hangingchad

Hello,

I am a huge proponent of Avis except in one area: Earning free rentals.

I rent a car from Avis for 4 days / week pretty much every week. I love the service, the cars, the upgrades, etc. However, my one issue is the lack of a proprietary point system that would allow an exchange of points for free rental days.

IMO, Hertz obliterates Avis in this area. As a President's Circle member, i earn 1 point for every dollar i spend on a rental at Hertz (plus a 30% bonus on all points). These points can be used for free rentals.

One might argue that the Avis First "free weekend" coupons are comparable; however, I disagree. The Hertz points system allows you to not only get a free standard car for a few days, but it allows you to spend more points to reserve a specific car (ie a camaro convertible for those summer vacations, or a nice SUV when you need more space). In fact, with Hertz points, you can reserve a vehicle for a single day or an entire week.

I really wish Avis had something like this available. Since I travel weekly, I am able to get free hotel rooms, free flights, etc, but rental cars are the one thing i still find myself paying for when i go on vacation. I end up reserving a full for a decent rate and hoping I get upgraded to a nice car. I usually end up getting pretty good upgrades b/c of my PC status, but if I wanted to reserve a specific car, I wouldn't be able to.

In the end - is it worth it to put up with (imo) crappier service / cars on a weekly basis to earn the free rentals of awesome cars through points (Hertz) - or is it better to continue renting with Avis and getting great service / cars but still paying for my personal rentals and not being able to specifically request that Camaro SS Convertible when I want it for a weekend (unless I pay the big $$).

Alternatively, many of you may feel that the best use of rental rewards is to accumulate airline miles (ie, the US Airways 3000 miles / Avis rental promo going on right now).

Any and all opinions are appreciated - sorry for the long rant. Also, feel free to chime in with any good partner miles promos that are going on right now. I typically fly United, so I would love a good mileage promotion with Avis.

Thanks for reading,

Chad

bkafrick

I agree 100% on the accumulation of some sort of loyalty points. To add to your frustration, no "free weekend" points accumulate when you credit to a Freq Flyer program, which I dont really understand... really because we PAY for those miles in the $.75 or $1.00/day Freq Flyer surcharge.

But anyway... at the end of the day its about the service I receive 40 weeks a year renting cars vs the 2 weeks a year i'm going on vacation, that makes me stay with AVIS. They've never screwed me, and I too enjoy my PC status.

If a $250 car rental is what I have to shell out on vacation to have peace of mind the other weeks of the year, its worth it to me.

My two cents.

IAHtraveler

It's worth noting that Avis regularly also has the Free to Get Away Promo. This will get you a free day with every 2 two-day rentals. If you max it out, it's easy to start another Wizard # and start over. Granted, your new account(s) wont have First/etc, but you can do this easily.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Don't forget that airline miles in certain programs can be redeemed for free (or nearly free) car rentals.

CreditMadeEZ

It isn't miles and isn't the best redemption, but you can get 9,000 Club Carlson points for 3+ day rentals. 29,000 points can be redeemed for $50 at Avis.

Then you have flexibility and don't have to worry about short expiration times of non-transferrable rental days or weekends.