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

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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.


How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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:

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 Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Comments (53)

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

  • Vit says:

    Thanks Rob for this.

    Anyone knows if car group in avis works in alphabetical order? Meaning to qualify for this offer I can rent group G, if it is cheaper than C for example?

    I need a 2 days (weekend only) rental in Norway next month but not sure I can add half day in either before or after my planned pick up date and time to make it a 3 days rental. Or will there be any issue based on people experiences here with the rental company?

    • R says:

      G is above C.

      No you can’t add time, they will cancel the rental if you dont show, and if you return early you will get charged the adjusted rate.

    • ChasP says:

      will 2 days and 2 hours be charged as 3 days ?
      Many car rental companies will charge an extra day if you are more than 30mins over

      • Vit says:

        Thanks ChasP. I will just need to pick up the car on a Friday morning and park at the office car park. Checking the rate again, comparing extra 5 hours is charged as 3 days. Not bad for 50quid a days in Norway for Group C.

      • Rob says:

        It normally is I agree.

  • Dom says:

    FYI. The rental must sadly be completed by 31st December which is a shame given its the holidays.

  • Simon says:

    I’ve now tried to book twice once in the UK and once in USA, it stops at the last stage to say ‘sorry this rate isn’t available right now. Please call….’
    Pain in the bum

    • Andy says:

      And it says in the T&Cs that the booking must be made online. I tried myself a couple of times yesterday, got the same error and gave up.

      They ran a similar promo a few months ago (maybe it was 20k instead of 25k) and even then only got the error code

  • Peter says:

    “Sorry, this rate isn’t available online right now. Please call 0808 284 0013. (EX016)”

    Crazy promo indeed… Oh Avis!
    Deceptive advertising?

  • Chrisdf says:

    Can you not convert Etihad miles to cash with their rewards visa card?

  • Dubious says:

    It’s interesting to see the 15% discount brings some of the prices for Heathrow pick-up – back to reasonable levels. I did a quick check this morning and I almost decided to make a booking, just needed to confirm my plans..came back a few hours later to book only to find there’s no availability any more – that was quick.

    Prices for the Christmas period back to the new normal…back to public transport I go…

  • Lou says:

    How do you know which category is which?

    • Dubious says:

      On the Avis results there are images of each car type. In the top-right corner of each image is a button to ‘spin’ the image. On the reverse side it shows the rental category code.

      Some cars seem to come as both cat. C and cat. E despite having the same description and price.

  • Patrick says:

    It’s international rental codes, called SIPP
    https://www.vroomvroomvroom.com.au/rental-information/sipp-codes/

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

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