Officially when you use Hertz gold plus points for a free rental, you are still responsible to pay the taxes. When you book online it will give you a total bill, which will be just the taxes.
When I rented recently in CA the total estimated charges were just $4, that being the tax and a vehicle licensing recovery fee.
When I picked up the car, they gave me a full detailed bill saying the total charges will be approx $42 (the would be total cost if not for the points) and it mentioned the savings would be deducted upon return. They also held $242 on my cc not $204.
When I returned the car, they only added tax after the coupon was applied, which means they only charged me tax on the VLRF of 37c so I ended up paying a total of 40c, not the $4 I was quoted when I made the reservation.
So, bottom line I did not pay tax on my free rental.
My question is, does this always happen everywhere?
I just booked a free car for a week at JFK and the estimated total is approx $84, am I going to get away with that (or at least most of it) like I did with my past free rental?
Thanks