Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get a 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.

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.

  • Arun says:

    Can someone pick up a car if they have a different name to the booking/iberia plus cardholder name?

    • Matthew says:

      I’m wondering this too. One of the terms and conditions is:

      Rentals must include the Iberia Plus membership number of the first named driver (the “renter”). This Iberia Plus membership number must be given at time of reservation and the card shown at time of rental.

      I don’t have a license, but my partner is willing to pick it up/drive it. So wondering if I could still do this with my Iberia Plus number…

  • Richmond says:

    68 euro for keeping car for 3 days on my drive, Gatwick rental office. Let hope avios will post.

    • BigDave says:

      me too – It does say points could take up tp 8 weeks to post – worst comes to the worst I’ll get the amex points and the base points …

  • terri says:

    I am still chasing my missing avios for a Jersey rental in October with avis. No response to date to emails.
    If I needed a car that weekend I’d go for it, but on past experience I’m not picking up a car I don’t need. Car hire pick up can be excruciatingly slow not to mention the hard sell on insurance. Be pleased for those taking part when the avios post.

    • Richmond says:

      It took me about 6 months to get extra 1000 avios from November 2015. So I hope it will work better.

      Not worried about insurance, have annual excess policy. Otherwise wouldn’t bother as there’s always a risk of car damage and excess payment.

    • Chris says:

      I have 2 outstanding Avis rentals with missing bonus Avios.
      Not sure who to chase – Avis or BA?

  • Doug says:

    The confirmation e-mail or voucher does not state my iberia number anywhere. I know they should honor, but this system looks ancient.

  • rams1981 says:

    OT how do you check if your MBNA card has any of the AMEX offers?

    • the real harry says:

      MBNA cards don’t ‘get’ any offers – you have to sign up for them on the Amex Connect site

  • Nick says:

    Just got a quote for 49 Euros. Can you transfer Iberia avios to BA Exec club?

  • Dave H says:

    Thanks for the heads up, booked an astra for 3 days for 51Euro, was considering one for the wife’s next car so get an extended test drive and hopefully some bonus avois, at least we can cancel for no charge if it looks like the offer won’t be honoured.

  • Nick says:

    Not on the same topic, but (as mentioned in a post above), but the ‘gifting’ part seems like a good deal from BA.

    Extract from the BA website:
    ‘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.’

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

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