The rental I began July 2nd, returned July 6th, posted to my account overnight - I now have the 250 bonus points and the rental points.

The rental I made July 7th has not posted yet.

Avis 'upcoming reservations' was missing the rental I have for tonight. I called and the added it to my account, but in doing so, the price changed a few dollars. This is not yet appearing online, but I will look again in an hour.

I need to search my emails and see if other reservations I made via American Airlines website are also not appearing in my Avis profile

AvisPreferredRep - please reply
 

It would really help folks if we knew what the redemption value was. I understand it will be dynamic, like the Southwest program.

However, even the Southwest program will tell me that it takes 60 points to be worth a dollar of airfare (or some number like that).

It would help tremendously if Avis were to publish something like this. Otherwise we are all left wondering why you are keeping it a secret, and you know what that leads to...

Thanks!
Mikey

My guess is that they are doing this by design. It is frustrating that they don't really tell you what rewards you are earning - even an approximate formula.

No longer. Southwest announced a few months ago that it was changing (from being a fixed amount of points per dollar), and they refused to explain what it was changing to, or by how much, or under what circumstances:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...17-2015-a.html

Looks like the rental I returned on Tuesday posted Friday morning + the 25% bonus and 250 bonus points. Still don't know what I can get with the points - tried to make a reservation but nowhere it showed the point requirements...

1. As per the Terms and Conditions: “Avis Preferred Points will be awarded to the customer as quickly as commercially reasonable of their rental check-in, conclusion of non-rental activity and/or per stated promotional period.” We expect Avis Preferred Points will be awarded within 72 hours of the rental check-in or conclusion of non-rental event.

2. At this time, only rentals that are eligible for earning or that include a points redemption will be displayed.

3. Redemption options for Avis Preferred Points will be displayed when the member has enough points in their balance to redeem a reward.

Well, is it just me or is this just a COMPLETE joke of a program? I'm pi55ed at Hertz and looking for alternatives. So I'm supposed to commit to Avis, keep spending money with them, earn these so-called "points," and then hope, that some day, I might possibly have enough points for a free GPS? Give me a friggin break!

:rolleyes:

Plus, I just spent 20 minutes on the Avis website trying to find out redemption values or an award chart. That didn't work, so of course I came here, only to find out the geniuses behind this didn't create one!

Or you could just forget about Avis' own points and earn partner points, which with the right promos probably get you way more than Avis' own points ever would, especially if you're not renting terribly expensive cars.

1/5 (or more) of a hotel night (9000 total Club Carlson points for 3+ days) or 1/8 of a domestic round trip (at least 3000 total AA miles for 5+ days) is probably worth a lot more than 1/? of a free of free day of GPS. (Especially if already have your own GPS, whether stand-alone or phone-based.)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/avis-...romotions.html

(On any given rental, you can either earn Avis' own points or any partner's miles/points, but not both.)

15 minutes on the phone and no answers
 

I read some of the posts on this thread though not all so I apologize if I repeat some things?
Yesterday I spent 15 minutes (literally) on the phone speaking to three different representatives, including a Supervisor, at Avis trying to get an answer to my questions about points needed for redemption next year.
The first two were very nice and apologetic that they could not find the answer. (Tony, then a Supervisor) The third, in sales (Jocelyn?) could have cared less and actually hung up on me.

We are hoping to take the family to Hawaii next summer and we are working on our Marriott (Platinum Premier) and US Airways/American(Chairman/Executive Platinum)points. I have been a customer of Avis (First/Preferred Plus) for several years and have 14 rentals so far this year. (9 to go to get the 1.5 points per dollar). I am also a customer of Hertz (Gold Plus) and National (Executive Elite/Emerald).
I am very frustrated with this new program as no one on the phone could answer my question about points needed for future redemption, even a supervisor that I spoke to. I am a weekly business traveler and I would have hoped that Avis valued my $$? I really like Avis and the upgrades but can't continue to rent from them without these answers. I have a reservation for this week which I will cancel and rebook with Hertz. When I told the last rep that I spoke to that I would have to stop renting with Avis unless I found the answers I needed, she hung up on me!

Its crazy how these companies could are less about their customers these days. American Airlines is another one that is driving me away...

