Renting Cars

I am a frequent traveller, and travelling often means renting a car. In the age of internet booking a car is easy. Finding the cheapest fares on the other hand... a nightmare. Having several different frequent flyer cards I end up with a suite of discout codes (Avis AWDs and Hertz CDPs), but it is not as easy as just using one of them.

What I figured out is that some of them are only valid if you are a resident of a specific country. E.g. my wonderful KLM Platinum Elite AWD works only if I use it when ordering through AVIS.nl. Using AVIS.fr (my destination and home country for now) I get a rate about 40% more expensive, and which is the same as the rate I get without using an AWD code at all. The same applies to my Lufthansa discounts. Use it on AVIS.de it is cheap. Use it on AVIS.fr it is not. Same story using Hertz...

Well, after spending the better part of an evening looking I did find a very nice rate using AVIS.nl, so I am happy. If you are the owner of a top-tier frequent flyer card and renting a car, be aware that it is important to choose the right place to use it, if not it might not work at all...