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.

Tom H says:

30 Nov30 November 23:19

I seem to be only able to see limited pick up points in UK mainland, is there a simple solution to this? I.e. I cant see Aylesbury?
- Charlie says:
  
  30 Nov30 November 23:37
  
  Try avis.co.uk first to find the locations. Then book as per the article 🙂
  - Tom H says:
    
    1 Dec1 December 03:04
    
    Thanks for the reply Charlie, but that’s what I did, found the rental location I wanted on their .co.uk site then couldn’t find it on the linked site from the article where the offer was? Any ideas?
    - Charlie says:
      
      1 Dec1 December 06:45
      
      On the avisiberia.es site choose ‘All Locations’, the choose ‘UK Mainland’, then scroll. It’s in two lists, the first is all the airport locations. Go past it and you’ll see all of the other locations.
Anon says:

1 Dec1 December 02:56

Can’t seem to get a rate lower than €87.66 Euros, shame 🙁
- Mohammed says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 08:56
  
  I’m in London and am getting the same price. Works out to be £73. Isn’t it worth it for this price?
  - Phil says:
    
    1 Dec1 December 11:20
    
    That works out @ 0.4p per Avois. So looks good to me.
- Graeme says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 09:13
  
  No, neither can I – but then annoyingly City Airport is my most convenient site. That’s a real shame as that’s some easy Avios otherwise.
Mapman says:

1 Dec1 December 16:49

Successfully booked for collection at Ashford International for the price of €57.01 for probably an Astra. Rather convenient as I can catch the train to pick the car up. Might even pop to the Outlet Centre.
Once again, thanks for the heads up, Rob!
Chris P says:

1 Dec1 December 17:53

49.15 Euros for 3 days pu Liverpool. Only slight thought is in the T & C it does mention “one free driver for Executive Club” yet I didn’t quote my Wizard No nor mention BA. Either way, without the 18,000 Avios it’s still a bargain and will save the mileage on mine as I will be travelling a lot that weekend. Thanks, Rob.
Sharron says:

1 Dec1 December 21:22

Dumb question here but it says minimum category group C for the car so I’m presuming group E is okay?

87 EUR, was hoping for cheaper but I think still worth it.

Thanks
- CC says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 22:55
  
  Yes E is fine, A and B is are the ones to avoid.
- Alan Clare says:
  
  8 Dec8 December 16:05
  
  Hello,
  I got a booking for £57.00 in Norwich but again its a Group E which should be oaky.
  Only problem now is I can’t actually get over there to physically pick up the car.
  it seems that making and paying for the reservation is the qualifying part or a I wrong ?
  Alan
  - Rob says:
    
    8 Dec8 December 16:23
    
    Pretty sure you’re wrong, unfortunately. Same as booking a hotel room and not using – you get no credit.
CC says:

1 Dec1 December 22:53

Has anyone retrieved their booking on the Avis website? I just looked and the price is higher than what I booked at 59 euros. Although my email confirmation says 49 euros as it should.
- Howard says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 23:56
  
  Mine seems correct, 51 euros at both Iberia and Avis website.
Howard says:

1 Dec1 December 23:54

After checking the booking on the Avis website, at the bottom on the booking page it states a promotion has been applied, I assume this will be the discount/ promotion used on the Iberia system after completing the booking? As I haven’t applied any promotional codes when booking the car rental on the Iberia website.
Has anybody else noticed this on the Avis website?
- BigDave says:
  
  2 Dec2 December 09:24
  
  just checked now on avis.es and the same happens….
  yet on avisiberia.es where i originally booked it doesnt.
  hmmm
- CC says:
  
  2 Dec2 December 12:22
  
  Howard – Did you book a group C or go for the Group E?
  
  I was going to go for Group C but E was the same price so I went for that. Im just thinking now if that is a special price then maybe thats why I have the same message as you saying ‘promotion has been applied’ and would explain why my rental is showing as the normal price of a group E car when retrieving the booking, but the reduced special price in my email confirmation.
  
  Im considering cancelling and rebooking a group C car as Im sure they will find any excuse to wriggle out of crediting avios.
  - Howard says:
    
    2 Dec2 December 12:28
    
    I have two bookings. One which is a group c rental and the other a group e. Both bookings display the message “promotion has been applied”. I think and hope I’m correct in saying that the promotion is refereeing to the 18000 avios bonus.
    - CC says:
      
      2 Dec2 December 15:05
      
      Ah right, will just leave it as it is then, cheers
    - BigDave says:
      
      6 Dec6 December 10:04
      
      lets hope so, although I have an avis preffered number I’ve never used it and used a computer I’d never rented a car with etc..
      - Philip says:
        
        9 Dec9 December 18:51
        
        I had the option to book E at the same price as C but chose not to just in case a counted as a nullifying Promotion.
        As it happens I just picked up the car and I was upgraded from a Hyundai i3 to a Merc C200.
        Here’s hoping it all goes to plan.
Matthew says:

2 Dec2 December 08:55

Just booked, thank you very much HFP for highlighting this.