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New Avis Bonus Offers For Both American Airlines and US Airways

ByEdward Pizzarello

American Airlines and US Airways both announced new bonus offers with Avis this week.

First, American Airlines is offering up to 7,500 bonus miles for rentals with Avis:

Avis Bonus

With no bonus offers, you normally earn 50 AAdvantage miles per day on an Avis rental.  But, there’s almost always a bonus offer.  This one is especially rewarding at multiple levels.  For short rentals, getting 1,000 miles for a 1 day rental is pretty solid.  And, if you happen to have a weekly rental, 7,500 bonus miles is 1/3 of a free saver award in the continental US.  This offer runs through July 15th.

Then, US Airways is offering 5X miles on all rentals through July 15th.  “Corporate” rentals normally earn 1 mile per dollar spent and “consumer” rentals earn 2 miles per dollar.

Since US Airways Dividend Miles will become AAdvantage miles at some point in the not-too-distant future, you should book the offer that yields the most miles for your specific rental regardless of the airline you’re earning with.  Let’s compare the offers:

At 5X miles, you’d need to spend $750 or more on a US Airways “consumer” rental ($1500 on a corporate rental) to make it more valuable to credit a weekly rental there versus AAdvantage.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, a 1 or 2-day rental needs to ring in at $100 for a consumer rental or $200 for a corporate rental to make it more rewarding to earn Dividend Miles.

United has a quadruple miles offer that nets premier members 350 miles a day through August 31st in case you’re not interested in earning AAdvantage miles.

Bottom Line It For Me, Ed

In most cases, you won’t be spending $100 a day for a rental car.  If you’re in one of those rarer cases, compare the AAdvantage and US Airways deals.  But, if you’re spending less than $100 a day on your rental car, you’re almost surely better off with the AAdvantage deal.

 

My goal in life is to fill my family’s passports with stamps, creating buckets of memories along the way. You’ll find me writing about realistic ways for normal people to travel the world, whether you’re on a budget or enjoy luxury. I also enjoy taking us on the occasional detour to explore the inner workings of the travel industry.

2 Comments

  1. Why arent you bloggers failing to report that avis charges you addional fees for the bonus? You end up losing complete value on the miles you earn.

    Reply

    1. Mike, most of the rental companies add a surcharge for earning frequent flier miles. I’m not a regular Avis customer, but my recollection is the surcharge is only for US-based airlines, and some airlines cost more to redeem than others. My recollection is that AA is one of the cheaper redemption partners.

      Reply

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