Avis - so my company is switching from Hertz to Avis

Hertz would give you points based on how much your rental cost. Then you could spend those points for free rentals just like you spent points at a hotel for free stays. I don't see any similar setup on the Avis website now that I've signed up. I've read that you just earn weekend credits with Avis? How does Avis work this system? :o

found it :o

Avis does not have a points-based loyalty program. However, U.S.-resident Preferred Service members who complete 12 or more qualifying rentals, or 35 or more qualifying days in a calendar year, automatically will be upgraded to Avis First . This invitation-only program offers exclusive benefits that no other car rental company offers -- like upgrades, weekends and more!

you have to earn Avis First status before you can even earn a weekend rental? weak

Weak indeed. Also note if you choose to earn airline miles on a qualifying rental, you can't double dip as well for the free weekend promo.

Enjoy.

Weak indeed. Also note if you choose to earn airline miles on a qualifying rental, you can't double dip as well for the free weekend promo.

Enjoy.

but can you start earning airline miles day 1 and not wait until you reach Avis First?

so my company is switching from Hertz to Avis

I'm sorry

but can you start earning airline miles day 1 and not wait until you reach Avis First?
Correct, you can earn miles immediately. However, I'm not sure if the rentals that earn miles will count toward your 12 for Avis First... someone with experience will have to weigh in here.

It's also worth noting that
-the use of most coupons on a rental will not allow the rental to qualify toward your free weekends.
-Many people are fed up with the attempted use of free weekend coupons. They are blacked out quite frequently (a search should turn this up).

If I were in your shoes, I'd just peruse the web for bonus airline miles (5000 DL miles currently) and use that promo and skip the Avis First because the upgrades are also weak on AF. As always, YMMV.

RE: AvisFirst

Details are at another site, www.avisfirst.com which bounces to the ccrgservices site and you can see T&Cs at:
https://www.ccrgservices.com/web/AvisFirst/AvisFirstMembershipDetails.jsp

I was in a similar Avis program before Avis moved me to this one at it's inception mid-2007. 2007 and 2008 were great with lots of free weekend days and great upgrades. Local stations started dropping out in giving upgrades in late 2008. The program was tweaked for the worse this January 1st. Anything that earns any FF points now is not a valid rental to the program. Any coupons entered will have a similar effect. Also AvisFirst is USA only, nada for me in Germany (have not tried elsewhere).

The free weekends coupon you earn is a 2 days "free" coupon on weekend rentals - so 2x the daily rate is taken off your final bill, but IME I do pay taxes & surcharges on those days. This year the blackouts on using the free weekend coupons ramped up including holidays (the weekends before and after anything that may be a bank or gov holiday), most of the "summer season" and "leaf season" in the northeast. Others reported they were always there, but with the ten-ish coupons I used in 2007-2008, I never saw a blackout and I rented on many holidays.

So I have not received a real upgrade since mid-2008 (in about 50 rentals). In fact, the actual car in 5+ rentals was a downgrade from my reserved car. When gas prices were soaring, they often "upgraded" me from compact to full-size SUV. Uhhmm, no thanks. I refused that "upgrade" normally, so maybe they marked my account as "customer prefers no upgrade". I think not though, since early in this year I began asking whether they had me as Avis First, do they participate in Avis First, do Avis First members here still get free upgrades? The answers were always vague ("Yes, but we have no available cars", etc), so the only thing that seemed to fit is that the local stations are no longer participating. Contrast that to 2007, when this status was just being recognized, but certainly meant something. To summarize, when you show up, they do list you as Avis First, but it means nothing. If/when avis budget group completely merges, I expect Avis First to be one of the first things to be tossed out and we all end up in Budget's "Rent more, save more" program.

I was thinking of trying to get taken out of the program since it seems to be more of a detriment now (ie. downgrades), but I do still earn/use the weekend coupons. If anything, I will take my non-corporate rentals to Hertz and Budget (cheapest prevails).

I'm sorry yeah I wasn't too happy about it... but at least I can still use Hertz if it happens to be cheaper than Avis


Correct, you can earn miles immediately. However, I'm not sure if the rentals that earn miles will count toward your 12 for Avis First... someone with experience will have to weigh in here.

