Europcar Privilege program - a guide to discounts, benefits, gaining upgrades and status matching from other programs - Point Hacks
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I ve been making a few car rentals recently and given that Virgin Australia offers either Executive or Elite status with Europcar once you hit Velocity Gold or Platinum, it s worth knowing about the benefits you re eligible for if you fly a lot with Virgin.
I ve chosen to rent with Europcar mainly due to competitive rates and the ability cheapest possible airline ticket to select cheapest possible airline ticket specific prestige makes / models of cars to suit your taste and budget. cheapest possible airline ticket Recently I ve rented an Audi A1, Audi A3, and a new Mercedes E Class wagon.
The point of this post is not to convince you to rent with Europcar versus anyone else more to outline the most effective ways to credit points earnt from rentals and also some of the details of Europcar s recently launched Privilege loyalty scheme for frequent (or even infrequent) renters. Accruing points to other Loyalty Programs
Just like Europcar s competitors, it s possible cheapest possible airline ticket to accrue points to a range of loyalty cheapest possible airline ticket programs suitable for the Australian points cheapest possible airline ticket collector the main exception being Qantas Frequent Flyer. I ve previously published a summary table of car rental programs and points earn rates here , and for Europcar the key partners to note are American Airlines AAdvantage, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, Etihad Guest, Hilton HHonors, Iberia Plus (for Avios), and of course Virgin Australia Velocity.
The earn rates look like this: American Airlines AAdvantage 50 miles/day Singapore Airlines Krisflyer 500 miles/rental Etihad Guest 500 miles/rental Hilton HHonors 250 points/rental Accor LeClub 250 points/rental Iberia Plus (Avios) 300 to 480 Avios/day depending on the car category Virgin Australia Velocity Domestic: cheapest possible airline ticket 3 points/$, International: 800 points/rental
Given the earn rates above, the most effective way to credit points, in my opinion, is to accrue points to Virgin Australia for fewer days, but high dollar rentals; to Iberia Avios for multi day rentals (4,500 Avios = a one way Sydney Melbourne flight); and to Krisflyer or Etihad Guest for cheaper, single or two day rentals.
Europcar s Privilege cheapest possible airline ticket program cheapest possible airline ticket has three tiers Club , Executive and Elite . Club status is open to sign up to anyone with one rental, while Executive Elite statuses are earned on numbers of rentals, or days rented. Europcar Privilege Club
Europcar states that after your first hire, you’ll cheapest possible airline ticket become cheapest possible airline ticket a member and qualify for (Club) benefits in my experience though, I m pretty sure the benefits were available to me after just signing up. I did have a rental with Europcar a couple of years before Europcar s Privilege scheme launched, so maybe that enabled it for me. You ll receive: 10% discount on all leisure hires Express car hire pickup service Guaranteed reservation Access cheapest possible airline ticket to Le Club Accorhotels Silver card Dedicated, express counter service
The only benefits of real merit are the 10% discount and the accompanying Accor LeClub Silver status, meaning a small points bonus when staying at Accor Hotels compared to the Accor base level. Europcar Privilege Executive
You qualify for the Executive cheapest possible airline ticket level after 10 rentals, or 40 days of rentals, per calendar year. You ll also receive Executive level if you re a Virgin Velocity Gold. For your loyalty, you ll get: One car category upgrade (up to standard class) Up to 20% discount on international car hire leisure rates Guaranteed reservation Express pick-up service: pre-printed rental contract, keys delivered upon presentation of driver s license without any other formalities Access to Accor’s A|Club Gold card
The 20% rental discount and car upgrades are by far the best perks of Executive Status (which Europcar gave me with a status match to Hertz see how I did this at the end of this post). Europcar Privilege Elite
You ll receive Elite level membership if you re a Virgin Velocity cheapest possible airline ticket Platinum or after 25 rentals, or 85 days of rentals, per calendar year, you ll hit Elite off your own back and receive: One free weekend rental per year A free upgrade to full-size car category (where available) Up to 30% discount on international car hire leisure rates Guaranteed reservation Express pick-up service: pre-printed rental contract, keys delivered upon presentation of driver s license without cheapest possible airline ticket any other formalities Access to Accor’s A|Club cheapest possible airline ticket Gold card Free additional driver for each rental
The benefits of Elite are really solid in financial terms even if you don t rent a lot and receive them as a Velocity Platinum, the 30% discount, free weekend and full-size upgrade are very handy. Car upgrades
As a Privilege Executive, I ve been upgraded around 50% or a little more of the time I ve rented with Europcar. Some times I haven t been upgraded may have been due to requesting a specific prestige class vehicle in the booking, or needing a child seat which I imagine would reduce some flexibility in getting upgraded. Otherwise, I don t think that s a bad rate for getting an upgrade. Europcar Privilege Partners Virgin Australia, Hilton Accor
Europcar cheapest possible airline ticket promotes deeper partnerships with a few other airline and hotel programs for Australian travellers, the most relevant are Virgin, Accor and Hilton Hotels. The details of the Accor partnership which goes as far as offering higher status in Accor for Europcar status (as outlined above) are here .
