Huge 18,700 Avios for ONE UK Avis rental – but does it make sense?

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Iberia Plus and Avis have launched a very low key promotion which a HfP reader flagged up last night. If you can make this work for you, you could do very nicely.

Take a look here.

Avis is offering 18,000 Avios if you book a Group C car, or above, for 3 days or more, starting on 8th, 9th or 10th December.

You will also earn at least 700 base Avios for the rental.

If you can get a good rate from your local depot this could be a real winner.

The devil is in the detail with offers like this. If you are thinking of taking part, read the rules carefully as well as my summary below.

You will earn these Avios in Iberia Plus. You will need a free Iberia Plus account to take part. You will not get the bonus if you credit to avios.com or British Airways Executive Club.

You must book on avisiberia.es, iberia.com or avis.es. Bookings on avis.com or avis.co.uk do not qualify.

Your rental must be in the UK, mainland Spain, Balearics and Canaries, Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium or Holland.

The deal is NOT valid on Prestige rentals, Chauffeur Drive or van rentals.

You cannot use any other coupon, promotion or frequent flyer points offer. This implies to me that you must book at the standard Avis rate. It even implies that using the Iberia discount code would disqualify you. This may be taking the rule too literally but you don’t want to risk 18,000 Avios.

It is worth pricing up a 3-day rental from your local Avis depot. Try out rentals starting on the 8th, 9th and 10th for three days for a Group C or above. If the price works then it could be worth renting a car and sticking it on your drive for the weekend.

I tried a random booking in Bolton and got a price of €51 – a bargain for 18,700 Avios.

Unfortunately, because I can’t park anywhere near my own house without a parking permit, it isn’t one for me. If you can make it work for you it could go nicely. Just make sure you follow the rules to the letter.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

Avis and Avis Preferred, Iberia and Iberia Plus

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Nick says:

10 Dec10 December 07:36

Picked mine up tonight from DSA. After narrowly avoiding the quickest hire car run in history (had to prove my address – luckily the Rep said anything will do I showed him a copy of my ba email for my recent Black Friday CE deal he agreed to hand over the keys….after I declined the excess reduction of £30/day but got stuffed by the £200 deposit I even got an upgrade to j class group which I thought was quite apt!

Mondeo estate diesel auto titanium x…thanks v much until I went to check for damage in the dark and found it was a black car and hadn’t been washed in its 2k miles on the clock…que anger and expletives and picture taking on my phone as people walked past and even colleagues I’ve previously worked que me awkward laugh. The rep said any damage not listed just ring us up on our answer machine and I’ll pick it up on Monday. Most bizarre system ever I was all set for a rant back to the terminal when as if by magic the drivers returned and were passing saying are you okay. After explaining the odd scratch etc I found the v helpful chap wrote the new damage up and I made him write car filthy can’t check and gave me his details.

Car deposited on parents drive 3 miles away. Both rep and service driver were like 18k avios that’s fantastic crack on que…funny looks. No intention of fuelling up car or using it taking it back Monday.

As for the avios posting fingers crossed!
Lloyd says:

10 Dec10 December 11:45

I just picked up my car, but was told that the promotion may not be valid because it was booked through the Spanish site, and this is generally not allowed because the pricing is different for different countries….
Fingers crossed in any case!
- Howard says:
  
  10 Dec10 December 12:27
  
  All T&Cs have been followed. It does specify that rentals can booked for U.K. mainland. We have merely taken advantage of an offer.
Tom says:

10 Dec10 December 14:53

Just picked up my car from Cambridge branch. The manager said that they’d been inundated with Spanish rentals and they’re simply not accepting any more bookings as he’d had to chase around to find enough cars for everyone. He was surprised to see lots of Spanish reservations but he had checked with head office and said that these rentals will all be eligible for the 18000 Avios promotion.

Parked my car around the corner from the rental location and will return in 3 days with probably the same reading on the odometer as when it left. Fingers crossed that the points go on as promised! 0.27p per Avios bargain! 🙂
- the real harry says:
  
  10 Dec10 December 17:06
  
  hope you get them
  
  on my moochy 11 mile walk just now I was thinking it’s not just £150 cost to Avis, ie 18K Avios plus the depreciation/ cleaning the car etc
  
  It’s also the opportunity cost.
  
  So they should have used those cars for 3 days’ profitable rental, maybe £15 profit a day if you include the excess insurance.
  