It's also worth noting that
-the use of most coupons on a rental will not allow the rental to qualify toward your free weekends.
-Many people are fed up with the attempted use of free weekend coupons. They are blacked out quite frequently (a search should turn this up).

If I were in your shoes, I'd just peruse the web for bonus airline miles (5000 DL miles currently) and use that promo and skip the Avis First because the upgrades are also weak on AF. As always, YMMV. I am curious to find out if rentals that earn miles are qualifying rentals towards the 12 for AF... the other issue is that I'd want CO miles and Avis charges 75 cents a day to collect CO miles, which my company won't pay for so I'll have to itemize it out each time... plus at that rate it just seems you are basically buying airlines miles via Avis rather than earning them

as far as using codes for bonus miles, I have to use my company's discount code so I don't know if I can use a bonus miles code too

yeah I wasn't too happy about it... but at least I can still use Hertz if it happens to be cheaper than Avis


I am curious to find out if rentals that earn miles are qualifying rentals towards the 12 for AF... the other issue is that I'd want CO miles and Avis charges 75 cents a day to collect CO miles, which my company won't pay for so I'll have to itemize it out each time... plus at that rate it just seems you are basically buying airlines miles via Avis rather than earning them

as far as using codes for bonus miles, I have to use my company's discount code so I don't know if I can use a bonus miles code too

With Avis, your company's code should be an AWD (7 alpha-numeric characters). The codes for bonus miles, etc, fall under the coupon code and you can use both a coupon code & an AWD. Coupons are 4 letters followed by 3 numbers. Regularly coupons are in the form of _ U WA # # #, where the first space has the following significance:
-"T" = Time off (free day, etc)
-"M" = Money off ($X off your rental). I've noticed that the mileage codes also start with M.
-I thought there was a third character (these were described by ezmonee once) but I can't remember it.

In regard to the 75 cent fee: I think all rental companies charge it for miles on any airline. If it's only ~1-2 mile per penny, it's not worth it, but if you use the current DL promo, you can get 2500 or 5k DL miles per rental, which is well worth the couple bucks in fees.

Our company requires we use Avis and having used Hertz for the 5 years with my old job I simply HATE Avis. There's not a single benefit to be had with them for giving them loyalty.

Out of my last 3 rentals all 3 had about 30,000 miles on them. Granted I have no status with Avis and the economy is tough but I always got much better treatment with Hertz. And I never had any problems redeeming my points for rentals when I needed to.

Our company requires we use Avis and having used Hertz for the 5 years with my old job I simply HATE Avis. There's not a single benefit to be had with them for giving them loyalty.
Don't say that... I absolutely love that the Avis bus driver ask for my name when entering the bus, and when entering the Avis lot he tells me the space number and often drops me off close/near to the car.

Also by using the Delta coupon codes I'm earning 5,000 or 2,500 DL miles per rental and this has netted me 140,000 DL miles so far this year.

.....except not a single request for United mileage credit on my rentals has posted to my United Account.

I gave up on even bothering with adding the MileagePlus number to the reservations.

And if you like to bond with the Avis bus driver, i hope he drives you to and from work too ;)
I'll take a modest 1 class upgrade or a car that doesn't have 30k on it

I am curious to find out if rentals that earn miles are qualifying rentals towards the 12 for AF... the other issue is that I'd want CO miles and Avis charges 75 cents a day to collect CO miles, which my company won't pay for so I'll have to itemize it out each time... plus at that rate it just seems you are basically buying airlines miles via Avis rather than earning them

as far as using codes for bonus miles, I have to use my company's discount code so I don't know if I can use a bonus miles code too

IME you should get the rental counts when you use the miles. Someone may know otherwise, but once your AF you have to choose your path now (as of this year). Either free weekend coupons (and I think they now expire faster than they did a year ago) or the miles. You can't get both. I have had less than stellar experience in getting the weekend coupon to work.

I don't feel that the Avis First program has -0- benefits. I do get occasional upgrades and some stations have good staff, but with 20 rentals and however many days that equals this year, I am off to National next since those I know have just had a better overall experience.

