Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Crazy car promo: get 25,000 Etihad Guest miles with a 3+ day Avis rental

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

Back in December 2016, Head for Points caused chaos with Avis UK.

Iberia Plus was offering 18,700 Avios for a 3-day Avis car rental over a specific weekend. In 2016 it was perfectly possible to get a 3-day Avis rental for under £50, and our readers promptly booked out virtually the entire UK supply of small cars.

A promotion has now turned up which is even more generous.

Etihad Guest Avis 25,000 miles offer

Etihad is offering 25,000 Etihad Guest miles if you book a 3+ day Avis car rental.

There is quite a bit of flexbility too as you can read here:

  • you need to book by 31st October (Monday) so from that point of view it is tight
  • you can, however, pick up your car at any point up to 23rd December
  • you need to rent a Group C car or above for 3+ days
  • virtually all Avis rental stations globally are taking part
  • you can earn the bonus up to three times

The bonus is on top of your base earnings. If you don’t have Etihad Guest status you will earn 3 miles per $1 equivalent.

It’s not 2016, of course

What has changed since the Iberia offer of 2016, of course, is the cost of a car rental. With most rental companies having sold off large parts of their fleets during the pandemic, and now being unable to restock due to the global slowdown in car production, prices have shot up.

You won’t be finding 3 day UK rentals for under £50 I’m sure, and I’m not expecting Avis UK to experience another sell out.

Etihad Guest is not of huge interest to most HfP readers. That said, if you wanted to try their Business Class product to the Middle East then a one-way redemption from the UK is roughly 62,500 miles.

You can top up your miles from car rentals via an American Express Membership Rewards transfer. I recommend this article which shows you all the options for earning Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards.

Our last review of Etihad’s business class service is here. Our news report on the new seat – which is a smarter version of the British Airways Club Suite – is here.

You can also redeem on a wide range of partners, including American Airlines and Air Canada, even though Etihad is not in any airline alliance.

Unless you are a keen Etihad Guest collector then I wouldn’t be renting cars under this offer purely to leave them on your drive for three days, as happened in 2016.

If you do need car rentals between now and late December, however, I would be taking this offer seriously.

You can find full details on this special page of the Etihad website.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

Etihad Guest does not have a UK credit card.  However, you can earn Etihad Guest miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

Cards earning Membership Rewards points include:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Etihad Guest miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Etihad Guest mile.

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it, not just with Etihad but with any airline.

Category

Avis and Avis Preferred, Etihad and Etihad Guest

Comments (52)

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

  • LostAntipod says:
    30 Oct30 October 12:04

    Just as an fyi – 27000 miles gives you two business class tickets from Brisbane to Sydney in Virgin, which while not the pinnacle of flyer mile value, is a nice little bonus on my upcoming trip to Oz. I had to use these Etihad miles or lose them and this gets me in the lounge for breakfast as well. Only pain is you have to call to book, can’t do online.

  • AndrewT says:
    30 Oct30 October 12:24

    Currently considering doing this from Liverpool. A category C car is currently £105 for next weekend (3 days). I usually dont collect Etihad points, rather focus on Avios. Whats the best way to use the 25k Etihad miles, is it to transfer to a hotel or just book partner airline flights?

    • Rob says:
      30 Oct30 October 12:32

      If you click ‘Etihad Guest’ under ‘Category’ (bottom of the article on mobile, top left on desktop) it bring up all our Etihad content and if you go back far enough you’ll see pieces on partner airlines.

  • ms says:
    30 Oct30 October 12:33

    This is a silly question probably, but how do I know which class I’m booking?

  • Johan says:
    30 Oct30 October 13:23

    There was a similar promo in August promising 20K etihad points
    I booked 3 rentals but still didn’t get the points despite sending several reminders to Avis

    • jms_uk says:
      30 Oct30 October 20:33

      Has it been six weeks since the end of rental?
      I booked two last time, but only rented this month.
      So far, only the regular miles (67 for £51) posted exactly two weeks after the first one – should be seeing the same tomorrow for the second one.

  • Yorkie Aid says:
    30 Oct30 October 16:27

    Sadly this simply doesn’t work for me. It would have been really useful for two upcoming car rentals. I get through the entire process only to receive the error code “Sorry, this rate isn’t available online right now. Please call 0808 284 0013. (EX016)”

    • Andy says:
      30 Oct30 October 19:10

      Try a pre-paid booking, it failed multiple times for me when paying on collection but worked fine when I switched to pre-paying

  • TJ says:
    30 Oct30 October 17:38

    There’s a key clause to note in the T&Cs:-
    “If any other AWD number is present in a customer’s Avis Preferred profile and this is used in the rental booking no bonus Etihad Guest miles will be awarded and once booked this cannot be reversed.”

    My advice would be not to use your Avis Preferred membership number if, like me, you have enrolled into the Avis Preferred programme via Amex and receive the automatic 15% discount on all bookings. It will invalidate any claim to this bonus offer.

  • Odd says:
    30 Oct30 October 18:17

    I’m heading to south america before the end of the year, and could find a useful rental car then, but these offers often exclude that part of the world. Is that the case here as well?

    • Andy says:
      30 Oct30 October 19:13

      “ The bonus Etihad Guest miles apply to participating Avis locations in the USA (excluding Alaska), Canada, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia (exclude Pacific) only”

  • Adam says:
    30 Oct30 October 22:40

    So, over a 14 night holiday I could make 3 bookings and change car type 3 times banking 3 x 25k?

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.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

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

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

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? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

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!