Thanks Everyday17. My points finally showed up. The problem is still that they will not tell us how many points are needed for any given future reservation without already having enough points to qualify. Cancelling my Avis reservation and going with National for this week's travel. Booked next week's travel with National as well.

I have an odd situation, I typically rent weekends at SAN -- the points options never show up, even for accessories ... however, if I switch to downtown San Diego station, then the points options for accessories are available - I'm at 580 points

Are the real dollar amounts the same for SAN and Downtown? If they are, then we have a bigger problem - the pricing is really dynamic and there is no way we can figure anything out!

Avis we try harder to confuse you with Avis Preferred :D

Yes, the $ pricing was the same

It appears that the SAN airport location is not participating in points-based redemption at all

Been a long time National EE or Exec and agree that National's free day program is easy. Rarely, I have to rent Avis if no National location around. Got an offer to jumpstart my Avis First enrollment -- but then read the Terms. Dynamic pricing on free days. Big :td: to Avis. Happily sticking with National. Also looks as if only Avis corporate locations are guaranteed participants. Other (franchise) locations can opt out. So once again, what should be a simple program, Avis made complex......

I suppose SAN airport has opted-out

I received a plastic 'Preferred Plus' card in the mail this week ... I'll be at PC by the end of next week, I guess they'll mail me another card

SAN is a participant. As of now, there are relatively few non-participants in the program. See https://www.avis.com/avis/html/globa...nList_0715.pdf

Maybe it's a technical error, I check the avis website frequently, and SAN never offers any points-redemption options to me

I've been renting a car nonstop since the new Avis program began on July 1st and Avis is even quadrupling my points for the first two months because of my company. So in essence, I just finished 21 days of rental here in Seattle for a total of 2290 points (480 base points + 120 preferred bonus + 1440 quadruple bonus + 250 initial bonus).

That is essentially the same as renting for 84 straight days. So I called reservations and had them try reserving the same size car in Seattle using my points and was told that it would require 2400 points for one free day! So I didn't even have enough points to get one free rental day!! Unbelievable!! There is NO way it is going to be worth renting for 90 days just to get one free day.

The rep told me they are still working out the kinks in the system since it is new and I told him they better figure it out quickly because people are going to be irate when they find out they have to rent for 3 straight months to get just one free rental day.

I'm starting to check out National now, seems everyone likes their program.

No more loyalty from me
 

I will no longer be loyal to Avis. Now price rules. Whomever is cheaper gets my business.

2400 points for 1 day
means:
if cash base price is $24, this is 1%
if cash base price is $36, this is 1.5%
if cash base price is $48, this is 2%

I'll assume your car is in the $24/day range - so points are worth 1% rebate
Your bonus raises this to about 2.5%

Just heard back from an Avis rep. One day at boston (date was this week) for an economy car with no extras would be 1800 points. That's 6 days for me give or take. Better deal with National...

The "Two Broke Girls" money counter slowly going up is how I picture my progress toward a free day rental for Avis....

In best case (50% bonus):

1800 points for BOS is $1200 of rental, assuming $40/day = 30 days = 8 weeks (4 days a week for typical Mon-Fri business traveller)

2400 points for SEA is $1600 of rental, assuming $40/day = 40 days = 10 weeks

Say one travels 48-50 weeks a year, that is 5-6 free days of free rental earned.

Of course, the math is very uncertain as the pricing is dynamic. I wonder if they have a fixed rate for each day at each location. Or, it is based on the AWD rate you enter.

It may just be my experience with Avis, but they have never done me a lick of good. I'm Avis First, now Avis something-or-other plus. Had the free weekend day and tried to use it several times. The pricing was still more than other companies, even with my free weekend day. Have a business. Signed up for something or other business related (this was a long time ago). Got sales phone calls trying to entice me to book. Pricing was more than other companies. There was literally no "business" discount. Seriously, why does anyone bother with Avis? I can see no loyalty perk, benefit (monetary or otherwise) that would even make me want to go back to their web page.

Why bother? :confused:

Thanks to your feedback, I wanted to let you all know that we will be updating the functionality on Avis.com to show you how many Avis Preferred Points are needed for reservations, regardless of whether you have enough points. We hope to go live with this mid-August. But in the interim….

As far as redemption/value is concerned, as I’ve mentioned previously Avis Preferred Points are not worth a specified dollar amount. The redemption of Avis Preferred Points is dynamic, much like car rental pricing, and the quantity of Avis Preferred Points required for benefits varies based upon such elements as duration of the rental, date, car class, time of year and location. Members also earn bonus points on their birthday and for achieving certain milestones such as completing their first rental and reaching annual spend thresholds. Without factoring in these bonus points, you will miscalculate how many rentals are needed for a free day.

Taking all of the above into consideration, here are a few scenarios. If you wanted to rent a mid-size vehicle during an off-peak time of year in Orlando, you would need approximately 1,300 Avis Preferred Points. That can be achieved in approximately 3-4 rentals. A mid-size vehicle in Chicago during an off-peak time of year, would be approximately 2,400 Avis Preferred Points or approximately 7 rentals. A mid-size vehicle in Boston for a weekend day during an off-peak time of the year would be approximately 600 Avis Preferred Points or approximately 2-3 rentals.