In regard to the 75 cent fee: I think all rental companies charge it for miles on any airline. If it's only ~1-2 mile per penny, it's not worth it, but if you use the current DL promo, you can get 2500 or 5k DL miles per rental, which is well worth the couple bucks in fees. how about points for Hotels? same fee?

how about points for Hotels? same fee?

I think that it's only for airline miles, but an not certain... I'll ask for assistance from others who have actually earned hotel points from Avis.

Questions regarding earning ff miles/hotel points may be moot. Many of the corporate AWDs cannot earn them, none at all- once you get your company's shiny new AWD you will need to check with Avis.

Say good bye to all the good things about Hertz when you switch to Avis.


Very frequent "real upgrades" (I would rent 2-3 days a week and almost always got a Lincoln at Hertz. At Avis, my "upgrade" is from a Pontiac G6 to a PT Cruiser.

Newer cars. Very high mileage cars at Avis. Woner where they are buying all the cars with 30K+ miles on them? Katrina leftovers?

A point system that actually gets you usable free days. I would quickly accumlate enough Hertz points to do 10 consecutive day free rentals.
With the Avis First 'free weekend' program, - no more weekday free days and just try to find a place to use the Avis free weekend cert that doesn't have a blackout for that weekend (golf season, Nascar season, this weekend is a full moon so no freebees weekend, etc.)

My company switched to Avis also - unfortunately. Everyone I work with complains about Avis but nobody can figure out what Avis advantages our travel agent sold our company on. Has to be a kickback somewhere. The rental prices I see on the receipts are the same as Hertz were.

I think that it's only for airline miles, but an not certain... I'll ask for assistance from others who have actually earned hotel points from Avis.since there is no 'warning' about cost for hotel points like there is for FF miles, I'm guessing there is no fee... I set my reservation to include HHonors points and see what happens, if I get points at all





Say good bye to all the good things about Hertz when you switch to Avis.


Very frequent "real upgrades" (I would rent 2-3 days a week and almost always got a Lincoln at Hertz. At Avis, my "upgrade" is from a Pontiac G6 to a PT Cruiser.

Newer cars. Very high mileage cars at Avis. Woner where they are buying all the cars with 30K+ miles on them? Katrina leftovers?

A point system that actually gets you usable free days. I would quickly accumlate enough Hertz points to do 10 consecutive day free rentals.
With the Avis First 'free weekend' program, - no more weekday free days and just try to find a place to use the Avis free weekend cert that doesn't have a blackout for that weekend (golf season, Nascar season, this weekend is a full moon so no freebees weekend, etc.)

My company switched to Avis also - unfortunately. Everyone I work with complains about Avis but nobody can figure out what Avis advantages our travel agent sold our company on. Has to be a kickback somewhere. The rental prices I see on the receipts are the same as Hertz were. Hopefully I'll still be able to rent Hertz at times if the price happens to be lower than Avis. I've read up on the Avis program in addition the info in this thread and I agree it is nothing like Hertz's program. I'll see what car I get on my first Avis rental in SFO

Most organizations I'm affiliated with have agreements with all the rental companies. It's simple: Let the customer choose what works best for them. For some things I've found Avis to be better, for certain other things I've seen that Hertz is better, etc.

I too had to make the corporate switch a couple of years ago from Hertz to Avis. It's just plain terrible.

The Avis service is okay -- meaning I have not encountered any major issues like some on this board. But there is no real loyalty program or incentive to rent with them. Hertz was great - I would consistently get upgrades and high quality of service. Half the time with Avis, I have to personally install the GPS that comes with the car (they hand it to you at the counter instead of putting it in the car). Occassionally, it will actually be in there.

Beware the smoky car and don't be afraid to ask for a different one (if they can find a similar one or be ready for a downgrade).

My other choice is Enterprise, which is not great. And frankly, I don't like them because of the high pressure sales technique when you try to pick up your car.

I think the general sentiment is that most of the car rental agency suck, with Hertz sucking the least.

I did get the 250 points on my HHonors account, posted within a week, no fee charged by Avis.

I ended up not having to go to the counter for signature even though this was my first use of Avis. I rented mid-size and got a Nissan Altima 2-door, which they listed as full size. Can't complain about an upgrade like that on the first rental.