Better than a mileage run
 

Well at least better than a many a mileage run in terms of points per dollar (you don't get to visit some place new or accrue points toward upgrading your tier status).

From October 1, 2000 through January 31, 2001, you can earn double
Executive Club miles - 1,000 miles total - every time you rent from Avis
worldwide. To qualify for double miles, you must rent on qualifying rates
linked to your Executive Club/Avis Worldwide Discount (AWD) number,
B335100, and provide your Executive Club number at the Avis counter at time
of rental. To find out more, go to http://britishairways.com/avisdouble.

I just priced the cheapest avis car(a geo metro out of STL) and under the qualifying rate including tax the price per mile is
about 1.7 cents. That is before any coupons are applied. The deal runs for several months so quite a few miles can be picked up.

If one did 100 rentals(and I am not suggesting that anyone will) for a cost of about $1,700 it would be enough miles to earn a BA F RT to Europe that normally prices in the $5-7K range. To me that seems like a good deal especially for someone who is working on accumulating miles for that special honeymoon trip or something like that.

I wonder if there is a way to further reduce cost basis and donate the use of the car rental to a charity for the day or something similar rather than just park it on the street until you need to return it next day.

Anyone have any ideas how to further reduce the price of the rental and make this an even better deal?

Be careful with this offer. I checked it against a reservation I already had, and it came out $1 more. Fine, $1 for 500 extra miles, no problem. Then I noticed: no miles/kilometers included! Since I was renting for a sightseeing trip, not a good deal.

I know this would make no difference to people who are renting as a "mileage run", but if someone actually planned to drive the car somewhere, they ought to be warned.



[This message has been edited by Kitty Hawk (edited 09-12-2000).]

Thanks Mvic and Kitty Hawk, too. It's good to read the fine print...if you're going to drive very far the cost could go way up. But I guess one could drive one's car to the rental place, get the car, park it, then drive back home in one's own car until the next day.

The cheapest car I got off of Avis' website was (with tax) $31.55 per day using the B335100 number in the AWD field on the rate request form. At 100 rentals that comes to 3 cents a mile for me. Doesn't sound like such a bad deal.

[This message has been edited by Nanook (edited 09-12-2000).]

Kitty, good point, but from what the avis lady said miles are unlimited.

Nanook, did you try the a weekend day? How about a different location. It seems the ones with the most cars have the best rates.

I just booked 39 weekend day rentals Fridays Saturdays Sundays for a total(tax included) of $940(will be paid for with my BA visa of course http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif ). It is more than I had originally intended to pay but I switched from the airport location to a downtown hotel (added about $4 to each)that is literally across the parking lot from my building, which means no driving out to the airport and no airport parking on Friday's, just a stroll over at 10am each day to hand in my old rental agreement and pick up my new one. I won't even have to bother trying to get in to a Geo metro.

Be warned that if you do this on a Friday and hand your rental agreement back in before Friday midnight your weekend cheap weekend rate will convert to an expensive weekday rate, Sat and Sun it doesn't matter you can check out and check back in within minutes and the rate won't change and you will get your miles).

The agent who you book this with will love you (quicker than booking it yourself online) as it really improves their performance numbers (apparently they are rated on bookings per hour that actually get paid for).

Coupons will not work on this promo as most Avis coupons are valid for midsize and above. However, if you are preferred select you get a one class upgrade but if you are not planning on driving it is irrelevant.

There is a Catholic seminary just down the road and I am going to see if we can work something out with them without exposing myself to all sorts of liability. Tax credit or not someone may as well get some use out of the cars. If anyone has experience in this sort of thing I would appreciate any suggestions.

Weekday rates were no lower than $42 and that was not worth it for me.

In the end it worked out to about 2.35 cents per mile which is just on the threshold for me and the convenience tipped the balance. If I had to drive to the airport every weekend day I probably wouldn't have done it, or at least as many.

Of course I would have preferred to do a mileage run to some exotic place but my family responsibilities just don't give me the time for that at present so this will have to suffice. Hope some of you find some cheap Avis rentals too.

I just had a thought, I wonder if they let you rent more than one car at the same time and if BA would give credit for more than one daily rental. If not BA allows you to have up to 4 people in your household account so if one of the other household members didn't mind tagging along (my wife is too busy and she looks at all this mileage accrual with a very skeptical eye to begin with, she is really going to think I am off my rocker when I tell her about this when she gets home this evening http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif ) there shouldn't be a problem doubling the number of miles that can be earned from this promo.

If you haven't signed up for BA executive club yet then you are in luck as they will send you a coupon that can be used on your next Avis rental that will add 1500 free miles to your account(or 2500 miles for a rental in tandem with this promo).

[This message has been edited by Mvic (edited 09-12-2000).]

MVIC ... you are really coming up with some amazing mileage deals.

Did I read that correct ... you have booked THIRTY NINE Avis days already for latter year???

Maybe any FT'ers that are heading thru St.Louis should ummmm .. have a friendly word with you and UMMMMMM, reduce their car rental price a little? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I read Punki was there a few days ago, and someone else so quite a few here go thru St. Louis. I wonder if you considered placing a note on the Coupon connection offering FREE cars for anyone passing thru St. Louis Oct 1 - til end Jan.

