How to earn Avios, miles and hotel points from Europcar car 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 two big boys, Hertz and Avis Budget.

It was, historically, useless for earning Avios.

In 2022, things got better for Avios collectors when Qatar Airways Privilege Club adopted Avios as its frequent flyer currency, replacing Qmiles. Privilege Club was already a Europcar partner.

You are able to link your British Airways Executive Club account to a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account and transfer Avios back and forth between the two. This opened up a number of new Avios earning options which we summarised here.

As that article shows, you can earn 500 Avios in Qatar Airways Privilege Club with every Europcar rental.

Platinum and Gold members of Privilege Club earn an additional 500 bonus Avios when booking a premium rental, which is defined as Standard category or higher.

Details are on the Qatar Airways website here.

You can also earn Avios via Finnair Plus

In 2024, Finnair Plus also adopted Avios as its loyalty currency.

Finnair Plus is also a Europcar partner. However, as you only earn 350 Avios per rental – and US rentals are excluded – there is no point crediting here when you can credit to Qatar Airways instead.

Which other airlines partner with Europcar?

If you are not interested in (indirectly) earning Avios via Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Europcar has some other airline partners:

• Miles & More – earn 500 miles per rental (3 miles per €1 in Germany)

• Emirates Skywards – earn 600 miles per rental (1,000 miles for premium cars)

• Delta SkyMiles – earn 60 miles per day at participating locations

…. plus Air Europa, Flying Blue, American Airlines and others. Europcar makes it difficult to find out details of their partners with the UK website only listed a selection of participating airlines.

Earning hotel points with Europcar

Europcar has partnerships with three major hotel groups which can earn you hotel loyalty points.  You could turn these into Avios if you wished.

Earning with Accor Live Limitless

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 is not a good idea, however, as you only get half the value compared to redeeming for a hotel room, ie €20 per 2,000 points instead of €40.

You will earn 3 Accor Live Limitless points per €1 spent. 3 points are worth 6 Eurocents off a future hotel stay so it is a decent return. It is also possible to convert Accor points to Avios at 1:1 but the high minimum number required means it is impractical to do it just from car rentals.

You will also receive a bonus of 500 to 1,000 Accor points, depending on your Accor status level, after your 2nd Europcar rental credited to ALL.

Note that rentals in Canada, China and Japan do not earn points.

There are additional benefits for Accor Platinum and Diamond members including a 20% discount on rentals.

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

Our two-part HfP guide to Accor Live Limitless starts here.

Earning with Radisson Rewards

Radisson Rewards has a relatively new partnership with Europcar.

You will earn 300 Radisson Rewards points per rental day if you credit a Europcar rental, up to a maximum of 1,800 Radisson Rewards points per rental.

We value a Radisson Rewards point at around 0.2p following the recent devaluation, so this is not exactly generous.  It is better than nothing (just ….) if you are using Europcar anyway.

Bookings need to be made via this special Europcar site and you cannot credit rentals from the USA, Canada, Japan, China and India.

You can find out more on the Radisson Rewards website.

Earning with MeliaRewards

You won’t find any mention of a MeliaRewards partnership on the Melia website, but it is on the Europcar partners list.

A quick search brought up this page, which offers 10 MeliaRewards points per Euro spent.

It is only valid for rentals in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

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:

• a 10% discount on all rentals of 3+ days

• 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.

Conclusion

Europcar is more interesting to British Airways flyers than it was. This is due to the ability to earn Avios in Qatar Airways Privilege Club and move the points onwards into British Airways Executive Club.

If the relatively modest number of miles doesn’t excite you, Accor Live Limitless may be a more valuable reward choice.

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How to get FREE car rental status and other benefits via UK credit cards (April 2025)

If you hire a car in the UK, you can get special benefits (discounts, upgrades, free additional drivers etc) if you have elite status with a car rental programme. You can get elite status for free via certain American Express cards.

The Platinum Card and American Express Business Platinum

The Platinum Card from American Express and American Express Business Platinum come with two free car hire status cards. Your supplementary Platinum cardholder can also receive status in their own right.

From Avis, you receive President’s Club status in Avis Preferred. This gets you up to 25% off standard rates, a free additional driver and a guaranteed one class upgrade. For weekend rentals you will receive a two class upgrade, subject to availability.

From Hertz, you receive ‘Five Star’ status in Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. This gets you up to 15% off standard rates, a free additional driver and a one class upgrade, subject to availability.

Hertz also offers Platinum cardholders a 4 hour grace period on rentals. Your final day is treated as 28 hours, so a 1pm pick up with a 5pm return the following day is only charged as one day, not two days. We wrote about the Hertz / Platinum 4 hour grace period here.

The Platinum Card also comes with full car hire insurance with no obligation to pay for the rental via American Express. You can refuse any attempts to sell you additional insurance at pick up. This benefit has substantial value if you rent on a regular basis.

You can find more details on the two Platinum cards, and apply, in our full reviews linked below. You can apply here for the personal card and here for the business card.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is an excellent card in its own right. You receive 20,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up (convert to 20,000 Avios amongst other things), four airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit. Even better, your first year is free.

There are two car rental benefits:

• you receive Preferred Plus status in Avis Preferred

• you receive a special package with Hertz – 10% off best available rates at participating locations, a one class upgrade for rentals of 5 days or more, subject to availability, and no additional driver fees

Find out more about the benefits of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold in our review. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.