Published: 5 July 2026
The Complete Guide to UK Car Rental Loyalty Programmes
With the exception of Budget, all the major car hire companies offer loyalty programmes to their customers which include status benefits for regular renters. Some schemes also offer the opportunity to earn points that can be redeemed against future rentals, or alternatively offer the opportunity to earn points in various airline frequent flyer schemes.
Another major advantage of joining a rental programme is the ability to quickly collect your car from the rental location. Most hire companies offer registered customers a quick service desk or even the ability to go straight to the garage without having to queue at the counter with other customers.
This article covers the main car rental programmes available to UK residents. These schemes often work differently for residents of other countries (especially in the US), so watch out if you see conflicting information on overseas websites.
Should I Collect Airline Miles or Car Rental Points?
This is probably the main question to answer when it comes to choosing the right scheme for you. If you are an occasional renter or someone who is unlikely to use points for free car rentals, choosing a scheme that offers airline miles will usually make the most sense. If you are a frequent renter, then a scheme with status benefits such as free upgrades or a free additional diver may be more for you.Â
Which Car Rental Scheme should I join?
Clearly this depends on your situation and how often you are likely to rent a car. If you are an infrequent renter, I would suggest that you look at Avis which offers good opportunities to earn avios on each booking. However if you are a regular hirer and are looking for redemption rentals, then Enterprise Plus may be for you. However on balance, Hertz Gold Plus offers a great balance of points earning and status benefits and should definitely bear closer inspection.
When you have decided on the most appropriate scheme for you, my advice would be to stick with it as there is little to be gained from having points spread across multiple programmes, specially in small quantities that are unusable.
Key recommendations
- Best Overall  Hertz Gold Plus Rewards
- Best Scheme for Free Rentals  Enterprise Plus
- Best for Avios  Avis
- Best for other Airline Miles  Avis / Hertz / Sixt
- Best for Lifetime Status  Europcar Privilege
- Best Premium Benefits  Sixt One
How to get Instant Status
Credit Cards
If you have an American Express Platinum Card, you get Avis President’s Club and Hertz Five Star as part of your membership.
If you have a Mastercard World card, you can get Avis Preferred Plus status. Alternatively if you have a Mastercard World Elite card, you can apply for Avis President’s Club. See here for details.Â
Lounge Memberships
If you are a member of Priority Pass (which comes with American Express Gold), you can get Avis Preferred Plus status and up to 25% off rentals. See here for details
Status Matching
Avis, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt all offer status matches to competitor car rental schemes. Each programme has its own different criteria for matching but this could be worth exploring if you are looking to move your rentals to a new scheme.
If you are a member of Club Avolta, you can match your Gold status to Avis Preferred Plus or your Platinum status to Avis President’s Club. See our article on Club Avolta here.
Rental Programmes in Depth
Avis Preferred – read our detailed guide
Avis’ scheme is based around offering additional customer benefits to regular renters. They used to offer a free weekend rental after completing a third rental in a membership year but that has been discontinued. Â
Avis status levels are as follows:
Avis Preferred (basic tier, free to join)
- Priority Service
- 10% discount on every rental
- Access to partner offers
Avis Preferred Plus (mid tier, requires spend of €1,000 on 5 or more rentals per membership year)
- Everything in the Avis Preferred level
- Free additional driver
- Single vehicle upgrade (upon availability)
Avis President’s Club (top tier, requires spend of €2,000 on 10 or more rentals per membership year)
- Everything in the Avis Preferred Plus level
- Roadside Assistance Plus
- Double vehicle upgrade at weekends (upon availability)
Do Avis also offer points?
You can earn Avios on your Avis bookings, see our article here. Alternatively Avis have an extensive list of other airline schemes that you can credit your rental to – see the list here.Â
Budget
Budget do not have a loyalty scheme but they do have a service called QuickPass. This enables registered customers to bypass the regular queue and quickly collect their vehicle just by showing some ID and signing the rental agreement.