It s worth checking in on these every so often to see if any new promotions are running with these partners, and also this page on the Virgin Australia Velocity website cheapest possible airline ticket for example you can receive an upgrade on selected vehicles cheapest possible airline ticket when you rent before 30 June 2013 by using promotion code 51270931 more on promotion codes below,
The discounts for Privilege members as outlined above are automatically applied for rental cheapest possible airline ticket quotes when you are logged in to your Europcar profile if you want to see the price you d receive from being a member, try applying code 50451503 for a standard Privilege Guest member 10% discount, or 50451532 cheapest possible airline ticket for the 20% discount as a Privilege Executive member.
Some other codes I ve found to work are 50824635 for 10% off 3 or more days of rental (which is pointless if you ve signed up for the standard Guest membership, but if you don t it could be useful), and 50824714 for 15% off a 5 day or more rental (standard cars only, no prestige cheapest possible airline ticket ). 50451503 10% off for Privilege Guest Member. 50451532 20% off for Privilege Executive Members 47687056 – Accor Guest rate – not specified, but looks like 10% off 50824635 – Accor 10% off 3+ days rental 50824714 – Accor 15% off 5+ days rental (no prestige cheapest possible airline ticket vehicles) cheapest possible airline ticket 81011931 Accor Favourite Guest program member 15-20% off 51270835 – Accor prestige car class discount 15% 50824731 Virgin 15% off 5+ days rental (with prestige) 50824640 Virgin 10% off 3 days or more (with prestige) 51270931 Virgin Free car upgrade until June 30th 2013 42194435 Hilton HHonors Blue member 5% 42194481 Hilton HHonors Silver member 10% 51397506 Hilton HHonors Gold member 10% 42194502 Hilton HHonors Diamond cheapest possible airline ticket member 10%-15% off plus upgrade
It s worth noting that I don t believe you need to accrue points to the partner program offering the discount, e.g. using a Virgin promotion code does not require you to accrue points from your rental to Velocity.
Also, I would highly doubt that the membership requirements for some of the promotion codes are actually validated on car rental collection. The amount of education required for front line staff to recognise Hilton Diamond cheapest possible airline ticket cards, Accor Favourite Guest members etc would be significant. You could take a risk and try and book using these codes, but you d have to be prepared to be questioned on car pick up, and if denied, pay the non-discounted rate for your booking. It s up to you if you want to take the risk. Matching status to Europcar Privilege from other rental programs in Australia
When I first hit Velocity Gold, I didn t really have a preference of Europcar or Hertz for the complimentary status with either program from Virgin, and I just picked the Hertz program. I went back to Virgin recently asking if they could rescind my Hertz status provided by being a Velocity Gold member, and replace that with Europcar cheapest possible airline ticket status instead. The answer was a hard to get and unjustified no from Velocity, so I decided to see if Europcar would help me out.
I contacted Europcar Australia through twitter and after a few days they got back to me, confirming a match would be considered and offered to handle cheapest possible airline ticket it with the loyalty team for Europcar Australia. I supplied a few details and received an email from a very helpful Europcar employee confirming the match was sorted.
If you want to match from Hertz or another program, to try directly you should email Privilege.Program@europcar.com with your Privilege number, the full name on the account, date of birth of the account holder and your status in the competitor program. I wasn t required to verify this, but I would suggest you be prepared to and include a photo of your Hertz card, for example, with the request.
I ve found my growing understanding cheapest possible airline ticket of the Europcar Privilege program a useful tool in my travellers arsenal of loyalty programs while I m not recommending Europcar over Avis or Hertz for their service, pricing or policies, I personally find the ability to book specific vehicles really appealing and the ability to gain discounts and upgrades relatively easily very handy.
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