BA shakes-up how you earn Avios from Avis – and launches a 50% bonus

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

British Airways and Avis, its dedicated car hire partner, have launched a shake-up of the way you earn Avios with your rentals.

If you want a one word answer to the question ‘Am I going to be better off?’, I’m afraid I can’t give you one.

This is what has changed:

Avis Avios promotion

The earning rate has risen from 3 Avios per £1 spent to 5 Avios per £1 spent

The bonus of 250 Avios for paying with a British Airways credit card appears to have gone

The bonus of 1,000 Avios for renting four times in a calendar year appears to have gone

The minimum earning rate of 500 Avios (700 Avios for a 3+ day rental) has gone

Are you a winner or a loser?

If you are doing very short, cheap rentals then you are clearly a loser. This is because the minimum earning floor of 500 Avios for 1-2 day rental, or 700 Avios for a 3-day rental, has gone.

You are a winner if you are spending over £100 (£140 for a 3+ day rental) because the higher earning rate offsets the loss of the 500 / 700 Avios minimum earning.

If you would normally pay with a BA Amex (you have now lost the 250 Avios bonus for doing this) or rent enough to trigger the defunct 1,000 Avios for four rentals bonus, you need to factor that in too.

Is this better than the Virgin Atlantic / Hertz deal?

For most people, probably not.

You can earn 1,000 Virgin Points with a Hertz rental. Details of the Virgin Atlantic / Hertz deal are on the Virgin website here.

You would need to spend £200 with Avis before you would earn 1,000 Avios. Since you can almost always get a car rental down to £20 per day for a Compact with the use of the right codes and offers, this would imply that most people won’t be spending £200.

British Airways Avis partnership

Are there any other Avios bonuses available from Avis?

Avis has retained one of the extra bonuses it used to offer.

If you join Avis Preferred for free you will collect an additional 1,000 bonus Avios on your first Preferred rental.

Is the ‘free additional driver’ offer still here?

Yes.

If you book via the British Airways discount codes below, you will also receive a free additional driver. This can represent a decent saving and is one of key perks of the Avis / BA partnership.

How does the 50% bonus Avios work?

To launch this new earning structure, Avis is offering a 50% bonus on rentals completed by 28th February 2021.

This means 7.5 Avios per £1 you spend.

Here’s the small print:

Must book by 3rd December

Must book a Group C car or higher

Must book for 2+ days

Must book via the BA website or the Avis BA microsite

Must pick up car by 28th February

Not valid for collections between 15th December and 1st January inclusive

Valid for rentals in mainland Spain, Balearics and Canaries, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and United Kingdom

You can check out the full details on the Avis / British Airways website here.

Avis bonus avios

How do I book?

Avis and BA have a dedicated booking site which you can find here and which automatically adds the correct discount code.

If you use avis.co.uk, you will need to manually add the British Airways discount codes (AWD) which are, based on your British Airways Executive Club status:

Gold members – N744400

Silver members – N744300

Bronze members – N284300

Blue members – N744100

Full details of this offer and all of the partnership benefits are on the Avis / BA website here.

You can also book, and find out more, on the car hire pages of ba.com here.

Note that all of the above only applies to Avis rentals. The British Airways partnership with Budget, sister company to Avis, works differently. You can learn about the Avios / Budget car rental partnership here.

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: