Anyone else miss the Daily Getaways this year? I know many readers get tired of seeing them pop up on the BoardingArea homepage every morning for 5 weeks but there have been some gems! I almost always buy rental car certificates as I can always get more value out them then the cost.
Switching a Daily Getaway Avis Cert for a More Valuable Certificate
My Original Avis Free Day Coupon
Most travel-related companies have been pretty cooperative with customers that were not able to use previously booked travel, due to the coronavirus. Our family had a big trip planned in April that we had to postpone and part of my game plan in regards to rental cars had been the certificates I bought through Daily Getaways for Avis.
But, these Avis certificates had an expiration day of June 15, 2020. They were for one day of a roundtrip car rental for a compact through premium class. They were subject to blackout dates and were not able to be used outside of the US or in NYC. Finally, they were only good on roundtrip rentals.
The earliest chance I would have to use this certificate was going to be June 16. So, I called Avis up to see if they would extend it for a single day. It turns out, they were able to do even better than that!
Expiration Loomed – Converted to a New Avis Coupon!
I had to explain to the agent about the certificate as well as the certificate number (a general code, not a unique one). He went to talk to a supervisor and came back with this solution. They would load a new certificate in my account (coupon #TUVA068) and I could use that for whatever I needed.
The New Avis Coupon Was MUCH Better!
Here is how great this certificate was: instead of being a roundtrip, it could be used as a one way, didn’t expire until December 31, 2021, was good for all corporate locations in the US (so, that included NYC), and no blackout dates!
In short, this was a much better certificate than the original with one exception – it would only go up to a full-size class instead of premium. The agent said that if I really wanted a premium, I could go ahead and rent one and they would credit my account after the return. I was fine with the full-size.
So, I had planned to use it for a one-day rental in western NY and the original certificate would have saved me $50 (but I had paid $30 for the certificate). With the new certificate, I used it for a one-way from EWR (Newark, NJ) to western NY and it saved me $140 (minus the $30 I spent, so $110)!
Have Any Daily Getaway Avis Certificates Left?
If you still have any of those Daily Getaway certificates that would have expired this month, give Avis a call and ask if you can convert it to the TUVA068 coupon instead. While I cannot promise it will work, they had suggested this to me so it is definitely something they would consider. It will open up a whole new calendar of value for you!
Lucky you, I called them in April or May inquiring about extending the expiration and they told me they could do nothing so I took a pretty good loss selling 7 days worth of certificates on ebay.
Curious, do you have status with Avis?
Avis Preferred but I didn’t need to give my Avis number until they were ready to put the coupon on my account.