Why you should consider crediting your Avis rentals to SAS EuroBonus

A few weeks ago (or was it even last week?) we passed along the news that SAS EuroBonus will now award 1,000 points for any eligible Avis rental that is booked through their page on the Avis World website at avisworld.com/eurobonus

Why is this significant? 1,000 points for a rental may not seem a lot but when you compare it to many other programs it actually is especially when looking a rentals of 1 day or less. Aeroplan only offers 500 miles per Avis rental excluding any bonuses and many U.S. programs offer 50 miles per day excluding bonuses. Some programs award varying levels of points per day so that is why this SAS EuroBonus tactic should really only be looked at for one day rentals.

When looking at our home grown program, Aeroplan, it would take you 50 Avis rentals to get enough Aeroplan miles for an economy class award ticket within North America. With SAS EuroBonus their old earn rate prior to April 1st was also 500 points but now that it has been doubled, you can get enough SAS EuroBonus points for a round trip economy class award ticket in North America with only 25 Avis rentals and this is why you should consider moving your 1 day or less Avis rentals to SAS EuroBonus. Of course bonus offers may change this value proposition but most of the time those bonus offers require rentals of multiple days.

Although we haven't wrote about before here on Rewards Canada, you should do the same for one day or less Hertz or Alamo rentals by crediting those to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club as you'll earn 1,000 miles for any eligible rental with those two companies. This is also valuable as Flying Club miles can be converted to Hilton HHonors points if you never for see redeeming miles via Flying Club for flights.

But what about consolidating all your points into you main account you may ask? While I still tend to preach about focusing on one program a person should also look at how quickly you can be rewarded. If you are planning 25 Avis rentals this year and know you'll be 12,500 miles short of an award with Aeroplan than you should probably credit those to Aeroplan but if you have no award flights planned or just wing it when it comes to that department you are better off crediting to EuroBonus and getting a free round trip award flight vs. a one way award flight.

EuroBonus' Star Alliance Award chart - 25,000 Miles for North America round trip

Find the complete details on booking Avis cars with SAS EuroBonus at avisworld.com/eurobonus