Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get a huge 18,700 Avios for ONE UK Avis rental – but does it make sense?

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

Avis 350

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 from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year 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.

Comments (291)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • t says:

    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:

      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:

      Just received this too. Are there any experienced heads out there to gauge whether this is a good deal?

  • Paul L says:

    84 euros for me – not bad.

  • Andrew Tucker says:

    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:

    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:

    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:

      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:

        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:

        Ignore me. I’m an idiot. Still half asleep

    • BigDave says:

      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)

  • Our_Kid says:

    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:

    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:

      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:

        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:

          just booked one with all details changed to UK and I have an ES booking reference

  • Nick M says:

    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!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.