Lots of airline loyalty programs have partnerships with rental car companies, which is an opportunity to earn airline miles for renting cars. At the moment Etihad has an especially lucrative promotion for Avis rentals, which is worth considering if you have any upcoming rental car needs.
In this post:
25K Etihad miles for a three day Avis rental
As first flagged by Frequent Flyer Bonuses, Etihad Guest has an amazing promotion right now, as you can earn 25,000 bonus Etihad Guest miles when completing an Avis rental of three or more days:
- You must book between October 28 and October 31, 2022, at this link
- You must pick-up your rental between November 1 and December 23, 2022; the rental must be completed by December 31, 2022
- You must rent in the United States (excluding Alaska), Canada, Europe, Middle East, Africa, or Asia
- You must rent a Group C car or above
- Etihad Guest members can take advantage of this promotion up to three times
- This is in addition to the standard Etihad Guest mileage earning rates for Avis rentals, which is at least three miles per dollar spent
This is an amazing offer
With this promotion, I’m seeing three day rentals in many cities pricing out around ~$200 all-in. That’s a pretty amazing deal — personally I value Etihad Guest miles at 1.1 cents each, so to me the miles alone could justify the cost of a rental.
The major catch is that Etihad Guest is a bit of a niche program. This isn’t Air Canada Aeroplan or American AAdvantage, so I’d only want to acquire Etihad Guest miles at that rate with a specific redemption in mind. I wouldn’t want to rent specifically to earn the miles, only to have 25,000 Etihad Guest miles and not know what to do with them.
On the plus side, Etihad Guest miles are pretty easy to earn with transferable points currencies. Etihad Guest is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou, so that gives you lots of options for topping off your account.
Bottom line
For a limited time you can earn 25,000 bonus Etihad Guest miles for an Avis rental of three or more days. This is one of the best rental car promos we’ve ever seen for earning miles, and you could easily rack up 25,000+ miles with a ~$200 rental.
This has the potential to be a great offer, especially if you know how to redeem Etihad Guest miles. While I wouldn’t do a “rental car run” to take advantage of this, I’d certainly prioritize this promo if you have any upcoming rental car needs.
Do you plan on taking advantage of this Etihad rental car promo with Avis?
Took advantage of this promotion with a 3-day rental ending 11/6/22. According to the 4-6 week timeline for bonus miles, the bonus should have posted 12/18/22 at the latest. Unsurprisingly, they still haven't shown up. Called Avis, who directed me to Etihad Guest. I sent all details (copy of promotion terms and conditions, rental agreement, receipt) to [email protected]. Anyone actually have luck with this promotion working as advertised? If Etihad Guest doesn't fix it, any...
Took advantage of this promotion with a 3-day rental ending 11/6/22. According to the 4-6 week timeline for bonus miles, the bonus should have posted 12/18/22 at the latest. Unsurprisingly, they still haven't shown up. Called Avis, who directed me to Etihad Guest. I sent all details (copy of promotion terms and conditions, rental agreement, receipt) to [email protected]. Anyone actually have luck with this promotion working as advertised? If Etihad Guest doesn't fix it, any ideas for how else to escalate?
l’ve had a very similar experience and so far all l received was an email response 4 weeks after sending my original email from Etihad Guest saying my request will be dealt with as soon as possible. No idea when that may be.
Sorry, this rate isn't available online right now. Please call 0808 284 0013. (EX016)
If the system is not ready and this promotion is launched, is it considered cheating to actually be able to participate at all?
Cheapest one-day rental through the Etihad link locally is USD150, so forget it!
Still waiting on my 20K bonus from Avis and Etihad when they ran this similar promotion back in August. I get error messages on Avis’s website when I fill out the form to claim missing miles.
Anyone know who I should be contacting? Heard that Avis directs you to Etihad and vise versa.
I've got a rental coming up in Israel and I actually wanted a smaller car for some of the narrower streets there. But the smalls are A and B. To get to a C car or higher it's midsize. I wonder if there's any wiggle room in that.
“Sorry, this rate isn’t available online right now. Please call 0808 284 0013. (EX016)”
Well it's Avis after all... Poor showing still.
Sadly, I'm getting an error:
"Sorry, this rate isn't available online right now. Please call 0808 284 0013. (EX016)"
Doesn't work for rentals in Mexico? I have an upcoming rental in Mexico, but reading the terms it looks like Mexico is not included.
I also have a rental in Canada, but only for 2 days. I think if I book for 3 days, but return only after 2 days, I won't get the miles.