United Airlines and Avis Budget Group Announce New Partnership

United Airlines is now an official partner with the Avis Budget Group.

The news came just days after the airline announced it would end its partnership with rival car rental agency Hertz.

Let’s take a look at what this means for United flyers.

Bonus Miles and Discounts

To celebrate the partnership (and incentivize bookings), both elite members of United’s MileagePlus program and cardholders of United co-branded credit cards issued by Chase are eligible to earn additional bonus miles.

You could earn between 500 and 1,250 miles when you credit Avis and Budget car rentals to your United account.

The bonus amounts below are per completed vehicle rentals:

• MileagePlus general members — 500 miles
• Cardholders of any of United’s cobranded credit cards — 750 miles
• MileagePlus Premier Silver and Premier Gold members — 1,000 miles
• MileagePlus Premier Platinum, 1K, and Global Services members — 1,250 miles

According to the airline, United’s new car rental portal will offer rates with discounts of up to 35%:

• Avis — Use your MileagePlus number and Avis Worldwide Discount (AWD) number A791500 to earn award miles and a discount
• Budget — Use your MileagePlus number and Budget Customer Discount (BCD) number B204900 to earn award miles and a discounts

Coming Soon: Pay With Miles and Elite Benefits

It’s expected that additional benefits will come from the partnership in the not-too-distant future.

The ability to pay for Avis car rentals with United miles is definitely one of these additional benefits to keep an eye on. Details are currently limited as to how this will look in practice, but it will be interesting to see whether this works out to be a good use of MileagePlus miles.

The partnership will also eventually present MileagePlus elite members and holders of co-branded United credit cards the opportunity to match their status with Avis’ loyalty program, known as Avis Preferred.

The program has 3 tiers: Preferred Plus, President’s Club, and Chairman’s Club. There isn’t much publically available information regarding the President’s Club or Chairman’s Club tiers, as they have historically been available via invitation only.

We’ll have to wait and see how the programs will match their respective status levels.

Final Thoughts

Now more than ever, alliances are strengthening between major players in the travel industry.

This new partnership between United and Avis will hopefully mean lots of bonus airline miles to be earned and plenty of upgraded vehicles to show off.