AvisPreferredRep, thank you for your post, but one key point that your company needs to understand is that frequent travel loyalty programs have no substantial value if the rewards are not predictably achievable.

With my AWD code, I can predict the cost of a revenue booking in most cities, at least a few months out. There might be a lower rate on weekends, but it's fairly predictable for weekdays. Avis needs to give us the same predictability with use of rewards.

Avis can create three point levels: weekday, weekend/holiday and weekday for certain defined cities. That would be predictable in advance, and can be adjusted year-to-year. Many airlines and hotels use this system. That way, if we're planning a one-week rental in October, but haven't settled on the pick-up/drop-off city, we know that three or four months in advance we need this specific number of points, and we'll know that we either have them now, can earn them between now and then, or won't be able to use Rewards benefits at all.

One small thing that you can do now to give us some iota of a better comparison, is to consider editing your post above to show what the cost in Rewards points would be for a peak rental in your three examples. All of your examples use off-peak prices. As well, Avis would do well to define clearly the terms "peak" and "off-peak".

Hi AvisPreferredRep,

You have a tough job. You are stuck between some angry loyal customers and a company that does not seem to care about this group of customers. I think many of us are corporate road warriors whose corporate contract rates do not allow miles in other programs, somewhat captive yet very demanding and vocal.

The whole rollout of the program has been a huge failure. If there is to be a lesson on how to not rollout loyalty programs, this is it:

1 - there was the false start last year
2 - existing earned benefit (6 month coupon duration) was cut short - sure way to alienate your loyal customers
3 - many did not get notice on the change
4 - not much information before new program rolled out
5 - not much information after new program rolled out

Then someone probably quickly said "AvisPreferredRep, you better get onto Flyertalk to deal with these people" :D

We all know any "enhancements" to loyalty programs are not good nowadays :D For those who valued the weekend coupons, this was a huge loss. For those who did not, this is a gain - no matter how little.

As far as your points above:

1 - I don't recall reading about the milestone bonuses and birthday bonuses. You are right, without them, we miscalculate. If they do help make the program look that much better, why not tell us about them?

2 - I think rentals in MCO, BOS and ORD during low season can probably be Pricelined for $20/day or less. Say our corporate rate is $40 a day and we earn 50% bonus. We earn 60 points a day. So:

MCO at 1,300 -> 22 days as opposed to "3-4 rentals"
ORD at 2,400 -> 40 days as opposed to "7 rentals"
BOS at 600 -> 10 days which is 2-3 rentals for most Mon-Fri 4 day week renters

So, the math just does not look too attractive. On top of that, you used the off-peak scenario. In the hotel world, it is like saying you get a free stay at Fargo ND in January, right? :D

Of course, many of us are captive and I think your Management was focusing on that. Maybe they think a point-based program means they can sell points later to others but who will buy points from Avis if it is hard to determine the value of the points for the recipients?

Good luck :)

Nowhere on avis.com can I find any means of actually using these points for anything other than rentals. How about upgrades?

Corporate contract means I'm only able to book Avis cars, so I guess I'm stuck with it.

THIS!!! agree with all of the above. would be curious what the Avis rep defines as "rental" and what all the bonuses they speak of really are.

Overall, this is a program that no longer provides value for loyalty. I'll be switching to Hertz once my PC is up at the end of the year.

I'm in the same boat, we are mandated to use Avis.

Although enough of us complained about Avis we now have an option for National. Sure we're just a small company with 2000 field employees, but we all found little value in free weekend coupons. Now if I've got to spend 20-30 rental days for a single free rental day.. That's even more worthless than free weekends.

I'm not sure how National's program works, but it's got to be better than this debacle.

Yeah I'm sticking by my opinion that Avis changed the program due to complaints about the weekend coupons (which I didn't mind)...they just made it worse. Be careful what you wish for I guess.

I'm dynamic, too. I'm so dynamic that I no longer use Avis and I just stick with National, Hertz, sometimes Dollar or Alamo, and even Advantage. But I don't like Budget, Sixt, or Payless. I am very dynamic.

this type of program caps their rebate costs at a few %

It also means individual stations need to perform better on price/value/service for routine customers that have flexibility

I don't need to use the SAN Avis every week - I can and have used Hertz, National ...

E.g. last night they assigned me a Patriot, and the exchange aisle only had two vehicles, the better being a Corolla ... I stuck with the Patriot, but I'm not happy - my incoming flight was delayed, so the preferred cust service desk was closed

While I've gotten some great cars over the past two months, the past two weeks they've assigned me this high mileage, uncomfortable Patriot - last week there was a Camry for me to switch to, but this week, I'm unhappy

Given the Avis loyalty program rebate is in the 2% range, I'll likely try National at SAN on my next rental

Loyalty is dead
 

I have said it before and I'll say it again. Customer loyalty is dead - and the corporations killed it. I now go for the lowest price. Period. On rare occasions it is Avis, usually not. And that is that.

Well, after 4 weeks of rentals and 1500 points and no possible way to redeem them (since work pays for all of my car rentals), I opted back out today and am going back to miles. I have to use Avis, but I can use the AA miles a lot more than points. I was surprised that you cant earn points + miles with a coupon, so its back to miles only. Maybe once a reward chart is posted or the ability to convert points to miles is added ill go back, but for now its just normal again.

So you'll give us something, but not tell us what it is, what it's worth, and what we can use it for. It will be a surprise if we decide to try to get some value from it..

Is that the marketing strategy? If so, it's horrible.

I'm glad I now have other corporate options.

Just in case I ever use Avis again...
 

...I switched back to earning miles. Like I said previously, I will no longer hold any loyalty and will go for the cheapest, which is usually not Avis.

Panera Bread has the same thing. The benefit of their loyalty program is not defined - you get what they throw your way.

Mon-Thurs Booking (pickup 12pm, return 9pm) @ SEA on a Compact.

Given option to use 1800 points to remove 1 day of rental time.

The redemption value.....yikes.

Same thing in Orange County airport. Price of rental car is $31 for a day and they want 1800 points. Ouch!