British Airways offering Avis status for Executive Club members
BA is offering Avis status for their Executive Club status cardholders with an Avios bonus too.
When you hire a car with Avis, you collect 5 Avios for every £1 you spend on car hire, as well as one free additional driver every time you rent for joining Avis Preferred. Having joined myself recently but not got around to upgrading mine to Presidents Club, it can save a lot of time in many locations with the fast track service, especially in the US, where you can head straight to the parking lot and collect your car from a specific bay. It certainly speeds up the paperwork in my experience (apart from Charleston, which was a nightmare and best avoided with Avis). I would also add that on most of my bookings, I have been saving at least 30-40% on what the booking would be direct with Avis, by booking through the BA Avis page. Avis offers discounts for BA status holders.
Other extras for the basic membership, include upgrades and free rental vouchers depending on how many rentals you do.
You also collect 1,000 bonus Avios on your first Avis Preferred rental.
So far, the offers appear to be:
- Gold and Gold Guest List: Presidents Club
- Silver: Preferred Plus
- Bronze: 1000 Avios bonus
Avis Preferred benefits:
- A €15 voucher for your next trip after your second rental
- The full Avis app experience
- Avis self-service car rental – In some locations, your keys and paperwork will be waiting for you in the car.
- Priority service every time
- Jump the queue with pre-prepared paperwork and your vehicle at the ready.
- A voucher for a free weekend after three rentals
Avis Preferred Plus benefits:
- Priority for availability
- Free additional driver
- Single upgrade upon availability
- Weekend voucher – Received once per membership after completion of third rental
President’s Club benefits:
- Free additional driver
- Single upgrade guaranteed
- Double upgrade upon availability on weekends
- Weekend voucher – received once per membership after completion of third rental
The offer for the extra Avios says limited time, but it does not say when the offer ends. The membership to the higher levels of Avis Preferred are only valid for a year; then you have to maintain it in the usual way. You would drop down to the basic level which still offers some perks.
It does seem like if you already have joined Avis Preferred that you are unable to upgrade your membership with this offer without creating a new account, which seems a bit silly. UPDATE: A reader reported that when he logged into his account he had already been upgraded, so worth checking. This was not the case for me.
However, you can also get Presidents Club from American Express Platinum or World Elite Mastercards (for 2 years, including Curve Metal, look for the words on your card).
American Express Platinum members who have Avis President’s Club membership receive additional benefits, including up to 25% off published rates and a minimum discount of 10%. You can upgrade if you are already a member using this link for Amex Platinum members.
12 comments
It’s interesting that you don’t seem to be able to upgrade an existing Avis Preferred account through the BA offer and it’s maybe another illustration of BA’s inadequate IT.
I qualified for Presidents Club through United Premier Platinum status and was able to enter my existing Avis Preferred account number and have it upgraded.
How do you upgrade to Presidents Club if you are preferred member?
When you book via the BA site does Avis know what status you are?
You can’t as far as I can see. Have to create a new Avis account. Yes if you are signed into your BA account. Then it asks you to sign into your Avis account/add the number.
Anyone else getting an error after adding card details? I am getting this error “ES500 – Sorry, we’re experiencing a systems error. Please try again soon, or call us for assistance.”
Yes, I’m getting this too.
Yes, me too, and now the link to sign up seems to be broken
It worked for me – I was already a Preferred member but I was automatically upgraded to President’s Club when I logged in after receiving the notification.
That’s good news.
The link on the email from BA didnt work for me. It said the page has moved 🙁
I tried typing in the ‘password’ on the forwarded page and that didnt work either.
Shambles.
When I moved from AmEx Business Platinum (Preferred Plus) to AmEx Personal Platinum (giving President Club), an email to Avis customer services got my Avis account upgraded
I got the email from BA and tried to register4 times……kept saying I’d not filled in a section though I had and it disappeared…gave up after the 4th attempt…sooooooo frustrating!!
I know I am posting this rather late, I have literally just got around to this. I emailed [email protected] and explained I tried to use the link to upgrade from BA it didn’t work. They have upgraded it for me on their side, just in case other people have a similar problem
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