Europcar joins Nectar (and Hertz leaves) – and how to earn miles and hotel points from Europcar rentals

Europcar is a major player on the car rental scene in Europe (the company is based in France) although it has a lower profile than the big boys, Hertz and Avis Budget.

Europcar joined Nectar last week as a new partner.  Hertz and Nectar have gone their separate ways, it seems.

The Nectar earning rate is 1 point per £1 which is hardly exciting – you are basically getting back 0.5% of your spending!  However, there is a launch offer.  Until 7th February you will get 5 Nectar points per £1.

Here is the small print for the offer:

• car must be collected in the UK
• last day to collect is 30th June 2018
• last day to book is 7th February 2018
• only up to a 20 days rental
• cannot be combined with any other offer, promotion or third party loyalty programme
• points will be awarded within 8 weeks of car rental

Full T&Cs and more information about the Nectar partnership can be found on the Europcar site here.

You can also collect airline miles and hotel points with Europcar

It was possible to earn Avios from Europcar until a few years ago.  It was a partner with Iberia Plus but Iberia followed British Airways into signing an exclusive deal with Avis.

You can still earn Avios indirectly via Accor as I explain later.

Whilst Avios and Virgin Flying Club are non-starters, Europcar DOES still have many airline partners:

Miles & More – earn at least 500 miles per rental

Emirates Skywards – earn up to 1,000 miles per rental

Etihad Guest – earn 500 miles per rental

Delta SkyMiles – earn 60 miles per day

Qatar Privilege Club – earn up to 1,000 miles per rental

…. plus Air Europa, Eastern Airways, El Al, Finnair Plus, Flying Blue, Loganair and TAP Portugal.

It also has a partnership with a major hotel group which can earn you hotel loyalty points (which you can turn into Avios).

Earning with Le Club AccorHotels

As you can see on the Accor website here, you can not only earn Accor points with Europcar but also redeem your points for vouchers to spend on Europcar bookings.  This gets you the same value as redeeming for a hotel room, ie €40 per 2,000 points.

The earning rate for Accor is:

•  250 points for 1-4 day rentals
•  500 points for 5-7 day rentals
•  1,000 points for 8-days+ rentals

As each Accor point is worth 2c or one Avios point (if you convert to Iberia Plus), you will receive at least €5 of value per rental.

There is a special Accor / Europcar booking page which you can find here.

Important: do not convert Accor points into Avios via British Airways Executive Club.  For weird historical reasons, the rate into BA is 2:1 whilst the rate into Iberia is 1:1.  There is a minimum transfer into Avios of 2,000 Accor points.  Move to Iberia and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to get them across to BA.

Europcar is no longer a Hilton partner

Hilton cut back on its car rental partners this year.  You can no longer earn Hilton Honors points when renting with Europcar.  You can only credit rentals from Alamo, National and Enterprise.

You can also double dip with Europcar’s Privilege programme

Europcar has its own loyalty scheme called Privilege.  Full details can be found on the website here.

The perks are modest but, importantly, you can double dip with earning frequent flyer miles or hotel points so there is no reason not to join up.

The key benefits are:

free weekend rental after three rentals in a calendar year

£10 discount voucher after your second rental after joining

express pick-up service

Do 10 rentals over two years and you will be upgraded to Privilege Executive, triggering another free weekend voucher and an upgrade on every rental.  25 rentals over two years takes you to Privilege Elite, getting you a double upgrade.

The lack of any partnership with Avios or Virgin Flying Club might mean that you give Europcar a miss given a choice.  I can’t argue with that, and the poor earning rate from the new Nectar partnership doesn’t give you any extra incentive.

If the price works or they are the most convenient company in any given situation, however, you should at least find an airline or hotel partner on this list that will ensure you earn a little something for your trouble.