Rental Vehicles

Groupon Avis Deal

$40 Avis Car Rental Voucher for $20 on Groupon

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Groupon Avis Deal

Groupon is currently offering a $40 Avis rental car voucher for only $20 (affiliate link). The deal is only for a very limited supply of people, but currently states it last for 9+ days.

The deal is valid at participating locations in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, excluding Alaska; however, there is also a list of participating locations that will not accept the voucher.

AVIS Non-Participating Locations

U.S.

Alabama: Montgomery Airport

Georgia: Glynco Jetport, Jekyll Island, Mckinon Airport

Massachusetts: Martha’s Vineyard

Maine: Presque Isle Airport

Michigan: Ford Airport, Chippewa Airport, Alpena, Menominee

Montana: Glendive, Sidney

North Dakota: Jamestown Municipal Airport, Bismarck

Nebraska: Mccook

New Hampshire: Concord, Keene, Salem, Hampton, Nashua, Merrimack, Laconia

Pennsylvania: Monroeville, New Kensington

South Dakota: Pierre

Vermont: Brattleboro

Wisconsin: Sturgeon Bay, Marshfield, La Crosse, Middleton

Canada

Ontario: Red Lake, Barrie, Sioux Lookout

Saskatchewan: Prince Albert, Moosejaw

Quebec: Magog

The Avis deal is also not valid on one (1) day rentals.

Note: This deal is also considered an Expedia Getaways offer, and therefore, does not comply with cashback portals. Typically, when using your Discover card, you could get 15% back; however, Getaways are excluded.

In Conclusion

I have never rented a car through Avis because I have never found that they offer me the most competitive deal. Personally, I have always gone through National rental car.

The good news is that you have until December 31, 2014 to redeem the offer. The possibly bad news is that reservations must be booked through www.avis.com/groupon. Anytime a company has an exclusive link to make a reservation, I get nervous of artificially inflated prices to cover the cost of the deal. I have seen plenty of times in the past where a merchant decides to charge more by using a “special” link than available on their public site to cover the cost of the associated reward or discount you earn by making the purchase.

The greatest example of this was when Discover card had teamed up with CheapTickets.com. We investigated and found out that CheapTickets.com had increased the price of their tickets when using the special access link. Shortly thereafter, Discover card terminated their relationship with CheapTickets, since it was against the terms of the deals to artificially increase the prices. It was one of those times it made me proud to be an avid Discover card holder, knowing they were looking out for their customers best interests.

The real way to look at this promotion is you are buying a $20 coupon off the cost of a 2-day or longer rental. Personally, I am not convinced it is necessarily the best deal, as there may be other coupons and rate codes that offer a better discount. You will need to play around with your reservations to see if it warrants buying a discount.

To purchase this offer, visit the Groupon Avis deal (affiliate link) landing page.

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: Groupon

We do receive a commission should you elect to make a purchase via Groupon.

Avis

Follow-up to Avis Price Mistake

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Avis

As I predicted the other day, Avis has started cancelling all of the reservations through the mistake code posted that caused prices to come up as $0 or only a couple of dollars for a two day weekend rental.

Dear XXXXX,

At Avis, our goal is to provide a stress-free rental experience whenever you need a rental car. Upon review of your recent reservation, XXXXXXXXXXX, it has come to our attention that the discount code you have entered is invalid, and so your reservation has been tentatively cancelled. If you have a valid coupon certificate, we are ready to restore your reservation. Please note, you must present your valid coupon certificate at time of rental. Prepaid reservations will be refunded in full and no cancellation charges will be assessed.

If you would like to recreate your reservation, you may do so by visiting Avis.com or calling 800-633-3469.

We apologize for any inconvenience this cancellation may have caused. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you in the future.

The deal was originally posted by Mr. Pickles (disclaimer for a back-up plan was presented), and was quickly broadcast around the internet through Million Mile Secrets, The Points Guy, Miles Momma, FatWallet, and SlickDeals. The Points Guy even went so far as to post a work-around through the United site in a follow-up post.

It was only after I even made a mention of warning consumers to have a back-up plan, did a disclaimer get added to Million Mile Secrets post. What was even more frightening is that none of the other posters of this information, even more than I listed, made any attempt to warn the consumer of the real likely case that the reservations would not be honored, and if they were relying solely on this Avis reservation for a destination, they need to have a back-up plan.

Fortunately, Avis acted swiftly and cancelled all (hopefully) of the reservations before they even became active, since the first use would not have been until this weekend. So no one technically could be out of any inconvenience at this point. However, I would venture to say that there is at least one person out there that made the reservation because they saw it promoted by their ole’ trusty blogger or forums, and will never see the cancellation notice, show up to the rental desk, and be surprised by the cancellation. It is just the society we live in, and odds are stacked that it will happen to someone.

I am just not a big fan of jumping on mistake, time tested and approved, methods of trying to score a deal, because they most likely are too good to be true and will be cancelled. And when I see the masses promoting these types of things, I think it would behoove of whoever is posting the idea to at least warn your readers.

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: InACents Reader Beth

Have a Backup to Avis Mistake Rates

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Million Mile Secrets ran a post this morning from the famous Mr. Pickles about a promotional code through Avis, where you could book a weekend vehicle rental for only a couple of dollars. Normally Daraius is great about pointing out real-world risks of an offer. However, this mornings post really bothered me from a consumer aspect.

I think what really is overlooked is the real possibility of families showing up to Avis to rent their vehicle for $4, and Avis saying sorry. While a lot of people that are going to take advantage of this offer are going to do it just for fun, there inevitably are also going to be people who book using this promotion, show up with their family for a rental vehicle on vacation, and get turned away at the counter.

Avis reserves the right to not honor the price when you show up to rent your vehicle.

Therefore, as a word of caution, if you are going to partake in this promotion, I strongly encourage you to have a backup plan. That means having at least one other reservation already reserved, possibly even at another agency.

Picture this. You just got off the plane for a nice weekend trip with your wife in a warm tropical destination. You hop aboard a taxi over to the rental car lot (tell them to wait for you before leaving), and Avis says sorry, we can not offer that mistake rate. But we can offer you this nice Ford Focus for $300/day. What?

When you are standing at the rental desk, they can charge you whatever they want, and do not think they will conveniently give you the best rate.

To save yourself the embarrassment, politely say thank you to the agent, get back in the taxi and drive over to XYZ rental with your backup rate. Crisis averted.

A vacation is the wrong time for surprises. You are there to relax, and usually when something seems to good to be true, it is.

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: Million Mile Secrets