Originally Posted by
IAHtraveler
Avis First www.avisfirst.com has full details
Qualifications: 12 "qualifying" rentals or 35 "qualifying" rental days in a calendar year
Benefits: 1 class upgrade (where available... rarely), free weekend coupon with every 4 "qualifying" rentals, and skip the basic counter at larger airports & go to the Preferred Counter or to your vehicle if they have a display board.
Except (a) you didn't compare it to Avis Preferred:
Avis Preferred
Qualifications: Signing up then making one rental
Benefits: 1 class upgrade (where available...
commonly available from Economy up to Compact, but may get rarer the higher up in classes you reserve), and skip the basic counter at larger airports & go to the Preferred Counter or to your vehicle if they have a display board.
which has astronomically simpler qualification, and most or all the same benefits, because:
Originally Posted by
IAHtraveler
free weekend coupon with every 4 "qualifying" rentals
Qualifying rentals do not include any on which you choose to earn miles or hotel points. So if you always choose to earn miles or hotel points, you'll never earn these free weekend coupons, making the one apparent benefit of Avis First that Avis Preferred doesn't have non-existent.
The only benefit that I see to Avis First for a miles junkie is the free whatever (weekend?) coupon you get
once when you first qualify. That's assuming you can use it before it expires. (The one I got I never got to use, because I never need a rental where it would help during the time it was active.)
Because of the last point I kinda wish I could fail to qualify in alternate years, because maybe I'd get the one "welcome to First" coupon over and over again?
But, alas, though my rentals have dropped drastically this year from last, I'm still doing several week-plus rentals this year, and thus will get to 35 days easily, even though I don't expect to get anywhere near 12 rentals this year.