N9MD

This is the first time anyone has reported "negotiating" for CC membership. As far as I know, membership is by invitation only from AVIS ... and not obtainable by a request from an individual or a corporation. My brother and several of my friends, all bigwigs in a variety of small private corporations, charge hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) on American Express cards (often buying large ticket inventory items with AmExp). They were denied membership in response to their inquiries. I put big bucks on my medical software/hardware company's AmExp Card, until I sold it a few years back ... and I got the invitation about 2 years ago (as I vaguely recall) ... a couple of years after I had actually sold the company. It has been my impression that Avis's CC invitations were based on AmExp Corporate Platinum/Centurion Card spending patterns.

Meanwhile, my CC profile indicates my preference for a Cadillac ... and I get just that (STS, DTS and occasional CTS) 98% of the time, occasionally settling for a Lincon Town Car ... and never accepting the Chrysler 300 which I detest. Earlier this year I needed an SUV/Minivan for a few days out of a 10 day visit to my 2nd home in Boca Raton (moving lots of stuff from one place to another). The FLL Avis (which always performs wonderfully for me) exchanged the SUV for an STS a few days into my rental, without making any changes to the contract price (for an Intermediate vehicle).

For all the reasons stated by others (especially convenience), I still feel that the recently increased membership fee of $900 is well worth it for frequent or prolonged use renters.

jgsx

I don't think it is the first report of that. Negotiating them is the standard way as far as I know. I have spoken to the Avis gentlemen that works with our corporate policy generators. He told me that CC and PC memberships are perks that are negotiated into a corporate contract.

I don't think it works the other way. Just because your company rent a lot, I don't think you can negotiate for a CC membership. As far as I know, the company needs to create a contract with Avis, which will create an exclusive AWD for company use, and they will also get a handful of premium memberships (CC/PC).

N9MD

When CC first appeared, there was much discussion on FT as to the criteria for getting invited. It was fairly obvious at that time that a "contract" with AVIS had nothing whatsoever to do with getting the CC invite. The impression we all had was that it was related to the invitee's holding a Corporate Platinum/Centurion America Express Card. No one mentioned any AVIS-related "negotiations" or "contracts" or "corporate usage statistics" as criteria. Indeed, my computer company never had any "contract" with AVIS ... and, in fact, my almost exclusively pleasure-related travel would never have gotten me an invitation. As the President of my company and, most likely, given the large amount of AmEx purchases, I continue to believe that my corporate postition and our corporate spending pattern were the reasons that I was selected for CC membership.

Moreover, I have yet to read any post that suggests a link between a specific AWD and CC. My company did not have its own AWD and I have been able to use a variety of AWDs to obtain "better deals" with my AVIS reservations.

I'll sit back, put an olive in my martini, and await comments from other CC members as to their personal situations relating to getting into the Chairman's Club:

1) Do you believe it was an AVIS contract or negotiation that resulted in your selection for CC membership?
1) Conversely, do you feel the invitation was related to having a corporate American Express card? If so, do you think it had to do with annual spending usage of The Card?
2) Are you a top level officer/owner in your company?
3) How many others in your business received CC invitations?
4) Do you think a specific AWD is related in some way to your CC membership?
5) Has anyone had success in actually requesting CC membership?

jgsx

Your history may be very accurate. That would make sense that Avis targeted corporate executes, and maybe they still do. I'm sharing my one data point, and maybe I made it sound too much like that was the law of the land. Our corporate contract explicitly states that we receive CC and PC memberships, and that rental activity on our AWD maintains perks. My company distributes those memberships as they please. I assumed that would be normal at any major corporation.

Of course there are the CC invites that are included with certain very high end travel memberships, and PC invites that come with quite a handful of credit cards.

I personally do not know anything about the target criteria once they stopped giving out new paid upgrades to PC members. I spoke to another Avis HQ manager, and she told me that they closed that due to overwhelming response.

flyerman770

1) NetJets / Marquis Jets membership gives you Avis Chairmans Club status.
2) Continental Presidential Plus MasterCard gives you Avis Presidents Club status.

The former was easy to achieve years ago, not so today.
The latter is very easy to achieve, even today.

Also,
Amex Platinum has given in the past Avis Presidents Club. I am not sure about today.

Amex Centurion has given in the past Avis Chairmans Club. I am not sure about today.

gleff

No, Centurion = Presidents Club, Amex Plat was Preferred Select but I believe that went away when Avis replaced that status with Avis First.

Chairmans Club has been around for many years. It was invitation only and very very exclusive. The only way was invitation and a handful got given out with major Avis corporate contracts -- eg Microsoft might have 3-4.

Then they started selling it with certain co-marketed relationships, MarquisJet was one (remember both companies were owned by Cendant).

A bit over a year ago they really started broadening Chairmans Club and started targeting high-level executives and adding a membership fee component. And then this year they upped the membership fee.

jgsx

Not to stray too far off topic, but I've seen a "special services" chart at a preferred desk, and it listed:
CEO
CHM
PCI

I'm assuming CHM means chairman, and PCI means president. I don't know what CEO status is. Is there a new uber elite status now that there are more chairman floating around?

flyerman770

CEO is not a status available to anyone. It is reserved for the CEO of Avis owned companies and people they give letters to. Their AWD number used to be B999000 but it got changed and it would give VERY cheap rates but not bookable... (Just as cheap as the A153700 - Avis Employee AWD rate).

I once tried to use it, and when I contacted Avis CHM desk to find out why the CEO code doesn't work for me (because I thought CEO and CHM is the same...) so the lady didn't know, and it took some investigation and a call back the next day to explain to me what's written above...