Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: win £50 for our 200,000th comment, good SAS EuroBonus deal with Avis

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News in brief:

Make our 200,000th approved comment

At some point this morning, approved comment number 200,000 will be made on Head for Points.

This is a slightly crazy and very impressive achievement – especially as well over 199,000 of them have been polite and thoughtful.  And at least 198,000 have had no mention of Harry’s ‘place in the sun’ …..

Thank you to everyone for your contributions.  The site genuinely would not be the same without you.

You can go onto a site like Fiverr and buy yourself thousands of fake page views, Twitter followers or Facebook likes.  Online readership statistics can be faked in a hundred different ways.

What you can’t fake, however, are 200,000 comments, and whenever we have a marketing meeting we always point to the discussions on HfP as the best measure of the success of the site.

Anyway …. we’re going to send a £50 Amazon voucher to whoever makes the 200,000th comment.  Unless it is me or Anika.  Or the person did not give their real email on the comment form.  Anyway, we will decide on a winner and let them know.

Good SAS EuroBonus deal with Avis

We don’t cover SAS EuroBonus much on Head for Points, although the scheme is an American Express Membership Rewards airline partner.

Until the end of October, SAS is running a very attractive Avis deal.  Take 2 x 2-day Avis rentals before the end of the year (to be booked by 31st October) and you will receive a whopping 12,000 EuroBonus miles.

That won’t necessarily get you far, but you could do a top-up via Membership Rewards.  You can get a night in a Radisson hotel for 20,000 SAS miles for example – that is how I got my free night at The May Fair in London 18 months ago.

Using them for flights is less attractive.  You need 20,000 SAS miles, plus taxes, for a one-way European flight on any Star Alliance airline.  That said, if you stretched the definition of Europe to its far reaches then it still may be an OK deal if the taxes made sense.

Full details are on this page of the Avis site.


How to get FREE car rental status and other benefits via UK credit cards

How to get FREE car rental status and other benefits via UK credit cards (April 2025)

If you hire a car in the UK, you can get special benefits (discounts, upgrades, free additional drivers etc) if you have elite status with a car rental programme. You can get elite status for free via certain American Express cards.

The Platinum Card and American Express Business Platinum

The Platinum Card from American Express and American Express Business Platinum come with two free car hire status cards. Your supplementary Platinum cardholder can also receive status in their own right.

From Avis, you receive President’s Club status in Avis Preferred. This gets you up to 25% off standard rates, a free additional driver and a guaranteed one class upgrade. For weekend rentals you will receive a two class upgrade, subject to availability.

From Hertz, you receive ‘Five Star’ status in Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. This gets you up to 15% off standard rates, a free additional driver and a one class upgrade, subject to availability.

Hertz also offers Platinum cardholders a 4 hour grace period on rentals. Your final day is treated as 28 hours, so a 1pm pick up with a 5pm return the following day is only charged as one day, not two days. We wrote about the Hertz / Platinum 4 hour grace period here.

The Platinum Card also comes with full car hire insurance with no obligation to pay for the rental via American Express. You can refuse any attempts to sell you additional insurance at pick up. This benefit has substantial value if you rent on a regular basis.

You can find more details on the two Platinum cards, and apply, in our full reviews linked below. You can apply here for the personal card and here for the business card.

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

American Express Business Platinum

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

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is an excellent card in its own right. You receive 20,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up (convert to 20,000 Avios amongst other things), four airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit. Even better, your first year is free.

There are two car rental benefits:

  • you receive Preferred Plus status in Avis Preferred
  • you receive a special package with Hertz – 10% off best available rates at participating locations, a one class upgrade for rentals of 5 days or more, subject to availability, and no additional driver fees

Find out more about the benefits of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold in our review. You can apply here.

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

Comments (404)

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

  • grex9101 says:

    Great site, keep up the good work!

  • Chris says:

    IC – anyone else tried but failed to renew ambassador membership? Every time I submit the form with the payment details it just reloads the page. No error, no payment taken, just a frustrating circle…

    • John says:

      IHG’s systems seem to be down at the moment. Try again tomorrow.

      • Andrew says:

        Was just about to check the number of points needed for an IHG hotel and their website is going nuts on Explorer and Firefox – as well as being redirected to a site blocked by my employers on a new tab whilst it was doing it…

    • Rob says:

      SNAP! I have been trying to renew mine since 1st September and it won’t accept it. I may have to call. It is an Accelerate target for me too.

  • Rob MC says:

    Has anyone had more luck with the IHG credit card free night being able to get it without the new annual fee/ full refund

    • Scottydogg says:

      Yes , this all got sorted out . As long as you hit that £10,000 spend , you can then cancel , the free night takes a while to credit .

      At first they were saying that you had to renew , they then changed their tune . I imagine they were told that they need to honor them .
      I cancelled after 11 months , free night voucher took a while to credit but its sat there ready to use now

      • Rob MC says:

        Thanks. Halfway through the spend but only had it for 3 months. As with creations issues I will get it in writing I can cancel but will get the free room voucher

  • The Original Nick. says:

    Slightly O:T, I used my IHG CC to pay for a stay which is showing on my Accelerate page as completed. But nothing is showing for the using of my IHG CC. Also, I booked via App which is also a challenge but that’s not changed. Had anyone else having the same problem?

  • Sandra says:

    Probably won’t be me that wins …. Anyway great site with lots of helpful information & also helpful readers, congratulations and long may you continue!

  • Isabel Friedlander says:

    Please add Krakow to your list of airports with a OneWorld lounge that doesn’t accept BA passengers as BA has refused to pay for access. Ba had this lounge on their list and when I’d been refused access I had a lenghty email correspondence with customer services but they refused to provide the reason for lack of access!! This may have changed since my trip so may need to be checked.

  • Alexander says:

    Congrats Rob, a great site that’s done an incredible job of introducing me tot he world of avios, now on 300k points!

  • Andrew says:

    Congrats Rob on an incredible wealth of information and brilliant community. I came to the UK from New Zealand a little over a year ago and glad to have stumbled upon this for tips on amassing points!

    All the best
    Andrew

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

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