How HfP clogged up the UK Avis network this weekend

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A couple of weeks ago I ran this article about a shockingly generous Avios promotion run by car rental group Avis.

If you hired a Group C or above Avis car for three days, starting on December 8th, 9th or 10th, you would receive 18,700 Avios points.

Living in London, where car rental prices don’t drop too much at weekends, I didn’t fully understand how cheaply you could rent a car outside Central London. The answer is ‘very cheaply’.

Head for Points was the only site of scale in the UK to publicise this offer. It was actually aimed at members of Iberia Plus in Spain, and indeed the Avios will be dropped into an Iberia Plus account. The small print specifically said that UK rentals would count though ….

It seems we created a bit of carnage at Avis depots around the UK. Here are a few quotes from the HfP comments over the weekend:

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 18,000 Avios promotion.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Same over here. Their system went down in the morning, when it came back up, they had 17 more bookings. Completely out of cars as well – but they had no idea why, and I didn’t hang around to explain things. Hoping for the best.

I picked mine up today – Avis’s systems were down and reservations had to be completed manually. The attendant told me that there had been such a huge number of cars rented through this promotion and that it had meant that they had no more cars available for hire in their fleet. I was asked “Is this yet another Avios booking” when I arrived there.

So, erm, sorry Avis. But you did get quite a few bookings out of it!

PS. If you did a booking under this promotion, remember that you are meant to refuel the car – and provide a receipt – however little mileage you have done. Avis can fine you if this is not done.

Category

Avis and Avis Preferred, British Airways and Avios

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

Mark Whitelegg says:

12 Dec12 December 08:05

I paid less than £50 for a weekend rental from Avis Coventry and I didn’t even pick it up. The DAY BEFORE I had booked it, an Avis chap turned up at my home with the car and will pick it up this morning! Outstanding service! Although I didn’t need the car I used it to run around over the weekend and save my car some miles.
Arun T says:

12 Dec12 December 08:12

A bit jealous! Living in London – and fairly far away from an Avis depot – I couldn’t find anything for less than £150 (total cost incl getting to the depot) – which makes the time involved to do this far less economical for me.

One of the few times those outside London can benefit in the rewards space!
Anon says:

12 Dec12 December 08:16

Can confirm the mandatory fuel surcharge if no receipt is provided proving you refuelled,thus is regardless if the fuel gauge showing beyong the Full mark.

Thankfully I had a receipt showing I’d just stuck heaps in comparison to the miles done.
- BigDave says:
  
  12 Dec12 December 08:22
  
  The very nice lady at the desk did not mention any of this to me and she knew well my intention was only to drive a few kms…. hmmm
  
  Once in a diesel I drove almost 2 hours after filling up and dropped of fthe car with the electronic LED gauge showing full still… didnt get charged then
  - Rob says:
    
    12 Dec12 December 08:29
    
    If you have driven, say, 3 miles I doubt a refuelling charge would stand up legally. There is a minimum fill at most garages for a start.
    - Nick says:
      
      12 Dec12 December 08:47
      
      Exactly rob. My total will be around 12 miles when i return i estimate. As per my post below ill ring the depot and see what response i get.
      
      When i picked up on friday as far as hire car depots go they were spot on…helpful and friendly. I did have an issue when I failed to provide proof of address but the chap said look anything with your address is fine so was more than helpful when I showed a receipt from BA booking.
    - PAL says:
      
      12 Dec12 December 13:39
      
      Minimum fuel charge is what could save me if they impose this – I think in total I drove 3 miles.
    - davef says:
      
      14 Dec14 December 09:07
      
      I’ve just been charged £14.62 post rental which is the fuel charge – Put in a complaint as nothing was said pre or post rental.
      
      As you say petrol stations have a minimum charge of 2 L and since I only drove 11 miles in a car that does 50+ to the gallon it would have been physically impossible to top up.
Nick says:

12 Dec12 December 08:42

I still DONT get it…i’m ringing the depot at 0900 and see what they’re take on it is.

As per the website…..

Fuel options from Avis

Bring Back Full
No charge – even if you took the Fuel Up Front or EZ Fuel options below when you picked up your car.

Fuel Up Front
Buy a full tank of fuel upfront – at the average market pump price – so you don’t have to refuel when you return.