FWIW, I had some points post for my first post-July 1st rental and now when I make a new reservation or modify an existing one, here's what I see in terms of redeeming for points:

3 day Minivan rental, adding GPS ($9.99/day) requires 316 points. Adding Sirius (6.99/day) was 200 points. That is the daily pricing (so would require 600 for Sirius, 948 for GPS. You can do the conversions and see what they are worth.

Thanks 1kIAH
 

Did they tell you how many points for the minivan rental itself? (Not including the extras) I am "chatting" with an Avis Rep right now and they won't tell still...

So:

9.99 / 316 = $0.03161/point
6.99 / 200 = $0.03495/point

Let's use $0.03/point. A $50 rental will cost 1667 points which in the best case is $1667/1.5 = $1111 of spending. Say at a $40/day corporate rate, that is 28 days of rental! So, it will take a typical M-F business traveller 7 weeks to earn a $50 free rental. If one travels 42 weeks out of the year, that means $300 of free rentals.

Other than the $0.03/point assumption, is the math right? It is late and I had a fun day :D

Maybe the slogan is now: Avis: YOU try harder [to earn free rentals from us] :D

.03 is only for add-ons , abase weekend low margin car rental will likely be much lower ... I've been rental 2x or 3x per week from Avis for 6 weeks ... Have 365 points posted ...

I couldn't find that option anywhere. I could only see points available for add-ons when modifying as well as creating new reservations.

AVIS rep? Anywhere to be found now?

National's program sounds much better at this point. Adios Avis.

My back-of-the-envelope calculations match the above and make renting from Avis an attractive option only if their prices are actually better. The tie, in other words, now goes to National.

Who ever heard of rolling out a program where you can't value the points? In what alternate universe does that make any sense at all?

If one looks at this thread on the history of this change, the conclusion is probably Avis does not care and this is just something they can say they have for the sake of having something.

Those who can credit to other programs will probably continue to do so and Avis probably did the math already and thinks this is the minimum they need to do for those who have no choice.

The alternative cost of instead using MUHA002 and earn 10000 Club Carlson points/rental would yield 70,000 points. That is either eight category 1 nights, or one night in highest point category 7.

That's a 4% rebate - why would you expect something better?

It's not like filling an unsold seat on an aircraft

Sorry if I'm asking a dumb question, but I'm fairly new here and am not seeing my answer to this question in other threads.

Anyway, I'm seeing references to Club Carlson. Can my Avis points be used there or vice versa? I rent from Avis quite often (several times per month) but do also stay at Club Carlson hotels here and there.

Also, it seems like the overall take on the Avis policy changes is negative. Is it worth investigating any other card companies? I've used Avis religious for 12 years now because they've never given me any guff for using debit cards (they've never once run a credit check, authorized the card for even a penny more than the rental cost, and the rewards were great), so its never occurred to me to use anyone else. If you do recommend another rental car company, who is at the top of the list? Hertz? National? I'd like to find someone who is debit card friendly as I use debit cards for everything.

Good news! Points are awarded for rentals that use First free weekend coupons if you had any time & mileage charges that the coupon didn't cover.

Neither.

Instead, what you can choose to do is choose to earn Club Carlson points directly from each Avis rental (instead of earning Avis points), by choosing Club Carlson* as your earning partner (in the last step of making a reservation at avis.com) and specifying your Club Carlson number.

And then, if you use the MUHA021 coupon code mentioned in the Wiki for this thread:
you can earn 9000 total Club Carlson points for each 3+ day rental.

(You can still earn Club Carlson points on 1 or 2 day rentals, but in that case you earn fewer points since the coupon doesn't work for less than 3 days.)


* Last time I did it, it was not quite obvious how to select Club Carlson from that list. I seem to recall it was misplaced on the alphabetical list, by mentioning something like Radisson first. I don't know if it's still that way.


And welcome to FlyerTalk, thenovemberman.

I just now got the email from Avis. I'm not interested in Club Carlson. Can I send the points elsewhere? Must I opt in? Should I?


