skyscanner but for car rentals. They look at all car rental companies and provide the best rates so you don’t have to look at each one, one at a time.

Insight About National Car Rental Prices And Locations

Prices

Something I’ve noticed about National’s pricing strategy is that without codes, their pricing is quite high compared to say Budget which starts off really low even when you don’t use a BCD code.

However, when you plug in an account number, the prices fall dramatically to 1/3 of the original price or more.

Locations

One thing that you’ll notice about National locations is that they are primarily only at airports.  They do have local offices but they are few and far between.  As a result, National is great for car rentals straight from the airport but if you’re looking for a pick up or drop off in the city, you might be hard-pressed to do so.

National’s footprint is very strong in North America but you’d be surprised to hear that they also have many outlets in South America, Europe, and Japan.

Since National is partnered with Enterprise, all locations outside of the airport are serviced by them instead of National.

One thing you’ll also notice with National counters is that they’re normally next to Alalmo and/or Enterprise.  In some locations, they actually share the same staff.

National Rental Car Discount Codes

The below are a list of all of the National car rental discount codes. Each offers a different level of discount and we’ve also provided extra columns to make it clear which ones are beneficial for underage drivers and one-way rentals.

We’ve combed through massive lists of account numbers and you’ll notice that even on my list, many are similar.  There are also some other rental car discount codes that actually give you worse discounts than if you weren’t to use one so we haven’t included those.  Extra redundant codes with exact same offers have also been cleaned out.

Making it easy: To use the codes, simply click on the button on the right side of the table.  This immediately copies the code on your computer so you can paste it into the appropriate box when searching for your car.

Official National Car Rental discounts

These are the official set of car rental deals created by National.  They change roughly every quarter or half year.

Some of their deals are good if you’re looking for one of the destinations they’re promoting.

National Car Rental corporate codes

We’ve had to remove these codes at the request of National.

Which National Discount Code Will Save You The Most Money?

For those wanting the best deal, the truth is that “it depends” because it’ll depend on whether you’re an underage driver, doing a one-way rental, country, and overall length of rental.  That said, if you take a look at the tables below, it’s pretty clear how big the discounts can potentially be.

I’ve ranked the above by discount so it’s easy to decide which one of the best for you.

I recommend that you pick a selection of them to try on your own because your trip requirements may affect the actual savings offered by each discount code.

Don’t forget parking at the airport

Something that’s easy to forget in trip planning is how you’re going to get to the airport and if you’re driving your own car, where you’re going to leave it behind.

That’s where booking platforms like Airport Parking Reservations and Park Sleep Fly come into play. Whether you need to get a hotel package that includes parking or just parking itself, they have you covered.

Use the code AWESOME7 to save up to $7 off of your booking.

Airport Parking Reservations

Park Sleep Fly

How To Apply National Account Numbers And Coupon Codes

On the full list of car rental coupon codes, a common question was how to actually enter in these codes.  I will admit that National’s is the most confusing because of their own terminology which we explained near the top. 

The key to know is that when you’re thinking about corporate codes or discount codes, you’re really thinking about account number.  Small discounts that don’t yield large savings are coupon codes and they’re specifically identified in the tables above.

Once you head to the National car rental home page, the first step is to reveal the entry of account numbers and coupons which is labelled.  Click on this first to open up the text fields to enter the account number or coupon.

One of the sweet things you’ll notice about the National reservation system is that it allows the stacking of coupons.  So if you end up finding a few, it doesn’t hurt to add them all in to see if you can get the benefit of all of them.  There are likely restrictions though so don’t be too disappointed if some of them don’t work.

Additional Tips On Saving Money With National Car Rental

Here are a couple of basic tips on car rental savings with National.

• Register for Emerald Club – This is National’s loyalty program.  I personally think it’s one of the best ones in the market.  You accrue points that give you rewards such as free rentals or you can have them go into another loyalty program such as a hotel or airline.  Right off the bat when you register a new account, you get access to Emerald Aisle which allows you to walk right to the garage and pick whatever car you want in the special Emerald Aisle section even if it’s not the class you book.
• Skip the counter – Again, it’s through Emerald Club where you can go straight to the aisle to pick your car. Many locations have specific Emerald Club sections where you can pick any car you like no matter the class you’ve booked. This allows you to checkout at the exit gate.
• Book mid-sized: As an addition to the above, we always recommend booking the Midsize class because you will often full-size in the Emerald Club aisle of cars which means you automatically get a free upgrade.
• Stacking – Remember to try combinations coupon codes so you can get the benefit of multiple codes instead of just one.
• Last minute reservations – National offers last minute specials so make sure to check that page.
• If possible, rent from in the city – This might be harder to do with National since most of their locations are at airports exclusively.  For cities where it’s possible, those airport fees add up.  They sneakily call it something ambiguous which is why you’ll see Concession Recoupment Fee (11.11%) , FL Waste Tire/Battery Fee  ($0.02/day), Rental Facility Charge ($4.85/day), SC REC/FL Surcharge Recovery ($2/day), VLC REC ($0.80/day).  In parenthesis are examples of the fees at MIA airport.  In this example you’re looking at $96.79 vs $19.74 in extra fees for a one week rental.  That’s massive!
• Weekly rentals sometimes cheaper than 5 or 6 days – Discounts often kick in when you hit a full week so if you’re close to that, try getting a quote for 7 days.
• Use credit card for car rental insurance – Instead of purchasing LDW, leverage your credit card for insurance.  Make sure you read your policy beforehand to know what and how you’re covered.
• Their fuel program is never a good idea – Unless you think you’re going to be in a crazy time crunch, always fill up the tank before you return the car.  Even if they offer you a temping fuel plan, it’ll always be more expensive than you filling it up by yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions