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How to earn Avios from Avis car rentals

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Avis Budget Group is the exclusive car rental partner of British Airways which means you can earn Avios when you rent from them.

We looked at how to earn Avios from Budget car rentals in this article. Today I want to look at how to earn Avios from Avis car rentals.

Before I go on, I want to make something clear. Despite the Avis Budget Group deal, you CAN earn Avios from Hertz, Europcar and SIXT car rentals. You do this by crediting them to a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account, which uses Avios as its currency, and then transferring the Avios across to British Airways Executive Club.

How to earn Avios with Avis car rentals

How do I book Avis car rentals to earn Avios?

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

How many Avios will you earn?

You earn 5 Avios per £1 spent at Avis.

Following changes a few years ago, there are no longer additional bonuses for paying with a British Airways American Express card or making multiple rentals in the same year.

There is also no longer a minimum earning rate. A very cheap rental will now only earn a very small number of Avios. You may be better off, if the rate is the same, crediting low value rentals to Qatar Airways Privilege Club which gives a flat 500 Avios per rental.

How to earn British Airways Avios from Avis car rentals

Are there bonus offers?

Yes, occasionally.

There is an 80% bonus running until 28th November 2024 as we covered in this article.

Are there any other Avios bonuses available from Avis?

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

Are there other benefits?

Yes.

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

You can no longer pick up Avis cars at Terminal 5

Avis no longer has a depot inside the long stay car park at Heathrow Terminal 5. It has moved to the car park of the nearby Staybridge Suites hotel which requires you to take a bus to and from the airport.

The only car rental group with cars inside Terminal 5 is SIXT, which has a desk in the lobby of the Sofitel Heathrow hotel.

Is the Avis / BA deal better than the Virgin Atlantic / Hertz deal?

Virgin Atlantic and Hertz used to be a better deal for most people when Virgin Atlantic awarded a fixed 1,000 Virgin Points per rental.

However, this deal has now switched to 5 Virgin Points per £1 when renting from Hertz. This means that, if no bonuses are running, it is the same as the BA / Avis deal.

Details of the Virgin Atlantic / Hertz deal are on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Remember that, if you do end up renting from Hertz, you can now earn Avios in a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account.

Find out more

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

You can learn about the Avios deal with Budget car rentals in this article if you want to compare your Avios options.

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How to get FREE car rental status and other benefits via UK credit cards

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.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

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

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.

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

Category

Avis and Avis Preferred, British Airways and Avios

Comments (23)

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

  • Chester says:
    12 Nov12 November 04:47

    I’ve never had worse service than with Avis – the car was fine, but the experience of picking up/dropping off and dealing with the customer service agent was certainly not worth a few extra avios sadly.

  • Whitworth says:
    12 Nov12 November 07:02

    I have recently realised I have herts president (from IHG diamond) and Avis president (from Amex plat) .

    I have multiple bookings to make in Japan Europe and South Africa. Which do people have the best experience with at the top level . I want to essentially use 1 rather than split everything. Both are very similar prices . I have 2 previous Avis rentals but hadn’t upgraded account to president so didn’t experience top tier

  • yonasl says:
    12 Nov12 November 07:22

    Booking a car without the code: £90. I add the code and rerun £110. What is the code good for?

    • yonasl says:
      12 Nov12 November 07:47

      Just in case it helps for an5 day rental in Madrid:
      – using the Avis app and my Avis preferred login: £90
      – using the app, my Avis preferred and the code N744300: £110
      – using the link to the website at the top of this article and selecting BA silver member: £125 (but some Budget options at £95)
      – using the link, adding my Avis preferred and selecting BA silver: £110

      A litte too complicated if you ask me!

      • Londonsteve says:
        12 Nov12 November 13:11

        That would rather imply they think they can get away with charging more from BAEC status holders than other members of the public, presumably by assuming they’re likely to be less price sensitive and keen to rent from Avios at all costs because of the relationship with BA. The assumption is, unfortunately, likely to be correct, but nobody wants to pay more needlessly. I’m further assuming that one still collects Avios by booking any public rate and simply entering one’s BAEC membership number in the relevant field but not the ‘discount’ code?

