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How to get Avis Preferred Plus status from your Priority Pass

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If you have American Express Preferred Rewards Gold or American Express Platinum, you will have a free Priority Pass card for airport lounge access.

Here’s something you may not know.  Holders of a Priority Pass airport lounge access card can claim Preferred Plus status with Avis.

Avis Preferred Plus usually requires five Avis rentals in a year and €1,000 of spending.

Get Avis Preferred Plus status with Priority Pass

What are the benefits of Avis Preferred Plus status?

To be honest, the benefits of Avis Preferred Plus are not huge. You get:

  • priority car availability
  • a free extra driver on every trip (already a free benefit if you book via the BA Avis website)
  • a complimentary one-level vehicle upgrade whenever possible
  • voucher for a free European weekend rental after your 3rd rental

You can find out more about the different Avis status levels on their website here.

You can claim your Preferred Plus status by following the link on this page.  There is also a notional ‘20% discount’ for Priority Pass members although this may not beat other partner rates such as the BA one.

If you are reading this from outside the UK, this offer may not be open to you.  You need to be based in:

“Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.“

How to get FREE car rental status and other benefits via UK credit cards (December 2023)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

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

Crazy 100,000 points (TO 9th JANUARY) and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

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 (TO 9th JANUARY), FREE for a year & four airport ….. Read our full review

Category

Avis and Avis Preferred

Comments (35)

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

  • Kyle says:
    10 Nov10 November 04:12

    Any idea how to go through with this if you already have avis preferred? When I log in following the link it just takes me to the profile page, no way of getting preferred plus

  • Charlie says:
    10 Nov10 November 04:39

    If you have an American Express Platinum Card, you’re actually entitled to Avis President’s Club status.

  • Charlie says:
    10 Nov10 November 04:39

    If you have an American Express Platinum Card, you’re actually entitled to Avis President’s Club status.

  • Alison says:
    10 Nov10 November 06:29

    Does anyone know if it’s possible to upgrade an existing Avis Preferred account with this?

    • Charles Martel says:
      10 Nov10 November 07:27

      I couldn’t work that out either, that said every booking I’ve looked to make for next year has been cheaper with Sixt so I’m not sure I’d actually be able to take advantage of it

    • Jonny says:
      10 Nov10 November 07:48

      Email them and they do it manually

    • Metty says:
      10 Nov10 November 07:49

      The links on the Amex Plat page don’t work (they direct you to Preferred not President’s Club). As posted by shub in the Forum a month or so ago, best thing to do is email database.northern@bsc.avis-europe.com and ask them to sort it.

      • Ed_fly says:
        10 Nov10 November 07:55

        It might be fixed now, as my status is president club and that came straight from the link on Amex website.

        • Metty says:
          10 Nov10 November 08:05

          That’s good, my Amex Plat Dashboard link definitely doesn’t work and never has….

      • PeteM says:
        11 Nov11 November 15:40

        Thank you, emailing that address worked a treat.

  • Ed_fly says:
    10 Nov10 November 07:56

    Is Northern Ireland included in that list? As NI is not Great Britain or Ireland.

    • Froggee says:
      10 Nov10 November 08:15

      Of course it is. Next you’ll say that the Republic of Ireland is not in Ireland either!

      I have to admit this would drive me crazy nuts if I was Northern Irish also. Particularly the whole TeamGB thing, That would do my head in.

      • Ed_fly says:
        10 Nov10 November 08:49

        Clearly the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are on the island of Ireland. Also, quite clearly the list in the article was a list of countries, not islands. ‘Ireland’ when used as a country is referring to the ‘republic of Ireland’ and not the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. And there are many instances of things that apply to GB but not to NI. So while I would expect it in this instance to apply to NI as well, it should never be taken as a given.

        • Froggee says:
          10 Nov10 November 09:33

          Indeed but there is no country Great Britain so I guess it excludes all of the UK then? Or maybe it doesn’t as if you try and register, there is no Great Britain option, it is the United Kingdom.

          • Ed_fly says:
            10 Nov10 November 10:06

            Which seems to suggest the Avis web copy which referred to GB was a mistake on their behalf. I stand by my point that the use of Ireland as a country does not include NI. And that GB doesn’t include NI. If you want to continue to suggest that the use of Ireland was meant to cover the island of Ireland, that’s fine. And likewise if you think NI is covered by GB also fine.

          • Froggee says:
            10 Nov10 November 10:17

            Ay, Caramba. Life is too short. I keep having to remind myself that some people take things very seriously and don’t appreciate humour. I’ll hop on and apologise for trying to brighten your day by pointing out the inconsistencies in Avis’ wording.

  • Paul says:
    10 Nov10 November 08:04

    The Avios Barclaycard (a Mastercard) also comes with President Club level “status”. On a sample of two hires … the only useful benefit is the second driver one. We shall see how the year pans out as the free weekend hire has potential.

    • James P says:
      10 Nov10 November 20:02

      Can confirm this works. I’m just back from the US where I had 2 separate Avis rentals booked as group C cars and both got decent upgrades – one to a large 7-seat SUV and one to a very nice nearly-new Dodge Challenger coupe.

      As others have mentioned you need to email them to request the status and make sure the card in your Avis profile is the Barclaycard (if you need to switch the card you also need to email them for some reason).

  • Reney says:
    10 Nov10 November 08:07

    Do I need to book direct to benefit from status?

  • berneslai says:
    10 Nov10 November 09:48

    I tried this in the summer. The form didn’t work and neither Priority Pass nor Avis knew what I was talking about.

    • sam5035 says:
      10 Nov10 November 10:01

      I just sent Avis a email with the link and promo code. hope they come back to me.

      • berneslai says:
        10 Nov10 November 10:52

        If you get it to work, please post details in the forum. There are a few posts around the web about nothing ever coming of this – I’d be delighted to hear from someone it worked for.

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

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