Frequent Flyer miles for non-airport car rentals
 

I searched & found a few threads from several years ago. Nothing recent. Has any one recently received frequent flyer miles for non-airport car rental from any company? Past threads mentioned people receiving FF miles from esp. Virgin Atlantic [confirmed for Avis & Hertz] & one mention of British Airways.

I have to make a few local rentals, both one day & weekly. Renting from airport is not feasible. So, I am trying to figure out what would be the best rewards to get. I definitely want to consider this as one factor to take into account before deciding on a rental company.

I always get miles when I rent at non-airport Hertz locations.

Yes, no problem for me getting Delta miles with Hertz rentals and Iberia Avios with Avis. You just lose on some promotions when you rent off-airport.

Meanwhile, you don't get miles for Avis' (and maybe others') ANC (Anchorage, Alaska) airport location. So don't assume you always get miles for airport locations!

Ie, which specific airport or non-airport location it is makes more of a difference than just whether it's an airport location or a non-airport location.

@hoangb, What airlines have you received miles with for Hertz or any other rental company?
@Yllanes, That's good to know.

I was definitely interested in the United Hertz promo but per feedback in the other thread, it wasn't working for non-airport rentals.

@sdsearch, There's no like button for your post but thanks. I am trying to get FF miles for the first time on a car rental. I was hoping more people could post their experience because I checked & there hasn't been such a thread in recent times for local rentals. I think it will be a useful reference on what airlines & rental companies combo one can expect to get FF miles for non-airport rentals.

Also, do you guys book at the airline website or use the airline's CDP on the rental company's website? What about the coupon [PC] code? Can you use another PC code instead which will give you better price or you will lose your FF miles especially if it's a bonus offer.

First of all, the term CDP is not universal. Avis uses AWP, Budget uses BCP, etc.

Anyway, it depends on the promo and on the specific codes and also on the rental company. On some Avis promos (as explained in the wiki of the promo sticky in the Avis forum), you have to use a specific AWD to get the bonus. On other promos, you need to use a coupon code to get the promos. The number of airline miles you earn without any promo is pitifully small (not good for much except deferring expiration, which only matters if you don't regularly earn those miles any other way). So I recommend using a promo, and then following the T&Cs of the promo, which is often that you are required to use a coupon but the other code (AWD/BCD/CDP/etc) is just "suggested", not "required".

Still, you're safer off using only airline & hotel AWD/BCD/CDP/etc codes, because some codes from other companies specifically rule out earning airline miles (but if you're not familiar with the code, you might not know that!).

Btw, in case you want to earn UA miles with Hertz, most UA Hertz promos (that give thousands of miles per rental) require you to book through the UA site, not through the Hertz site. (But you can't enter your flight information at the UA site, so you have to come back to the Hertz site where it tells you it's missing your flight information and gives you a chance to it.

That was a very helpful post @sdsearch. Thank you. I will keep on educating myself & hope to learn more with time.

That's a bit of a unique case. It's because the franchisee with rights to Alaska (Alaska Rent A Car, Inc., owned by the slightly-loony Halcro family, which has been involved in Alaska politics for many years) is operating under a franchise agreement that dates back to 1955 and which is very generous to the licensee and doesn't require them to participate in basically any of Avis's benefits and programs.

My understanding is that all of the rest of Avis's operations in the US are either corporately owned or "Avis Agency" operations, which are fully integrated into the corporate system.

Just to clarify (since that's what this thread is about), you know that are no other exceptions in non-airport Avis locations anywhere in the US outside of Alaska?

ANC's situation is well known because so many travelers use that location. But not many travelers may use some random non-airport location in some random city in the US (it may be local people who don't travel widely much but just a temporary car who do most of the renting at such a location). So you can't use datapoints to prove things as easily about non-airport locations like you can about airport locations.

Well, you had specifically said: "So don't assume you always get miles for airport locations!" Avis AK is the only place I know that to be universally true where renting at an airport doesn't qualify you to earn miles. My point is that aside from AK (ANC/FAI/JNU/etc.), normal Avis policies regarding crediting miles generally apply, whether that means you do or don't get credit off-airport or whatever.

Avis AK might be the only such airport place in the 50+DC US states. But there are plenty of foreign Avis and Hertz airport locations which don't give airline miles.

You didn't notice that I said not to assume you always get miles for airport locations as a lead-up to saying why assume you never get miles for non-airport locations. Ie, there can be exceptions to typically getting airline miles at airport locations, and there can be exceptions to not getting airline miles at non-airport locations. I was just trying to make a points that no simple "rule" about where you do or don't get airline miles (based on whether it's an airport or non-airport location) applies absolutely.

You only need one example to disprove that something is always the case. So we have one example of not getting airline miles at US airports, and we have a few examples of getting miles at US non-airport locations. And that's all it took to prove that neither of these are absolutes.

Now that that's proven, this thread should return to focusing on non-airport locations, which is what this thread is about. (I brought up airport locations only to prove that nothing's absolute about what kind of location it is proving you do or don't get miles.)

My point still stands that one should not factor in any experience at Avis AK being at all related to or representative of rules/policies/practices/procedures at any other Avises (especially in the US). For the purpose of proving/disproving Avis practices, one should effectively assume Avis AK is not even branded Avis at all and should completely ignore the fact they exist. Thus the fact that they don't credit miles at ANC/FAI/whatever is effectively a completely irrelevant data point.

I'm not attempting to prove or disprove your statement about which Avis locations qualify for mileage credit. I'm simply saying that Avis AK is not even a related data point to use in any analysis because they are under such a unique (and ancient) licensee agreement.

Well, you happen to know that, but Avis.com doesn't make it clear (or at least it didn't a couple years ago). It accepted my FF#, it even accepted a coupon for extra miles earning, when I made a reservation with Avis ANC online. Only afterwards was I told that it didn't qualify for any miles earning.

So that's why I feel it's valid to see it as exception that sets a pattern, because it's not clear to most people that this is how it works, and because this exactly the same way that many Avis overseas rental operations work (avis.com accepts the coupon, and then after the fact says you can't earn any miles there).

In both the case of Avis AK and those overseas locations that don't give miles, it's presumably dependent on who operates that location ("corporate" or "non-corporate"), but (a) most people don't know to look that up, (b) most people don't know how to look that up, and (c) most people don't know how to correlate that info (if they find it) to what will and won't work in terms of mileage earning on rentals.

And since I've run into the same issue with Hertz at other locations (all foreign to date), I don't think this is an Avis-only issue. But IMHO the issue is not about Avis AK being a special case for the US, the issue is that in general the rental car agency online booking systems don't make it clear which locations do and don't earn miles. (And when looked at that way, it's just as valid for non-airport locations as for airport locations.)