Avis Taste of 1st
 

I'm a Avis Preferred member and recently got an email from Avis advising me that I'm only a few (4) days rental away from qualifying for Avis 1st. It also included a coupon code for a free upgrade for my next rental.

I don't normally rent a car for as many days as I did this year and don't see that changing next year. So, is it "worth it" to be to get those extra four days? I can easily justify 3 days in my future travels so I guess I'm really only 1 day away.

Also, if I do make it to Avis 1st, how long does that status last?

Have a look around this forum... I'd say that Avis First isn't worth paying ANYTHING extra for. You can go to avisfirst.com and see the benefits. Basic benefits are
-Free upgrade (1 class) that's very unreliable, especially with the new Select & Go Locations. Have a look at the S&G thread and you'll see most people are either not getting upgrades or getting poor upgrades.
-Free weekend days. These could be of use to you, but they have a lot of blackout dates, require Saturday night keep, cannot be combined, you still pay a lot of taxes at most locations, etc.
-"Exclusive" website/phone #. Nothing special here, in my opinion.

The value of everything is dependent upon the beholder. You can look at the "benefits" and see if it's worth paying for an extra day. Maybe you can get a cheap-o weekend rate somewhere and get your last day for <$20. Then if you get some free weekend coupons for next year that you can use; it might actually be of use to you.

As an AVIS First customer, I don't see a greater benefit to my AVIS Preferred status. With preferred status, I regularly received emailed offers for upgrades and barring that, vehicle upgrade deals are regularly found on AVIS' own site. As mentioned, blackout dates and Saturday night keep makes using free weekend days challenging. Long weekends such as Memorial weekend, Labor Day weekend and Thanksgiving weekend are times free weekend days would be most beneficial and these are the times when they're blacked out! AVIS First hasn't been the elite upgrade I thought it would have been. Offers regularly sent to you as a Preferred customer can be more beneficial if you're not a frequent renter. I regularly received free upgrades, free weekend day and money off of weekend and weekly rentals which I found much more beneficial.

Qualifying Rentals: Never
 

Excellent post. I'd like to add that although I rent from Avis often, these rentals almost NEVER actually count towards Avis First. I either use a discount code, or get airline miles, or whatever ... with the net result that my rentals never "qualify". From my account screen just now:

Total Rentals 57
Qualifying Rentals 0

I'm not quite sure what Avis wants in their Ideal Avis First Customer, but I'm quite sure that I ain't what they're looking for. :)

So, if you want to be constantly told that your rentals are not good enough to count, you'll enjoy Avis First.

Thanks for all the feedback - it helps!

Looks like I'm actually going to have that extra rental day anyway so I'll wind up being Avis 1st by year end for whatever that is worth.

I think what you are looking at is the qualifying rentals of 0 because you take miles. They count toward your status, just not toward get those lousy weekend certs (that hardly anyone can use anyway).

The best part of Avis First for me resides on the free weekend certificates. They have ended up saving me a lot of money on weekend trips at locations where rates were (even on weekends) expensive - PDX, for example.

Also, just a couple of weeks ago I received nine (9) one-day certificates, valid on any day of the week providing you return the car to the same location you rented from. Not a bad deal!