Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

How to get a one-way Europcar UK rental for just £1

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

This is one of those odd little deals which has been running for a while – for at least five years – but which you won’t know about if you are a new reader, and may well have forgotten about otherwise.

Europcar offers one-way UK car rentals for a flat fee of £1, including basic insurance.  Most are for trips to Heathrow or Gatwick.

This is not a marketing ploy.  The company is trying to save itself money by using you as free labour to get cars back to their original location or to re-allocate vehicles across sites.  Why pay a truck to haul a vehicle across the country when you can find someone willing to pay you £1 for the privilege?!

Europcar £1 UK airport car rentals one-way

How do you book a £1 Europcar car rental?

The Europcar £1 rental page is here (this may not work on mobile).

Availability is obviously not guaranteed but you might be lucky.  A lot of readers have taken advantage of this offer.

Your best chance of finding a deal is if you want to travel TO London, usually to Heathrow.  If I look at Liverpool, for example, there are cars this week to Heathrow, Stansted, Luton and Birmingham.

You need to pay for petrol, of course, so this is not necessarily cheaper than taking the train.  You also need to complete the journey within 24 hours of when you collect the car, and of course you need to get yourself to your nearest Europcar depot in the first place.

That said, I’m sure there are occasions when this could work out nicely.

PS.  My last article on earning miles and points when renting from Europcar is here.

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 2024)

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

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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 – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (29)

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

  • Max says:
    14 Nov14 November 06:34

    Quite a lot of repetition in this article!

  • S says:
    14 Nov14 November 06:47

    Ladies and gentlemen… Editor of the year 😛

    (tongue in cheek)

  • Jan M says:
    14 Nov14 November 08:24

    I’ve used it probably a dozen times. It’s a really fab deal. The only hassle is finding a convenient petrol station near Heathrow to fill up.

    • AJA says:
      14 Nov14 November 10:28

      There are at least 5 petrol stations around LHR, the BP opposite Hatton Cross, two Esso stations on the Southern Perimeter Rd, a Shell on the Bath Rd near the T5 pod parking, another Esso on the Bath Rd near the Renaissance hotel, an Esso on the Clockhouse Roundabout on the A30 and a couple of Tesco stations, the nearest in Feltham on the edge of the industrial estate.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        14 Nov14 November 10:51

        Was going to say there are loads of petrol stations nearby and not even at inflated prices.

    • Lady London says:
      14 Nov14 November 12:18

      I think the Texaco on the North side of the A4 next to the Ibis Styles is the closest.

      There is also one on the A4 side going towards Heathrow just before the roundabout where you would turn hard left back towards Hounslow, or left onto the A30 towards Feltham, or straight ahead towards Heathrow hitting the roundabout A4/A312 at the edge of Heathrow. At that roundabout it’s still about 2 miles more on the A4 till you see the signs to drop the car back turning left onto Heathrow.

      For Tesco Petrol there’s Tesco at Bulls Bridge about a mile North on the A312 and one further South (think about 3 miles) at Feltham.

  • Sebastian says:
    14 Nov14 November 09:28

    Also worth noting Hertz do a very similar deal which I personally found much easier to book. Exeter to LHR, easiest journey ever!

    • Lady London says:
      14 Nov14 November 12:51

      Driiveme dot com is your friend. Especially for international one ways since Hertz either dropped, or hid better, their one way international drop no-charge for oneway program. Driiveme was one of Harry’s.

  • Richmond_Surrey says:
    14 Nov14 November 11:11

    I was looking for £1 one way rental to go up North to pickup the car and only found offers from Avis, but they were in limited date ranges. No other companies offered it. I guess, it’s easier to find them in other direction.

    • Rich says:
      14 Nov14 November 11:21

      Whenever I’ve looked, it has always been TO London that’s offered. I guess customers are picking up at LHR and dropping off elsewhere.

  • Ghosty says:
    14 Nov14 November 11:50

    I had one booked for last May to Heathrow. My flights were of course cancelled so even though it was only £1 I cancelled the booking online. (I didn’t want the inconvenience of an Europcar employee to perhaps wait for me to turn up at the pick up location).
    I was surprised that later the £1 was refunded to my card.

  • J says:
    14 Nov14 November 12:23

    how do you know what vehicle you’re going to get?

    • Tony says:
      14 Nov14 November 12:50

      You don’t. So if there’s one or two of you it’s not a problem. A family of 5 with luggage, however….

      Also I think the Hertz offer allows you to book for 2 days if you want.

    • RussellH says:
      14 Nov14 November 12:51

      When I booked one of these the process was no different from a normal booking – I chose the smallest car available, as always.

  • Smid says:
    14 Nov14 November 14:34

    They are prone to dropping this offer intermittently and they do it strangely by letting you get through the booking screen fine, then say you need to phone a number. Which then leads to someone denying any such offer exists.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!