Do Budget offer points?
Yes, you can credit to a wide variety of arline programmes including British Airways. Read our article on earning Avios on Budget vehicle rentals. Or check out the full list of other airline programmes that Budget work with.Â
Enterprise Plus
Enterprise rent-a-car has a loyalty scheme which allows members to earn status benefits based on the number of rentals made and also Enterprise Plus points based on spend.
Enterprise Plus Status Levels
Plus (basic tier, free to join)
- No benefits but you earn points and status with every rental
Silver (lower-mid tier, requires 6 rentals in a calendar year)
- Earn 10% additional bonus points
- One free car upgrade per year (subject to availability)
Gold (upper-mid tier, requires 12 rentals or 40 days in a calendar year)
- Earn 15% additional bonus points
- Two free car upgrades per year (subject to availability)
Platinum (top tier, requires 24 rentals or 85 days in a calendar year)
- Earn 20% additional bonus points
- Four free car upgrades per year (subject to availability)
How do I use my points for a rental?
Enterprise Plus points are earned at 1 per $ spent (excluding fuel, taxes & surcharges). Points do not expire as long as there is activity on the account at least once every 36 months. Â
Points can be used against a vehicle rental and there are no blackout dates when it comes to redeeming them. Redemption costs for each rental vary but are broadly linked to the cash price and each Enterprise Plus point is worth around 4p each.
Can I earn Airline miles instead of Enterprise Plus points?
Alternatively, instead of Enterprise plus points, members can opt to earn points in other travel schemes:
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue: 4 miles per euro
- Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles: 500 miles per rental
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: 100 Virgin points per day, maximum 1,200 points per rental
Another option is to transfer Enterprise Plus points to another member. These can be done in increments of 100 points.
Europcar Privilege For You
Europcar’s scheme is different to many status based programmes in that the level is earned over a lifetime’s activity rather than over a 12 month period. In practical terms this means that the higher tiers take longer to achieve but when you get there, you are less likely to drop down to the bottom. Â
You retain your status as long as you complete at least one paid rental every 12 months, and if you do not complete a rental in this period, your points will drop to the points requirement for your current level. If you do not rent for a further year, you will be downgraded to the minimum number of points of the level below. After 3 years of inactivity, your account will be cancelled.
Bonus points are also available, such as for hiring an electric vehicle or paying for extras like child seats.
Surprise rewards such as money off coupons, free additional drivers or additional discount vouchers are also triggered on achieving various points thresholds.
Here are the Europcar Privilege For You status levels
Europcar Discoverer (basic tier, free to join)
- 10% discount on every rental
- Up to 15% off at Accor hotels
- Surprise rewards at 300, 500 and 800 points
Europcar Traveller (lower-mid tier, requires 1,000 points)
- Everything in the Discoverer tier
- Earn 10% more points
- Surprise rewards at 1000, 1500 and 2500 points
Europcar Adventurer (upper-mid tier, requires 3,000 points)
- Everything in the Traveller tier
- Earn 20% more points
- Vehicle upgrade (where available)
- Free additional driver
- Priority desk attention
- Surprise rewards at 3,000, 5,000 and 7,000 points
Europcar Navigator (top tier, requires 3,000 points)
- Everything in the Adventurer tier
- 30% more points
- Double vehicle upgrade (where available)
- Premium events
- Surprise rewards at 3,000, 5,000 and 7,000 points
Benefits are available in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, and Switzerland.
Europcar points are not redeemable against vehicle rentals and are not transferable into airline loyalty programmes.
