Welcome to the another post in the Earning Stories series right here on Rewards Canada.
For years we have provided you with the details on earning points and
miles (both regular earning and bonus opportunities) and these stories show the actual offers in action.
This earning story is for a rental we completed in Abbotsford earlier month. We rented a compact SUV for 4
days to get us around the Abbotsford area for the Volleyball Canada National Championships. I booked it using this
promotion we had listed on Rewards Canada’s Aeroplan Bonus Miles page:
Earn up to 3,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on Avis rentals Worldwide. Book online at Avis.com
Bonus Aeroplan Miles may be earned on qualifying rentals, at participating locations as follows:
- 1000 bonus miles on weekday rentals of 3 consecutive paid
days or more, and on a weekend rental of 2 consecutive paid days or
more. A weekend rental must be picked up after Thursday 4pm, local
time. Available at participating locations worldwide.- 1000 bonus miles on select vehicles, including Specialty
(Group X), SUV’s (Groups W, F, Z, L), Vans (Group V), Luxury (Group
H), Convertibles (Group K) and Premium (Group G) vehicles. Excludes
Economy (Group A), Compact (Group B), Intermediate/Midsize (Group C)
and Full size (Group D, E). Available at participating locations in North America.- 500 bonus miles on rentals that are prepaid at the time of reservation via avis.com/ca, or via the Avis Call Centre. Available at participating locations in North America.
- 500 bonus miles on Rental Option / Coverages purchased
including: GPS by Garmin, Sirius XM Satellite radio (US only), Child
Safety Seats, Travel Tab Adventurer, Extended Roadside Assistance
(RSN), Loss Damage Waiver (LDW), Personal Accident Insurance (PAI),
Personal Effects Protection (PEP), Additional Liability Insurance (ALI
– US only). Bonus will be awarded one time only, per rental
agreement, regardless of the number of Rental Options / Coverages
purchased. Available at participating locations in North America.- 500 bonus miles as a Status Member. A Status member are those with Aeroplan Silver, Black or Diamond status only.
The booking was simple via Avis.com and when we arrived much to our surprise instead of the Ford Escape or equivalent that we had booked they put us in a nice BMW X3.
At the outset of the rental we ended up earning the 500 base Aeroplan
Miles plus the 2,000 bonus miles from the offer (1,000 for 2+ weekend days and 1,000 for an SUV)
Here is a screen shot of the miles that posted:
Overall I think this was yet another good earning action for an inexpensive rental and is always nice to boost an account especially in this day and age when more and more programs are going revenue based and making miles actually harder to earn by flying so you have to make use of these partner offers.
Tips for Car Rentals
– Watch the rates that include bonus miles – For us it is about 50/50 in
terms of earning bonuses on rentals, many times rates are out there
that are quite a bit cheaper and provide more value versus paying more
and earning more miles. For a complete list of car rental bonus offers
see this page on the main Rewards Canada site.
– Read the fine print – When a bonus offer is available be sure that
your rental meets the criteria. Those are primarily minimum number of
rental days and vehicle type. There are many promotions that don’t get
awarded on the smallest/cheapest vehicles.
– Join the Car Rental company’s program – Hertz Gold Plus Rewards,
National Emerald Club and others all provide great benefits such as
dedicated check in counters, bypass check in counters and more.