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.

t says:

30 Nov30 November 09:01

just saw this at BA too for extra avios
Purchase or Gift up to 100,000 Avios and receive 50% bonus Avios with any transaction between 00:01 hr GMT Wednesday 30 November and 23:59 hr GMT Monday 05 December 2016.
- Chris says:
  
  30 Nov30 November 09:18
  
  This highlights how good the Avis deal is – even with the promotion it still costs £207 to buy 18,000 Avios on BA.
- FEK says:
  
  30 Nov30 November 09:55
  
  Just received this too. Are there any experienced heads out there to gauge whether this is a good deal?
Paul L says:

30 Nov30 November 09:07

84 euros for me – not bad.
Andrew Tucker says:

30 Nov30 November 09:12

For those thinking of hiring a car and then not collecting. Here are the terms:

If you do not cancel your booking and fail to collect your vehicle within 24 hours of the pick up time, a fee of €40, £40 or 60CHF* will apply. (*depending on the country of rental and exclusive of any applicable VAT).
Mike says:

30 Nov30 November 09:15

I need a car from the 9th to 11th from CAG (sardinia so Italy). It’s the same price as a three day booking as I return late on the 11th, but if I did go for this would I do better booking until the 12th and returning early or could this cause me problems.

Avis price €60 compared with £12 through a broker so only worth doing if the miles are guaranteed.

Opinions welcome.
Dave says:

30 Nov30 November 09:19

its only 49 euros for me, however i cannot get passed the quote page when I enter my ibera membership number, any ideas?
- Dave says:
  
  30 Nov30 November 09:37
  
  Got it to work
  
  49Euro for a Category E too, will pick it up on my way home from work on the friday and leave my car near the office then swap back on the monday
  
  Just use an astra for the weekend
  - Craig says:
    
    30 Nov30 November 10:06
    
    Says it must be cat c or above.
    
    Qualifying rentals must be booked between 21st November and 10th December 2016, to be picked up between 8th and 10th December 2016, and returned on or after 11th December 2016.
    To qualify, rental length must be minimum 3 days and include overnight Saturday 10th December, and minimum car group C.
  - Craig says:
    
    30 Nov30 November 10:07
    
    Ignore me. I’m an idiot. Still half asleep
- BigDave says:
  
  30 Nov30 November 09:39
  
  the iberia number is entered when you enter your address contact details etc…
  are you sure you’re not doing what I did and entering it at the bottom of the page where you request the quote as that is for the avis preferred number (I failed to read the page properly and assumed it was asking for the iberia one)
  - Dave says:
    
    30 Nov30 November 10:09
    
    I was entering it in the Avis box 🙂
    
    Hadnt had my coffee on first attempt
Our_Kid says:

30 Nov30 November 09:21

Very happy with this – needed a car anyway for one way for 4 days – Astra came out at EUR153 – let’s see what happens!

Thanks to OP and Rob
Chris Anderson says:

30 Nov30 November 09:21

On avisiberia.es, it asks for “country of residence” in the quote section. Will you still get the bonus if you change this to UK? Or do you have to leave it as Spain?
- Our_Kid says:
  
  30 Nov30 November 09:27
  
  I left it as Spain – credit card also worked so let’s see what happens! I think the thing here is that the rental reference is ES for Spain rather than UK
  - whiskerxx says:
    
    30 Nov30 November 10:22
    
    mmm… I changed it to UK and had GB show in the reservation number.
    Having seen your post, I cancelled and rebooked leaving the first box, country of residence, as Spain, but completed the new booking with all the same info as previous.
    New reservation number has ES showing. No idea if it makes any difference!
    £44 for 3 full days.
    - Dave H says:
      
      30 Nov30 November 10:35
      
      just booked one with all details changed to UK and I have an ES booking reference
Nick M says:

30 Nov30 November 09:24

Doh – we’re in Dublin next weekend and need a car for those exact dates! Frustratingly already booked via Hertz, otherwise it would have been worth a punt to see if they are more lenient with their countries!