I am sure it is illegal (or at least unwise) for you to CHARGE them as you are not a car rental agency. But if they just happened in appreciation to reward you for your hospitality with a few upgrade certs, or vouchers or buy dinner or drinks or ..... well it is not rocket science methinks.

Maybe a similar offer on TWA board "Free" Car Rentals For 4 Months" outlining your VERY generous offer would keep you REAL busy, and keep EVERYONE smiling.

Great mileage deal. It deserves to work for you. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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~ Glen ~

Boy this sure sounds like a lot of work to me, but if you're going to do it, have you considered using the Entertainment Discount? The Enterainment Coupon book generally has a discount in addition to coupons.

Just a thought.

Yes 39, and that's just the domestic ones, there are a few more in Europe but much more expensive as I actually have to use the car there and I just don't think that I would fit in whatever the equivalent of a geo metro is over there, maybe a Cinquecento? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Thanks Oz/Glen. You are too kind though as all credit in the HH points accumulation goes to you and Mr. Limo. That one is basically free and more universal. This BA/Avis one may suit people who fly BA or who are in an area where Avis rentals are cheap and they are close to a rental location but it isn't for everyone.

I will have to think about what to do with the cars, if anything, as liability is a real concern. It would be nice if I could figure out a way that someone could make use of them. I doubt that Ft'ers would have much use for a geo metro in St Louis on the weekend but I was thinking that the seminary students, many of whom are from other countries do not have cars and they may be able to use one on the weekend to get around the city to do some errands, shopping, good works, and whatever else they do. If anyone has any experience in this type of scenario or is a lawyer and has any free advice please e-mail me. My one year of law school several years ago suggests to me that it is more trouble than it is worth, to just leave the cars on the lot or use for a couple of weekends when guests come to visit, but maybe sharper minds can convince me otherwise.

[This message has been edited by Mvic (edited 09-12-2000).]

Thanks for the suggestion sourhead but you need to use the AWD discount code that BA gives you in order to qualify for the miles and you can't combine various discounts. Coupons don't work for cars under intermediate class.

Yes it could be too much of a slog, I agree, but for the fact that I live literally right next to the avis rental location and I have to walk my dog everyday anyway http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif It's just a matter of popping in there for a few minutes Friday Saturday and Sunday mornings for a few months. Infact, as it is a very small office I wouldn't be surprised if after the first few weekends they didn't even make me come in at all or maybe just once a weekend. Either way it isn't too onerous a way for me to net 40K miles. Don't forget that people are willing to give up their days off to fly around the place never stopping long enough to even visit when doing a mileage run. It seems that if BA is your airline of choice then this is a lot easier way to get the miles and the cost/mile is likley less than most mileage runs and you don't have to sit on a plane on your day off http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif




[This message has been edited by Mvic (edited 09-12-2000).]

just a note of caution. Some downtown locations at Avis do not offer FF miles. I would get documentable response to the question for the location you plan to use if it is an off-airport location.

regards

I would also investigate whether back- to-back rentals at the same city hinder how they credit your account. I looked at the links for a little while and didn't see anything addressing that issue. You know how hotels are about that issue.

[This message has been edited by ChrisMoss7 (edited 09-12-2000).]

Wonder if the location coughs up the miles or AVIS central? If the latter, the local guys could not give a hoot. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

You may find they will happily do sets of "ghost" paperwork for you as long as you cop the bill, and never touch the cars after a few visits and they see what your aim is? Less cleaning, checking, and hassle for them!

Like you say, you pass by there daily .. pop in, sign the paperwork, and keep walking that dog. What a blast.

My take is that being a good samaritan and letting kids use them is TROUBLE. Nice guys also end up in lawsuits over insurance. Sad but true. Check that one out a little IMHO.



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~ Glen ~

Do be careful about Avis' downtown locations. I rented a car for 2 days for my LatinPass bonus and was told I would not receive any miles for a non-airport location. I returned the car to a major airport and they did credit me w/ the proper miles.

All good points. When I made the reservations I explained exactly why I was doing all these unusual rentals just to be sure there would be no problems. The agent even checked with her supervisor just to be sure and as long as I am using the qualifying BA AWD (which gives you the rate) they I am guaranteed mileage credit regardless of avis location.

I think the key here is you have to use the BA AWD(which you would have to do anyway to get the 1000 miles in this promo and take the rate that that gives you (so you wouldn't be able to use your own corporate discount for example). If you do that you will get the BA miles for certain.

Back to back Hotel stays at the same hotel or hotels close to one another are verboten as ChrisMoss wrote but back to back car rentals from the same location are fine as fare as I can tell. I have done it a couple of times before without any problems getting the mileage credited.




[This message has been edited by Mvic (edited 09-13-2000).]

I may have to start looking into this now since you have done all the homework here. What is to stop multiple rentals on the same day? Or did you cover that earlier....I can't remember.

CMoss

Avis gives miles for non-airport location for BA and Starwood. I believe no other programs can earn miles there... or maybe one other obscure one.