EZ Fuel
Driving for 75 miles (120km) or less? For a pre-paid flat fee, Avis will take care of the refuelling.

Pay On Return
If you haven’t got time to refuel and haven’t taken Fuel Up Front, we can do it for you. But this is the most expensive option.

As far as i can see i took option 1. I never took the EZ fuel option or fuel up front option. I was actually initially tols its just under full so bring it back half full if you want for no charge…then he said actually the guys did fuel it up to full so forget that just bring it back full. It then went on to got any plans…..when i talked about the fact it would move 10 miles max he never said oooh dont forget you need to do 75 miles and fuel up or if its less bring a receipt….

And how do i get a receipt for 10 miles of fuel, that’s probably below the minimum a garage will accept as a transaction. Failing that i can fuel up a hire car at work (not local to the hire car i hired) and get a receipt for £10 of fuel….or i can stick some fuel in my own car but its petrol (v local but hire car is diesel) anyway not sure how bothered they are.

I’ll update later when i’ve rung the branch.
- Anon says:
  
  12 Dec12 December 08:53
  
  I needed a receipt for 25miles.
  
  Had I not had one I would of been mandatory charged the EZ fee it is not optional without a receipt.
  
  Luckily I produced one showing a massive £5’s worth done ten mins previously.
  
  Avis did well out of me on this one, but I appreciate this mega Avios deal.
  
  #DontBiteTheHandThatFeedsYou
- Rob says:
  
  12 Dec12 December 09:11
  
  To be honest, I doubt they care too much with minimal mileage done. I only flagged it because a reader flagged it to me and I thought it was best to be safe.
  - Strawb says:
    
    12 Dec12 December 12:18
    
    I live in London and decided to pick up from Staines which is one stop just outside London travelcard Zone 6. Paid only €49 euros for my rental and £7.61 in fuel (asked for diesel car) for the 88 miles I drove over the weekend. Staines is a tiny depot and the friendly agent smiled and asked me if I was doing it for the points. She said I was the 15th person that day and it had been a busy morning for them. Also the system was down on that Friday. Same nice lady told me it had been a busy Monday morning with all the returns. Staines is a great choice, no queues, quiet town, close to M25 and great friendly Avis service.
    - Lawro says:
      
      12 Dec12 December 14:29
      
      Apparently all London Avis branches had IT issues on Friday morning.
      
      They couldn’t print my rental agreement and had to email it a few hours later.
Chris P says:

12 Dec12 December 08:53

I collected my car from Liverpool on the manual system as the computer “was down all over the country”. Booked C and given a Peugeot 308 Automatic – put 250 miles on it saving my mileage which is already over my lease agreement per month. The very friendly agent couldn’t believe I’d only paid 49.15 Euros!
Dave says:

12 Dec12 December 08:57

System was down when I picked mine up too, did 2 miles in it to my drive way, was going to use it but it was a horrible drive so stuck to my normal car.

Got a ford C max

just taken it back they didnt even bother checking it this time, maybe they already knew
John Peden says:

12 Dec12 December 08:59

Drove a grand total of 6 miles in mine this weekend. It sat on the driveway whilst I was in London.
Harry says:

12 Dec12 December 09:00

“remember that you are meant to refuel the car – and provide a receipt – however little mileage you have done”. This might have been interesting. I have picked up cars with a “full” tank only to find the full level go down very quickly after having driven a very short distance. In the same way as you can drive on “empty” for some distance, I guess you can also drive on “full” for some distance and that there are those who fill up some way from the rental drop off point knowing that the tank will still appear to be “full” when they get to turn the car in. It would be interesting to have rented a car and filled up round the corner and seen just how much fuel was needed!
- CV3V says:
  
  12 Dec12 December 09:58
  
  I have driven and returned hire cars where the fuel gauge has never dropped below the Full mark. I guess its as a result of someone else filling it to the brim, where the fuel gauge cant accurately calculate. Never been hit with a fuel charge.
  - Harry says:
    
    12 Dec12 December 11:01
    
    Maybe I have been unlucky enough to be the next renter after you!
    - CV3V says:
      
      12 Dec12 December 14:09
      
      Perhaps! My work always use Enterprise, who are quite easy going.