  So each one of you is costing Avis £200.
  
  I guess there 1000 people doing this.
  
  = £200,000 loss to Avis.
  
  I reckon a fair few of you will struggle to get your Avios.
  - Nick says:
    
    10 Dec10 December 17:12
    
    Struggle how?
    - Worzel says:
      
      10 Dec10 December 17:31
      
      I’m surprised at your negativity for this one Squills!
      
      There’s no reason for the miles not to be awarded, T&C’s in black and white and complied with-whether the deal will ever be repeated is another matter.
      
      Furthermore, I’m struggling with your Maths!!
      
      Worz.
    - the real harry says:
      
      10 Dec10 December 17:40
      
      probably the beer lol 🙂
      
      18000 Avios = £180
      
      Avis didn’t hire the cars out, when they should have made £15/ day profit
      
      3 day hire = £45 foregone
      - Britbronco says:
        
        10 Dec10 December 21:46
        
        I think you are significantly out with your estimate of how much Avis pay Iberia for Avios.
      - Genghis says:
        
        10 Dec10 December 22:33
        
        I’m not so sure. I remember Rob mentioning a while back that Amex pay a lot more than we think for avios and I’m almost certain they can get them cheaper than Avis.
      - Anon says:
        
        10 Dec10 December 23:36
        
        I’ve rmnailed Rob about mentioning in a Bits post on the potential for a fuel surcharge for rentals under 75kms
        
        Hinted at here on FT…
        https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/iberia-airlines-iberia-plus/1805695-amazing-avis-avios-deal-2.html
  - Cormac says:
    
    10 Dec10 December 22:15
    
    This assumes that Avis could have rented the cars over this period. I’d just assumed that this had something to do with a “dead period” in rentals pre-xmas – probably naive as I know nothing about that business – otherwise you are correct.
    
    in Northampton – I was asked whether I spoke spanish earlier – as my copy of the agreemeent printed out in Spanish. The sales person seemed unaware – so I’m assuming I’m the only one that hired from Northampton?
    - Fenny says:
      
      10 Dec10 December 22:47
      
      Northampton is my nearest Avis. Given how useless they were last year when I hired a car for 6 weeks, I wouldn’t trust them to hand out bottles of water at a fun run, let alone anything else. And getting over there yesterday to pick up a car would have been a massive PITA.
- Worzel says:
  
  10 Dec10 December 17:20
  
  I’d be more concerned about potential damage to the car Tom if it’s parked on the street-even if you have car excess insurance, it’s hassle.
  
  My little baby(picked up on Thursday and just 750 miles old) is parked safely on our driveway.
  
  Ahh, hang on !!!
  
  Note to self:
  
  “Worzel, make sure that you are on the driveway later to meet and greet Mrs Gummidge when she returns home from work !!” 🙂 .
Anon says:

10 Dec10 December 23:29

I wonder if Rob will highlight the potential for a fuel surcharge of less than 75km (with no receipt of refueling)

It’s hinted here on FT..
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/iberia-airlines-iberia-plus/1805695-amazing-avis-avios-deal-2.html
Anon says:

10 Dec10 December 23:33

Wonder if Rob will mention in a ,Bits post on the potential for a fuel surcharge for rentals under 75kms?

Hinted at here on FT…
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/iberia-airlines-iberia-plus/1805695-amazing-avis-avios-deal-2.html
Our_Kid says:

11 Dec11 December 07:27

Picked my vehicle up that I needed anyway from LHR T3 – ready for pick up in the Preferred lane – upgraded to a Group F Tucson and very good too!

Paperwork has IB number on it all seems good!!
Gavin says:

11 Dec11 December 14:54

Just dropped my three-day Group E Peugeot 2008 back to Luton Airport; actually needed to hire a car this weekend for a work trip and will claim back milage. Great service as ever with Avis up there.

Car hire £51 + Diesel £16 – Milage £36 = £31 for 18700 avios (hopefully). Four mile walk home? Priceless.

As my Iberia account is over three months old; and I’ve transferred 1000 MR points in, I would hope these are easily accessible. Anyone know when these are likely to post?
vol says:

17 Dec17 December 22:57

Fiddlesticks. Missed the class ‘C’ or above bit when booking 🙁

Still. I got a nice car for a couple of days for not a bad price 😀