Avis - Received an invite to the Chairman's Club today: What may I expect?

Received a letter w/o much information and a new customer loyalty card today. New membership number and it says Chairman's Club. Ane experience what that actually means?

Well I see you've already updated your flyertalk profile with your new status :D

Landed at CLT yesterday, got on the bus and when I arrived at the lot a manager was standing beside a nice low mileage CTS waiting for me.

Last week I rang up Avis because I'll be flying into an airport without an Avis location. So another location is going to bring me a car, and pick it up.

Now, there are good stations and less good stations, but they'll give a CHM any car on the lot except for the corvette convertibles or similar. You wind up driving a lot of Cadillacs unless you'd rather a convertible.

You get best car on the lot when you rent a midsize or larger, and they'll deliver a vehicle within 25 miles..

Received a letter w/o much information and a new customer loyalty card today. New membership number and it says Chairman's Club. Ane experience what that actually means?

Without being too personal, can I ask who you are/what you do, to be invited into Chairman's Club?

It really is the best. They offer great rates and normally upgrade you to a Luxury car.
Really go out of their way to help you (I have had the managers come over to the baggage carrosel to help me with my luggage).
Valet service back to the terminal -- you pull in... instead of scanning you in, they drive you to the terminal in your car and you hand over your car there....

Without being too personal, can I ask who you are/what you do, to be invited into Chairman's Club?

+1 on this...any chance you'd be willing to provide some insight into your rental activity? # of days per year, typical class reserved?

Much discussion of who gets invited here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/avis/653261-chairmans-club-offer.html

And discussion of the price increase for paid members here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/avis/914128-chairmans-club-almost-3x-more-2009-a.html

The first year of the program was reasonably priced.

The biggest benefit is that you get a nice car - usually a Cadillac. And it's cool that your car is usually sitting waiting for you all warmed up and ready to go in front of the Avis pick up spot.

The other big benefit for me was in Europe you tended to get a very nice car.

The program is supposed to have the local manager greet you. In my experience, that only happened about 10% of the time - the more times I returned to the same site, the fewer times I saw the manager. They also are supposed to offer you a ride to the terminal when you return your car (which can be nice in places like ABQ and DEN and Dulles and others where the return is off-site). In my experience it was almost impossible to actually get a ride back. By the time they would go and find someone who could drive you back to the terminal, you could already be there on the bus.

Avis has a number of non-corporate owned sites. Those sites don't typically have the high end cars and don't really seem to participate in the Chairman program at all.

The second year of the program they wanted $1000 up front. For those times when I shuttle customers around, I can buy the Cadillac myself for much less then the $1000. The other program benefits just didn't make it appealing enough to continue. It seemed to me to just be a way for Avis to get paid for high end cars up front.

So for me - the first year was well worth it. Continuing in the program after that wasn't. Maybe if I was still making a half a dozen trips to Europe each year I'd reconsider, but it's still pretty expensive for what you get.

The biggest benefit is that you get a nice car - usually a Cadillac. And it's cool that your car is usually sitting waiting for you all warmed up and ready to go in front of the Avis pick up spot.


+1... the best car on the lot, or whatever you need in that situation. When it's bad weather or if I have a few customers with me, I'll usually get a large SUV. A few times some stations have even pulled in pickups for me, when given a few days notice. A huge perk IMO b/c you can get a pickup on the weekends for $20 a day.



The program is supposed to have the local manager greet you. In my experience, that only happened about 10% of the time - the more times I returned to the same site, the fewer times I saw the manager. They also are supposed to offer you a ride to the terminal when you return your car (which can be nice in places like ABQ and DEN and Dulles and others where the return is off-site). In my experience it was almost impossible to actually get a ride back. By the time they would go and find someone who could drive you back to the terminal, you could already be there on the bus.


Yeah, the only time I had a manager look for me was TPA, when I didn't see them. I don't know if they had a sign our were just looking for someone that "looked like a Chairman". The ride to the terminal is a HUGE benefit, IMO. In the cold/snowy days, you don't have to schlep your luggage across the return lot and onto the bus. It stays in your trunk until you get to the terminal and the driver usually helps you offload it. The only time I remember having a problem getting a ride back was once in DTW when it took a while to find someone, but it was also ~4AM in the rain. RDU didn't want to give me a ride once either, but then the manager saw me (we talked on my way out of town 2 days earlier) and rushed over to give me a ride.


The second year of the program they wanted $1000 up front. For those times when I shuttle customers around, I can buy the Cadillac myself for much less then the $1000. The other program benefits just didn't make it appealing enough to continue. It seemed to me to just be a way for Avis to get paid for high end cars up front.

I agree that if you're buying it for $1000, it's expensive. Even if you rent every week, it's still $20 per rental. However, you can't put a price tag on some of the benefits: the valet drop off and the guaranteed car availability. I've had a few times when there were no cars available at ANY of the on-site agencies, but a quick call to the CHM desk and they have one waiting when I landed. For those of us who make last-minute trips to customer sites, it's huge to know that you'll be able to get a car anytime/anywhere. Also, once when i was going to get in after midnight due to delays (the station closed at 5PM on Sundays), the manager came back in when my flight landed to get a car for me! Worth $1000? I dunno, but I feel the benefits are excellent. Now if I could only earn the First/Free Weekend coupons, too...