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.

  • dave says:

    Can one do more then 1 booking.
    T&C doesn’t mention anything.
    At this price could do 10 bookings.
    With my 2for1 would be laughing the whole flight

    • Lev441 says:

      Lol – Fleet of cars outside your house for the weekend?!

      Chances are they would find a way to not award you the points!

      • the real harry says:

        you’d probably get another few thou Avios from Raffles for writing it up into a hfp article

  • Lev441 says:

    53 euro from central birmingham where i’ll be for the weekend…

    Great free 18,700 avios – thanks raffles!

  • PauloG says:

    Sorted. Group E Astra (same price as group C), for €79 from my local depot. It’s walkable, so no cost in drop off or even a bus fare. I will even save money on fuel that weekend, as the hire car diesel engine will be more economical than my petrol guzzling normal car!!
    Thanks Rob

  • YKW says:

    €50 for a 3 day rental from Thursday 8th to 11th.

    Still not sure if it’s worth it.

    • BigDave says:

      not sure if its worth all the hassle…… for 18,700 points yes it is as 20,000 points would cost you about €200+ on a good day with groupon faffing about

  • WhizHeir says:

    Thanks Rob, another good shout.

    Have cancelled my previous booking for that weekend (£95) and replaced it with the Avis Iberia one for €76 🙂

    So even if the 18k Avios never appear, I am still ahead – nice one 🙂

  • Gavin says:

    Very tempting and almost booked a car this weekend just for the avios, but i’m too worried about it being a massive hassle to actually get the points credited. I already have enough in my account for the next years worth of travel so I don’t have a pressing need.

    For anybody thinking of booking in London, the Battersea depot is in a small industrial estate which has parking for free between Midday Friday and 11am Monday. Quite a lot of spaces by the looks of it from Google Streetview. The car wouldn’t even have to drive half a mile!

    • damboy says:

      Ive just done a three day rental for 49 Euros – car will just stay on my driveway during this time.
      Are there any difficulties expected with getting the points credited – some of the posts indicate that this might not be so easy. Its hard for me to imagine that they wouldn’t award points as long as you have met all of the conditions as stated in their promotion.
      If it works, it a bargain way of getting Avios points. Thanks Rob.

      • jamie says:

        put it this way, the Iberia avios scheme is not exactly like the ba one! if you know what I mean

        man~ana mate!

  • CardiffJock says:

    Thanks for the heads up. Mrs Jock and I each picking up an Astra in Cardiff on 8th…49 euros x 2 for 37,400 Avios can’t be bad!

    cheers Raffles

  • Lawro says:

    Is there any reason why not all Avis locations in the UK show for me in the dropdown menu.

    I realize that this isn’t being booked through Avis UK but there are far more locations listed on the Avis UK website.

    Any workaround? Worth an email/phonecall?

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

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