This is a bit of a silly question but I'm looking for input.

Given the circumstances, what would you do:

Rent a car from Hertz for $33 and credit 300 Flying Blue miles to keep your Air France account alive (actually reach 5,000 miles which can be redeemed for a 50% discount award between Paris CDG and say Amsterdam AMS) I am Hertz #1 Gold and have had good experiences renting 4 times this year already there.


or


Rent a car from Avis for $33 and credit 1,000 AAdvantage miles bonus plus whatever you get for such a one day rental. I have 24k miles with AA right now after redeeming 40k on a trip to Europe, award off-peak. I have never rented from Avis before.


Just curious what would be a better option in this scenario. (and why)


thanks,
--Russ

Let's see if the readers of our MilesBuzz forum can help advise the best strategy, as the thread moves there. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I would pick the AA option simply because it gets you to the 25k milestone for a domestic redemption (even if you don't plan on using the miles in such a matter.)

I try to park everything I can into my AA account to get to 1 Million Program to Date miles. However, this probably doesn't matter as much to you. I'd still go with the AA option based on what s4popo said.

I'd stick with the AA miles, because they have great value, and AA seems to be the only airline where you can achieve status the right way.

go to the rental thread mate. Many deals there...
I'd go for the BA deal since I will have a few rentals, but if you plan to have at least 6 days, then BA is the way to go. 1400 BA miles on ave. per day

I've searched all the car rental threads.... My rental will only be for 24 hours, mid-week... so not much option in terms of discounts there.


I have noticed that you could get 1000+ miles for either AA or UA... for me AA is more useful so I booked a car with Avis (using AA.com to see if I can get a giftcard since I booked some flights + hotels via AA.com in the recent past)



I will continue crediting other rentals to AF... with my last LAS rental I should be over 5k Flying Blue miles... and I noticed on their web site that I could redeem 10k Flying Blue miles from Europe 1,2,3 to Montreal one way... (there is a monthly 50% mileage discount promo that keeps changing every month) So I think AF miles are valuable... even if there is a somewhat steep tax involved on those 10k miles.


thanks for your input guys!

Award miles (like these) do NOT extend your mileage validity on AF. You have to fly at least every 20 months to keep them alive, otherwise you will loose them!

The AA offer is good! FB requiring you to fly in order to avoid expiration is bad.

I am guessing you and I are using the same AA promo (here). FTR, you will actually get 1,050 miles - 50 base and 1K bonus.

While it's true there are many 1-day rental bonuses floating around, I think the AA 1K bonus is the best one at this time.

I was a very loyal Hertz renter for many years. For various reasons I started to spread my loyalty. I think you will find Avis Preferred is comparable (not exactly as good). For a 1-day rental and a 1K bonus, I'll forgo Hertz. After all... I've done far more shameless stunts for miles.

Definitely go with AA.

Have you even bothered to look at AF fees for awards? You would not even raise this question if you knew about them. AA is the way to go. Period.

went with AA/Avis and had an excellent experience

got a brand spanking new Focus with the premium sound system, big sub in the trunk, nice wheels, Microsoft SYNC (which was awesome for my Android phone) and in general it was much better than the old junkers I've gotten the past two times in Las Vegas.


As for Air France miles, I maybe expressed myself wrong by saying keeping the miles alive as I'm more interested in redeeming the short hop flight than earning any kind of status, and now that I'm up to 5k I could conceivably use them on a short intra-Europe or intra-France flight.

The question is which one are you going to use first?

The second question is do you have plans to use the flying blue miles later? If that is the case you might want to put them there to save them from expiring.

I still don't get this. From what I know, Flying Blue has heft fees even for short hop flights making these awards worthless as you can get a cheaper or almost similar fare paid tickets. Am I missing something? Can somebody correct me if I am wrong?

If that's the reason: I already mentioned that's not possible. Only levelmiles are valid for expiration-date changes.

No, you're not missing anything. You're right.