TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published. For more details please see the advertising disclosure found at the bottom of every page.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles may not be in the top 5 or 6 airline currencies that we generally discuss in the miles & points world but they can be put to very good use by those who know where and how to find the maximum value.
The most commonly discussed way to maximise value from a Flying Club balance is one that involves using Virgin Flying Miles for premium cabin awards on ANA but, if you’re happy to book a Premium Economy redemption, there’s good value (albeit niche) to be had there too.
Virgin Atlantic Miles should be in the arsenal of every serious miles & points collector and right now Avis and Virgin Atlantic are offering a very easy way to top up a Flying Club balance.
Earn Virgin Atlantic Miles Through Avis Rentals
Avis and Virgin Atlantic are running a promotion in which you can earn up to 1,000 miles/day for rentals made by the end of May with maximum earnings of 10,000 miles.
Here are the relevant T&Cs:
- Reservation period: 8th January 2019 – 31st January 2019
- Rental period: 8th January 2019 – 31st May 2019
- Earn 1000 miles per rental day, up to 10,000 miles for 10 days.
- Maximum earning is 10,000 miles for rentals 10 days or more
- Promotional points will be awarded on a maximum of three rentals only during the promotional period
- Miles are awarded on all rentals when C group or larger is reserved
- Bonus Flying Club miles awarded on all rentals taking place in:
- US (North America)
- Mexico
- Europe
- Middle East
- Africa
- Asia
- Valid at all participating Avis locations in the regions listed above
- Entitlement: Valid on rentals car group C and above for a maximum rental of 10 days.
- Standard base miles earning can be up to 28 days maximum.
- Offer is not available on all rates and at all times and blackout periods may apply
- An advance reservation is required.
- All bookings must be made via this site for the discount and mileage offer to apply
- Promotional points will be awarded on a maximum of three rentals only during the promotional period
- Offer may not be used in conjunction with any other discount, promotion or offer other than those applicable on this site, and is subject to availability
- Standard Avis rental terms and conditions apply
Thoughts
These bonus earnings are on top of the regular base earnings you’ll earn by booking through the Virgin Atlantic/Avis portal (1-6 day rentals : 500 miles & 7+ day rentals : 1000 miles) and, although the T&Cs are pretty ambiguous, I’m pretty sure the maximum bonus earnings are 10,000 miles.
Let me explain why I think the terms are ambiguous.
The T&Cs say the following (verbatim):
- Earn 1000 miles per rental day, up to 10,000 miles for 10 days.
- Maximum earning is 10,000 miles for rentals 10 days or more
- Promotional points will be awarded on a maximum of three rentals only during the promotional period
So….
Is 10,000 miles the maximum bonus you can earn in the promotion or is it the maximum bonus you can earn from a single rental (regardless of the number of days the rental period covers)?
It’s possible to interpret the terms in a way which says that points 1 & 2 are essentially the same thing and that the third point confirms that you can only earn bonus miles on a maximum of 3 rentals.
If that’s was a correct interpretation it would means that it’s possible to earn up to 30,000 bonus points in this promotion….and that would be amazing.
That’s more than enough for a one-way Premium Economy fare between LA and the UK (in off-peak season) and that’s why I’m pretty sure that’s not what Virgin and Avis mean.
Also, the promotional image on the Virgin/Avis portal (shown towards the beginning of this post) reads “earn up to 10,000 Flying Club Miles with Avis” and that sounds pretty definite that the maximum bonus available is 10,000 miles.
Bottom Line
I’ve emailed Virgin Atlantic for clarification surrounding the maximum earnings in this promotion (just in case I’m wrong) and I’ll update this post as and when I get a reply.
For now I’m assuming that the maximum bonus earnings are 10,000 miles and, as long as the rates on offer through the Virgin/Avis portal are in line with rental rates elsewhere, this should be a very nice (and easy) way to top up a Flying Club balance.
[…] Avis 1000 Virgin Atlantic miles per day […]
Thanks for the tip, we used it yesterday. A datapoint is that the reservation is pre-propulated with UK as your place of residence, and the field cannot be changed. I will know in about a week if that will be a problem; until then fingers crossed.
Hello, I wanted to post an update. We returned the car after 11 days of rental. Today 1,000 miles were posted to our Virgin account, as opposed to the 10,000 they offered. I reached out to Avis asking for the remaining 9,000 miles, and will update here with their answer. So far it is a cautionary tale, I fear.
Thanks very much for the update – good luck in pursuit of the miles
Hi, I may have a story for you. They declined the 9,000 miles credit, alleging I forgot to put in the Virgin frequent flyer number in the car rental details. I answered that since I did receive one thousand miles in my Virgin account, it stands to reason that the FF number was added, otherwise the system would not know where to send the thousand miles I did receive. Waiting for their answer.
If this ends, as I suspect, in a denial for my lack of plugging a FF #, this may take a humorous tone. Pls signalize if you are interested in writing. Since I read about the promo here, it is yours if you want. Otherwise will bug you no more and move on.