Renting a car in MIA on Thurs. thru Sunday. Can use any of the rental firms I want, and can credit to any of US, DL, AA. Who has got the best general FF offer (most miles credited)? Any thoughts? Thanks.

Djlawman

I received a Hertz offer that earns you 500 bonus Skymiles for using these codes:

CDP - 165385, PC - 932875.

Of course, use the same CDP with PC 932551, and you get $25 off, so I'm not sure many people take advantage of the bonus miles.

For my rentals, I have found that the best approach is to use the CDP/PC codes that achieve the best dollars-off or free-day discounts and take either Marriott Rewards or Hertz #1 Awards (ZE1) points for the rental. I've given up on gathering air miles from car rentals.

If you have a British Airways acct. Avis gives 500 miles per rental.
Dan

The best deal by far is to credit your rental car miles to Southwest. You get a half credit per rental (though Alamo is currently offering 1 full credit!), which means you get a free flight in 32 rentals.

Most other companies give 50 miles, which means you need 500 rentals for a free flight, so the Southwest deal is 15.625 times better! (How's that for math, huh?)

The BA deal isn't bad, but you would still need 50 rentals for a free flight.

JP

Do you have to fly Southwest to get the credit. I mean do they require some proof of travel on Southwest within certain period of the rental?

Car rental companies generally use one of three different methods of giving you miles, depending on the airline and the car rental company:

1. A fixed amount (usually 250) per rental.
2. A fixed amount (usually 50) per day
3. A fixed amount (usually 2) per dollar spent

So the best deal can be a function of which car rental company, which FF program, the rate, and the length of the rental.

To complicate matters further, there are a lot of deals out there that give double (or more) miles or give you other benefits. For example, with Thrifty you usually get 250 miles on US per rental. But if you are preferred with US, you will get 350, 500, or 750, depending on level. In addition, you will get 250 HHonors points if you stay at a Hilton while renting from Thrifty. I guess that's the best deal I'm aware of.

I am only getting 250 miles per AVIS rental with BA. Any advice to get 500?

With my previous employer, I went with 500 Marriott points per Hertz rental.

With a several day rental, miles on the airline du jour.

No, they don't. I've currently got a car from Alamo while mine is getting a fender-bender repaired, and I'll get the double credit.

Some rental sites ask for flight info as an option, I assume so if you don't show up they can check to see if your flight is late.

JP

Actually....it depends on what you are going to use the miles for...Avis gives 700 miles per rental(no matter the length) for Qantas account holders. Anyone familiar with the award chart for Qantas will know that you can use these miles for flights on AA.
The chart is a little quirky though..the reward points required is determined by the distance you want to fly....0-2000miles RT is 20K in economy and 2001-5400miles RT is 30K in economy....so....for a trip UNDER 2000 miles RT Qantas is the BEST deal...requiring only 29 rentals. For a trip 2001-5400miles RT...it jumps to 43 rentals and goes up from there...but you also have to factor in that you will be able to fly to many more destinations with AA than you will with SouthWest...and you get MRTC as well.
Hope this helps.

P.S.- You don't have to fly Qantas to get these miles.I have been doing this for a while now and have close to 100K in my Qantas account (Hilton double dip goes there too...1000 per stay) and have never even set foot on Qantas metal.

Avis and Hertz both give 1,000 Virgin Atlantic miles for each rental. Plus, if you receive Virgin miles, you don't have to pay the FF tax that Hertz is now passing on to renters.

I don't know why you are getting 250 miles instead of 500. I have always been given 500 miles per rental.
Dan

Sometimes, if you are using a corporate AWD, the miles are only half, for instance 250 instead of 500.

It is probably your case.

If you're elite with AA, Dollar gives triple miles.

I've found that they generally will have the, or close to the, lowest rates. And pretty interesting cars, including Jeep Cherokees and PT Cruisers.

Ah, yes, but good luck getting QF to post the miles for your Avis rentals! So far, I'm on my 4th request for June and July rentals that occurred in Australia! I've decided to get BA miles or Starwood points from now on, and only use QF when there's absolutely no other deal going (and then be prepared to fax and re-fax the rental agreements over).

I've never had a problem...although my rentals occur in the US...usually takes about 2 weeks to post.