  • Nick P says:
    12 Nov12 November 07:33

    Booking with the gold code from LAX no cars available, booking without plenty. Booking from Burbank cars available, but prices remain the same.

  • apbj says:
    12 Nov12 November 08:35

    As noted above, often cheaper to book without the code … but I do value the free additional driver so it often works out about the same.

    • Nick P says:
      12 Nov12 November 09:20

      If you have earned or hold ‘Avis Preferred Plus’ or above, you get a free driver in any case.

      Of note [but without any additional Avios] it is much cheaper to use the Avis website and not the BA website.

  • Danny says:
    12 Nov12 November 09:17

    Have never experienced such poor customer service than what I have encountered with Avis!

    Literally left stranded, no support at all.

    6 months of really poor communications to get anywhere near resolution.

  • John says:
    12 Nov12 November 09:25

    Never use avis budget group at miami. Fed up of saying that I just want the package as prepaid and always getting extra charges when I return home that I have clearly said I don’t want. Never happens with any other company or any other location. Avoid at all costs unless you wqnt to be ripped off.

    • iaint65 says:
      12 Nov12 November 10:16

      Same at Orlando

      • Nick says:
        12 Nov12 November 11:53

        Miami has always been fine for me, have never tried Orlando though. I have sometimes wondered if holding Preferred/PC (free with Amex Plat) is what helps avoid these shenanigans, everyone else seems to get them but me.

        • John says:
          12 Nov12 November 13:38

          You must just be lucky. Have avis preferred which always used to mean going directly to the car via the bay marked in the screen, however since covid they never allocate a car and make me go to the desk. Think it’s a way of screwing foreign people out of more money.

  • Pete says:
    12 Nov12 November 12:09

    You can book these as a car only BA Holiday via the normal BA holiday booking pages. You get the 5 avios/£ for Avis, an extra 1avios/£ for it being a BA holiday and i’m pretty sure you can still get the 3 avios/£ from a BA Amex as the transaction is charged by BA rather than Avis.

    • Londonsteve says:
      12 Nov12 November 13:16

      I’m not sure you do get the 5 Avios per £1 from Avios as you didn’t book the car rental directly with them (or via the dedicated BA Avis booking site), rather via BA Holidays. I also suspect it doesn’t count as a qualifying rental for the purposes of upgrading status with Avis as they provide BA with a travel agent price the public cannot access and we’ve no visibility over. Sure, you can compare the flight only and separate car rental price and see how much you’re saving by going down the BAH route, but that doesn’t mean BA is paying the same price Avis is quoting you, in fact, I’m fairly sure they’re paying a lot less!

      • Peter says:
        12 Nov12 November 16:24

        You do get the 5 extra Avios via BA Holidays. To quote the BA holiday booking page:

        “Collect 5 Avios for every £1 spent on car rental in addition to the Avios shown with your total price. Make sure you log into your Executive Club account to ensure you receive a free additional driver.”

        I just tried comparing the prices between the two methods and they seem to be exactly the same if you use the BA/Avis page or go via BA Holidays, but you get more Avios points when booked via BA Holidays. No idea about Avis status.

        I used it back in May, on a a ~£210 rental I got, three avios credits into exec club account: ~210 avios from BA Holidays, ~880 avios from the Avis offer (this actually comes in at less than 5x gross as it’s based on the price before VAT) and 630 avios for the Amex BA Spend.

        • Peter says:
          12 Nov12 November 16:32

          Also this isn’t booking your car rental combined with flights in the usual form of a BA Holiday. This is just booking a standalone car rental separate to any flights or hotels but booking it via the BA Holidays website to get extra avios points. BA allows a ‘Holiday’ to be just a car rental.

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

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