Can I earn Avios from Hertz / Avis / Europcar / SIXT or other car rental companies?
Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission. See here for all partner links.
Can you earn Avios from Hertz, Avis, Europcar, SIXT or other car rental companies?
Rental cars offer an additional way of earning Avios. In this article we’ll look at which car rental companies allow you to earn Avios.
Earning Avios with Avis
British Airways has a significant partnership with rental car company Avis. This partnership includes more than just an Avios earning rate. If booking an Avis rental car with a British Airways Executive Club number, you will get a free additional driver
You will earn five Avios per £ spent with Avis, with minimum of 500 Avios per rental. You can get an additional 1,000 Avios on your first rental after joining ‘Avis Preferred’ for free.
In addition, if you are a British Airways Gold card holder, you are entitled to “Avis Priority Rental Service”, which allows you to pick your rental up from right outside the arrivals hall at Heathrow Terminal 5 instead of taking the shuttle bus.
Earning Avios with Budget
You can collect two Avios per £1 spent when you rent a car with Budget. Budget is a sister company to Avis and they share the same parent.
Earning Avios with Maggiore
You can collect two Avios per €1 spent with European rental group Maggiore. Again, this is a business under the same ownership as Avis and Budget.
Earning Avios with other car rental companies
In 2022, Qatar Airways officially adopted Avios as its frequent flyer currency.
You can now link your British Airways Executive Club account with your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account and move Avios back and forth at a 1:1 ratio. Our ‘how to’ guide to account linking is here.
Qatar Airways has Avios-earning partnerships with Europcar, Hertz and Sixt. You can open a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account, credit your Europcar, Hertz or Sixt rental to it, and then transfer the Avios over to British Airways Executive Club.
Here are the deals:
Europcar
Europcar was not previously an Avios partner, although you could earn Nectar points – at a terrible rate – and convert them. We wrote this article on how you could earn points and miles in other loyalty schemes with Europcar.
You can now earn Avios with Europcar via Qatar Airways Privilege Club. You will earn 500 Avios on all rentals.
The Europcar website is here.
Hertz
Hertz is arguably ‘the big one’ in terms of opening up new ways of earning Avios from Qatar Airways Privilege Club.
As a Privilege Club member you receive:
- Up to 10% off Hertz car rental rates
- 500 Avios for standard rentals
- 250 Avios for contract rentals
The Hertz website is here.
SIXT
You can earn 500 Avios for every SIXT rental when you credit it to Qatar Airways Privilege Club. The SIXT website is here.
Rentalcars.com
Finally, Qatar Airways Privilege Club has an interesting deal with Rentalcars.com. This is a consolidator, allowing you to book cars from every major rental company in virtually all major markets.
You need to book via the special link on the Qatar Airways website (click on ‘Car Rentals’ and then ‘Rentalcars.com’) which takes you to a dedicated co-branded booking page. You will receive 3 Avios in Privilege Club for every $1 you spend.
(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works. You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )
(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.6 million monthly page views. Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios? Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)
PS. If you are reading this but are not a regular Head for Points visitor, please consider signing up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters. They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and deals to improve how you travel. To sign up, visit this page of the site or click any of the ‘Subscribe’ links on this page. Thank you.
How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2025)
As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!
In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.
You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:
Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
Barclaycard Avios Mastercard
Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review
There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:
British Airways American Express Premium Plus
30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review
British Airways American Express
5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review
You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.
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
The Platinum Card from American Express
50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review
Run your own business?
We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.
Capital on Tap Visa
NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review
Capital on Tap Pro Visa
10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review
There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:
British Airways American Express Accelerating Business
30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review
There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.
American Express Business Platinum
50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review
American Express Business Gold
20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review
Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.