In addition to your current Avis President's Club benefits, you are now eligible to opt in to earn Avis Preferred Points.
• Receive 1.5 points for every dollar spent on base rentals and 3 points on optional products.
• Redeem points for complimentary rental days, upgrades, and accessories (like GPS).
• Choose your days – ultimate flexibility with no blackout dates.
With the launch of this new program, Avis Preferred Points replaces the Weekend Rental Rewards previously available.
Opt-in today and rent once within 3 months to receive 250 bonus points.

Forgive me if I missed this somewhere else in the thread, but is it no longer possible to earn the status based upon number of days rented? I've always been Avis First based on renting a total of at least 35 days a year.

I don't do a lot of domestic trips that require a car (almost always less than 12 per year), but when I do, it's typically for a period of 7-12 days at a time.

If I can't get anything higher than preferred plus based on days rented, I really see no reason to continue sticking with Avis. As I'm Plat with UA, I might as well go over to Hertz and get the perks associated with that partnership.

Preferred Plus is identical to Avis First in terms of benefits. Sadly, you still can't earn PC. An early version of the new T&C said you could, but the final version deleted that. You get the same points earning bonus as a PC member after 35 rentals, but no other increase in status.

And yes, days rented is no longer a qualification. It's either rental count or spend now.

But if they didn't care, why change the program in the first place?

I would guess they got a lot of complaints on the weekend coupons, and most people seem to be familiar with points systems so that's what they went with...but maybe they just didn't think that people would actually realize that their points are a terrible value.

The free rental coupons were pretty much worthless to me... Any time I tried to use them, there wouldn't be that class of car available. If I just tried a normal booking (without the coupon code) those car classes magically became available.

is there a listing anywhere of redemptions? I've never seens a program before where it simply doesn't even say what the points are good for? Even if its translated to cash value for rentals or something, at least they should state that. Does anyone know how many points it would take per rental day?

Just tried to book my normal M-Th rental and saw some new point values for the add-ons (still can't get it to show me rental costs). Looks like the Sirius XM value has gone down. I have a little over 600 points in my account, so only the Sirius option is available for redemption. The rental is for 3 days and 5 hours, but as we all know, that rounds up to 4.

http://i.imgur.com/eRkF5XH.jpg

Points Redemption
 

I spoke to a reservations agent at the counter in Amarillo yesterday and she had no idea that the web site did not explain anything about redemption of points and the amount needed. She said they were given training on the new program and she thought that information was available.

I completed my reservation yesterday morning and received the e-receipt this morning but no points have been credited to my account which is a bummer as I need to decide who to rent with starting Monday in Boston. Whether it is National, Hertz or Avis, it will be the one I stick with for the rest of the year to earn free rentals for our vacation next summer in Maui.

So far I have heard that National seems to have the most advantageous earning program? Anyone have another opinion? I looked in the forum but can't find a comparison thread?
thanks!

OK. Let's see who gets to the 1500 points first which might be enough for a 1 day car rental some place :D

More than 48 hours since my last rental with Avis and still no rental points or the 250 initial points... It is really disappointing that Avis cares so little about its frequent business travelers that it would treat us this way. I've had really good experiences with the Avis locations around the country and hate to move on to another rental company but it really is all about the points. We even pay more per rental and still they abuse us! Kind of crazy that an Avis Rep is not responding on this thread as well? Silence...I had a really terrible experience with my last National rental but they have agreed to status match at the Elite level and in just two weeks I'll have my first free rental day accumulated (3 rentals already done) so if I don't hear some good news from Avis by Monday morning (I'll cancel my Tuesday rental) I'm done with Avis unfortunately.

I sent an email to Avis to request my points. Points showed up. 483. Tried to bring up a one day (or half day, or 1 hour!) rental in PHX and I received a similar result as 1kIAH above, except more expensive... No point total for the vehicle itself. So I sent in an e-mail to Avis asking for answers and received a cut and past from the web site with no additional information.

You may need to contact them, they didn't have any record of me opting in on July 1st even though I got an email confirmation.

Was PC w/ Avis for a long time (15+ years?) and moved to National w/ a match to EE... I miss the really nice cars some Avis locations would throw my way (DFW was pretty much always good for a BMW:D) but I like National's system and can usually get a nice (as in loaded) Grand Cherokee in the Executive Aisle. I've already earned 3 free days that are really easy to use...

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......