jock

Hey

So ive never been a member of a car rental rewards scheme and I just wanted alittle reasurance that Im not wasting my time here. Im posting here because im currently baec silver..soon to be Gold member and Avis and BA are partners so I figured that was a no brainer. Also we have a number of trips coming up and I thought I might gain from sticking to one rental company...well thats my question really...will I?

Im just a leisure traveller..no biz. Im off to usa in Oct for 3 weeks..ill need a car in Kona for 1 week and im off to Florida in Feb nxt year..prob need a car for two weeks...thats all thats booked so far..when will I start seeing a benefit to joining...any tips or advice would be very much apprecited.

UAPremExecflyer

I'm having trouble understanding what "reassurance" you're looking for?
All loyalty programmes are pretty much the same: the more you use them, the greater the purported "benefits".
What "benefits" are you looking for?
If you're renting twice over the next several months, you're not going to accrue much. You might get lucky with an "upgrade" to a nicer vehicle than the one you rented. You might also get that without being a member of the Avis programme.
One of the main "benefits" of some car rental programmes is - after the first rental when you must go to the booth/desk to verify your identity - to drive away in your assigned car/SUV/convertible without having to wait in line.
If you want to collect a few more AVIOS for each rental you can do that also by selecting that option when making the reservation on the Avis website or through your corporate travel agency.

razorbite

I'm just a leisure traveler as well and the main benefit to me is going straight to the car and by-passing the queues and hard sell at the counter.

papyPiHi

Avis Preferred allows you to bypass the queues, really handy(saves between 2 minutes and 45, depending on the length of the queue)
You also get a discount after your first rental, and an upgrade on the second, plus free weekend rental voucher on the third.
Avis AWD N744400 for BA Gold gives you a really nice discount , up to 30%, plus complimentary additional driver on every rental.

In my opinion, i does not hurt to join, especially for the queue-jumping ticket

Foxtbh

As you are a UK traveller who rents in the USA a few times a year your best bet is simply to join each rental program you will rent from in order to obtain the basic benefits such as queue skipping and then rent from whichever firm provides the best mix of price and availability for each of your rentals. You won't be renting frequently enough to accrue any meaningful status.

sdsearch

Just keep in mind that you may not be able to skip the queue the very first time in some programs. At Avis, typically the first time you have to show the credit card you're putting on file with Avis at the counter. It's from your second time that you get to skip the queue completely.

But even on your first time, you may be able to use a special shorter queue at the counter for the program you joined, at airports that have such a separate queue,