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.

Simon Schus says:

8 Dec8 December 17:19

Boo, I’m out the country.
@mkcol says:

9 Dec9 December 12:09

Booked a Hyundai i10 for E49.15ish
Today I have collected a Hyundai Tucson….I only had 1.5cm spare each side when reversing in the drive against brick walls. That was fun!!
- JP says:
  
  9 Dec9 December 16:31
  
  I don’t want to ruin your day but you needed to book at least a group c car for the offer (which is a Hyundai i30 and up – Hopefully was just a typo when you posted….)
Andrew C says:

9 Dec9 December 18:17

Picked up my rental this morning from Basingstoke and was upgraded to a Skoda Octavia. I don’t know how Skoda have managed to make a car so boring but they have. The lady at AVIS said that there had been a lot of customers taking advantage of the deal, I wonder how many of them were HFP readers!
Alex says:

9 Dec9 December 18:35

Apparently this was causing huge issues at Avis in Liverpool today. Many many bookings and not enough cars. I set my parents onto this offer and my mum was lucky and got a car. She overheard plenty of folk in there asking if they could just leave the cars there as they didn’t want them anyway!!
Simon says:

9 Dec9 December 20:56

Collected my rental from Portsmouth Avis this afternoon and was upgraded to an Audi A3. I drove it two streets away and parked it in a residential area – I’ll be back on Monday to return it with less and a mile added to the odometer!
Britbronco says:

9 Dec9 December 21:28

A warning to anyone just parking nearby, there is a £12+VAT refuelling charge for rentals under 75km, unless you provide a fuel receipt.
- Simon says:
  
  9 Dec9 December 23:04
  
  Nope, that’s the EZ-Fuel option – something you have to opt into, not something they can force you to take. Bring the car back full of fuel and there’s nothing to pay.
  
  Check the terms here… https://www.avis.co.uk/drive-avis/car-hire-extras/fuel-upfront
  - Britbronco says:
    
    10 Dec10 December 21:34
    
    The small print, and plenty of experienced posts on FlyerTalk, suggest this is added to your bill automatically if returning with less than 75km
Simon says:

9 Dec9 December 21:46

I ‘picked up’ 2 cars today. Was planning on driving them round the corner onto a street lit residential area i’d found on google earth but the guy on the Avis desk was really helpful. He waived both £12 refuelling charges and asked me to take the keys but leave the cars in the Avis compound as would be safer. He said he’d had c.20 bookings via Iberia and knew the score for avios so knew it wasn’t some sort of fraud trick on Avis. He was very company loyal and asked me to come back with the keys to ‘return’ the cars at the right time, said it was a bit daft of Iberia but was happy for my business with Avis. For extra security he said there was no need to tell me which cars I was due to collect!
- Alan says:
  
  9 Dec9 December 21:51
  
  Nice to see some common sense – that also means they won’t need to go to the cost and hassle of cleaning and prepping the cars again 🙂
  - the real harry says:
    
    9 Dec9 December 22:48
    
    yes but I smell a lack of Avios being awarded
    - Alan says:
      
      10 Dec10 December 00:02
      
      With the key return on the day and closing out the folio then it should be OK – although the general crapness of hire car companies managing to award points in general may be more of an issue!
Nick_C says:

9 Dec9 December 21:53

Booked a Group E for €49.18 from Peterborough.

Very friendly clerk told me I was the fifth person today with a Spanish booking. They had suspected some sort of fraud and checked it with HO who told them about the promotion.

He offered to let me leave the car there as I live 35 miles away, but I’d already pre paid for NCP parking for my own car.

He also said they were now short of cars!

Got a Ford C-Max. Great car for the price.
- the real harry says:
  
  9 Dec9 December 23:07
  
  maybe they’re going to swallow the cost of the promotion? 🙂
  
  good luck to you
  
  I somehow doubt it for everybody, though