You can now redeem rewards faster with no blackout dates with the improved Avis Preferred frequent renter loyalty program, as you can redeem as few as 700 Avis Preferred Points for a rental day and as few as 250 Avis Preferred Points for certain accessories for your rental car effective immediately.
Redeem Rewards Faster With No Blackout Dates With Avis Preferred — But…
You earn a minimum of 100 Avis Preferred Points with each vehicle rental. This effectively means that renting a vehicle seven times will give you enough Avis Preferred Points to redeem for a rental day.
Additionally, you can earn 250 bonus points when you sign up for the Avis Preferred frequent renter loyalty program and rent a vehicle within three months — meaning that you would only need to rent a vehicle five more times to earn enough Avis Preferred Points to redeem for a rental day.
There is also a sliding scale as to how many Avis Preferred Points you can earn per vehicle rental, as every dollar you spend earns you:
- One Avis Preferred Point on vehicle rentals; and two Avis Preferred Points on accessories
- 1.25 Avis Preferred Points on vehicle rentals; and 2.5 Avis Preferred Points on accessories when you achieve Avis Preferred Plus status and either:
- Rent a minimum of 12 times
- Spend a minimum of $5,000.00
- 1.5 Avis Preferred Points on vehicle rentals; and three Avis Preferred Points on accessories when you achieve Avis Preferred Plus status and either:
- Rent a minimum of 25 times
- Spend a minimum of $7,000.00
Other Information About Which You Should Know
The improved Avis Preferred frequent renter loyalty program sounds like a good deal — but there are a few points to consider.
- The cost of the vehicle rental correlates with how many points you need to redeem:
- 700 Avis Preferred Points can only be redeemed on vehicle rentals which would cost up to $50.00 per day
- 1,400 Avis Preferred Points can be redeemed on vehicle rentals which would cost between $50.01 and $85.00 per day
- 2,100 Avis Preferred Points can be redeemed on vehicle rentals which would cost between $85.01 and $125.00 per day
- 3,500 Avis Preferred Points can be redeemed on vehicle rentals which would cost between $125.01 and $225.00 per day
- When redeeming Avis Preferred Points for rewards, points are applied to the base rental rate and not to any discounted rate or other applicable offer
- Taxes, fees and surcharges are not included in Avis Preferred Point redemptions
- Almost exactly two years ago, you could earn 1.5 Avis Preferred Ppoints for every dollar spent on base vehicle rentals and three points — assuming per day and not per rental — on optional products; whereas today, you earn only one Avis Preferred Point for every dollar spent, according to this discussion posted at FlyerTalk
- A former reward chart could not be found because the rewards were dynamic, as they varied and fluctuated in accordance with different circumstances and criteria: “Rewards are now based on Avis Preferred Points, and not on the quantity of transactions such as rentals. The redemption of Avis Preferred Points is dynamic, and the quantity of points required for benefits varies based upon such elements as duration of the rental, date, car class, time of year and location. A one-week rental at a major airport location during a peak travel period will require more points than a weekend rental taking place during off-peak seasons at a local market Avis location in a smaller city. All of these factors will determine how many points are required to obtain desired benefits.”
- There were no blackout days in the former iteration of this program either; so this benefit is nothing new
Summary
Many FlyerTalk members were unhappy with the former iteration of the program. One of many examples of this disdain was posted by FlyerTalk member kkapadia: “To redeem one free rental day at LAX I need 1200 points, yes that is 1200 points. At this rate, it would take about 13 weeks of rental to earn 1 free day. This makes no sense at all, and definitely not rewarding for being loyal to Avis for number of years now. At least before there were giving 1 free weekend rental (3 days) for every 9 weeks of rental, or get rewarded handsomely with 1500 AA miles.”
Perhaps the latest version may be considered an improvement; but I prefer to use my earnings from Avis vehicle rentals towards partner rewards such as Hyatt Gold Passport — er…I mean World of Hyatt — points rather than earn Avis Preferred Points towards renting cars with Avis. Of course, that is not without its own pitfalls, as 17 months were required just to finally receive the full credit I rightfully earned in accordance with program and promotion rules.
Also, realize that Avis Preferred Points will not be earned on rentals which earn mileage, credits or points for a frequent travel loyalty program such as — but not limited to — an airline frequent flier loyalty program or a hotel frequent guest loyalty program. You can only earn one reward currency on any given rental — either Avis Preferred Points or another frequent traveler program.
I personally am not excited about the latest iteration of the Avis Preferred frequent renter loyalty program; but it does seem like it has marginally improved. Perhaps I am mistaken; but did the Avis Preferred frequent renter loyalty program reverse course by removing dynamic redemptions in favor of an actual chart based on the revenue cost of renting a vehicle? If so, that bucks the trend of other frequent travel loyalty programs.
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
