Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get a huge 18,700 Avios for ONE UK Avis rental – but does it make sense?

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Iberia Plus and Avis have launched a very low key promotion which a HfP reader flagged up last night. If you can make this work for you, you could do very nicely.

Take a look here.

Avis is offering 18,000 Avios if you book a Group C car, or above, for 3 days or more, starting on 8th, 9th or 10th December.

Avis 350

You will also earn at least 700 base Avios for the rental.

If you can get a good rate from your local depot this could be a real winner.

The devil is in the detail with offers like this.  If you are thinking of taking part, read the rules carefully as well as my summary below.

You will earn these Avios in Iberia Plus.  You will need a free Iberia Plus account to take part.  You will not get the bonus if you credit to avios.com or British Airways Executive Club.

You must book on avisiberia.es, iberia.com or avis.es.   Bookings on avis.com or avis.co.uk do not qualify.

Your rental must be in the UK, mainland Spain, Balearics and Canaries, Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium or Holland.

The deal is NOT valid on Prestige rentals, Chauffeur Drive or van rentals.

You cannot use any other coupon, promotion or frequent flyer points offer.  This implies to me that you must book at the standard Avis rate.  It even implies that using the Iberia discount code would disqualify you.  This may be taking the rule too literally but you don’t want to risk 18,000 Avios.

It is worth pricing up a 3-day rental from your local Avis depot.  Try out rentals starting on the 8th, 9th and 10th for three days for a Group C or above.  If the price works then it could be worth renting a car and sticking it on your drive for the weekend.

I tried a random booking in Bolton and got a price of €51 – a bargain for 18,700 Avios.

Unfortunately, because I can’t park anywhere near my own house without a parking permit, it isn’t one for me.  If you can make it work for you it could go nicely.  Just make sure you follow the rules to the letter.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (291)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Tom H says:

    I seem to be only able to see limited pick up points in UK mainland, is there a simple solution to this? I.e. I cant see Aylesbury?

    • Charlie says:

      Try avis.co.uk first to find the locations. Then book as per the article 🙂

      • Tom H says:

        Thanks for the reply Charlie, but that’s what I did, found the rental location I wanted on their .co.uk site then couldn’t find it on the linked site from the article where the offer was? Any ideas?

        • Charlie says:

          On the avisiberia.es site choose ‘All Locations’, the choose ‘UK Mainland’, then scroll. It’s in two lists, the first is all the airport locations. Go past it and you’ll see all of the other locations.

  • Anon says:

    Can’t seem to get a rate lower than €87.66 Euros, shame 🙁

    • Mohammed says:

      I’m in London and am getting the same price. Works out to be £73. Isn’t it worth it for this price?

    • Graeme says:

      No, neither can I – but then annoyingly City Airport is my most convenient site. That’s a real shame as that’s some easy Avios otherwise.

  • Mapman says:

    Successfully booked for collection at Ashford International for the price of €57.01 for probably an Astra. Rather convenient as I can catch the train to pick the car up. Might even pop to the Outlet Centre.
    Once again, thanks for the heads up, Rob!

  • Chris P says:

    49.15 Euros for 3 days pu Liverpool. Only slight thought is in the T & C it does mention “one free driver for Executive Club” yet I didn’t quote my Wizard No nor mention BA. Either way, without the 18,000 Avios it’s still a bargain and will save the mileage on mine as I will be travelling a lot that weekend. Thanks, Rob.

  • Sharron says:

    Dumb question here but it says minimum category group C for the car so I’m presuming group E is okay?

    87 EUR, was hoping for cheaper but I think still worth it.

    Thanks

    • CC says:

      Yes E is fine, A and B is are the ones to avoid.

    • Alan Clare says:

      Hello,
      I got a booking for £57.00 in Norwich but again its a Group E which should be oaky.
      Only problem now is I can’t actually get over there to physically pick up the car.
      it seems that making and paying for the reservation is the qualifying part or a I wrong ?
      Alan

      • Rob says:

        Pretty sure you’re wrong, unfortunately. Same as booking a hotel room and not using – you get no credit.

  • CC says:

    Has anyone retrieved their booking on the Avis website? I just looked and the price is higher than what I booked at 59 euros. Although my email confirmation says 49 euros as it should.

  • Howard says:

    After checking the booking on the Avis website, at the bottom on the booking page it states a promotion has been applied, I assume this will be the discount/ promotion used on the Iberia system after completing the booking? As I haven’t applied any promotional codes when booking the car rental on the Iberia website.
    Has anybody else noticed this on the Avis website?

    • BigDave says:

      just checked now on avis.es and the same happens….
      yet on avisiberia.es where i originally booked it doesnt.
      hmmm

    • CC says:

      Howard – Did you book a group C or go for the Group E?

      I was going to go for Group C but E was the same price so I went for that. Im just thinking now if that is a special price then maybe thats why I have the same message as you saying ‘promotion has been applied’ and would explain why my rental is showing as the normal price of a group E car when retrieving the booking, but the reduced special price in my email confirmation.

      Im considering cancelling and rebooking a group C car as Im sure they will find any excuse to wriggle out of crediting avios.

      • Howard says:

        I have two bookings. One which is a group c rental and the other a group e. Both bookings display the message “promotion has been applied”. I think and hope I’m correct in saying that the promotion is refereeing to the 18000 avios bonus.

        • CC says:

          Ah right, will just leave it as it is then, cheers

        • BigDave says:

          lets hope so, although I have an avis preffered number I’ve never used it and used a computer I’d never rented a car with etc..

          • Philip says:

            I had the option to book E at the same price as C but chose not to just in case a counted as a nullifying Promotion.
            As it happens I just picked up the car and I was upgraded from a Hyundai i3 to a Merc C200.
            Here’s hoping it all goes to plan.

  • Matthew says:

    Just booked, thank you very much HFP for highlighting this.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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