Hertz Gold Plus Rewards
The Hertz Gold Plus Rewards programme offers members the opportunity to earn benefits and also collect points to redeem against free rentals.Â
Status levels are as follows:
Hertz Gold (basic tier, free to join)
- 1 point per dollar spent, use towards free rentals
- Faster pickups and returns
- 10% discount on every rental
- Free additional driver
Hertz Five Star (mid tier, currently requires spend of $1,000 or 3 rentals per calendar year – usually $2,000 or 5 rentals)
- Everything in the Hertz Gold level
- 1.25 points per dollar spent
- Single vehicle upgrade (upon availability)
Hertz President’s Circle (top tier, currently requires spend of $3,000 or 15 rentals per calendar year)
- Everything in the Hertz Five Star level
- 1.50 points per dollar spent
- Guaranteed vehicle upgrade
How Many Hertz Points do I need for a Free Rental?
Free compact/intermediate car rentals can be pre-booked from a cost of 900 points for a free rental day to 2,800 points for a full week. There are also additional options for weekend rentals and for 7 seater vehicles.Â
Bookings are subject to availability but there is an AnyDay option which, for a higher points redemption, offers increased booking flexibility.
Can I earn Airline miles instead of Enterprise Plus points?
Yes, you can credit your Hertz rental to an airline programme. Here is a full list of the partners that you can credit to but if you want to credit your Hertz rental to avios, read our article here.
Sixt One
Sixt’s loyalty scheme is similar to many airline programmes. You collect status and rental points for every rental (both 1 point per € excluding VAT) and the number of status points you earn in each calendar year equates to one of the our status levels in the scheme. Â
Sixt One Silver (basic tier, free to join)
- Skip the counter
- Pick your car (2+ car options)
Sixt One Gold (lower-mid tier, requires 2,000 status points)
- Everything in the Silver tier
- Earn 10% more points
- Up to 10% discount
- Pick your car (2+ car options) after digital check in
Sixt One Platinum (upper-mid tier, requires 4,000 status points)
- Everything in the Gold tier
- Earn 20% more points
- Up to 15% discount
- Eligible for free upgrades
- Pick your car (3+ car options) after digital check in
Sixt One Diamond (top tier, requires 6,000 status points)
- Everything in the Platinum tier
- Earn 30% more points
- Up to 20% discount
- Free upgrades
- Diamond Lounge Access
The membership year runs from January to December. If you achieve status mid-year, you will retain it for the remainder of that calendar year plus the next 12 months.
What can I spend my Sixt One points on?
Rental points can be used against the cost of a future rental. Each point has a redeemable value of €0.02, equating to a 2% return on your spend. Note that rental points expire 24 months from the end of the quarter they were earned.
Can I collect air miles instead of points at Sixt?
If you prefer, you can credit your rental to Finnair and earn avios on your booking (see our article here) or there is an extensive list of other airline partners here.Â
A few other points to note
- Many schemes offer an additional 10% (or higher) discount to their members but do not assume these are the best rates available. You may find codes elsewhere online that enable you to get a better price.
- Rentals booked through a 3rd party rental website or travel agent will generally not qualify for status or points earning, although bookings through a corporate travel agent usually will.
- Points and status are generally earned on the base rental amount and generally exclude taxes, fuel and surcharges. Â
- If you use points for a free rental, this will usually only cover the base rental rate (time and mileage) – taxes, fees and surcharges will be payable separately.
- If you are planning a redemption, be aware that some rental company locations (especially those that attract a lot of tourists or those operated by a franchisee) may be excluded from redemptions.
Our Take
Joining a car rental loyalty programme is one of the easiest travel wins available. Every major rental company offers free membership, and even occasional renters can benefit from faster collection, member discounts and the opportunity to earn points or airline miles.
If you hire cars regularly, programmes such as Enterprise Plus, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards and Sixt One allow you to work towards free rentals and valuable status benefits. Alternatively, if your priority is earning airline miles, many rental companies let you credit your bookings to frequent flyer programmes instead.
Whichever scheme you choose, the key is to register before your next rental. Membership is free, takes only a few minutes to set up and could make every future booking a little more rewarding.
Further Reading
- Check out our article on how to maximise your Avios with each of the major car hire companies.
- If you are travelling in the UK and Ireland, instead of hiring a car, you can earn Avios with Uber
- See our experience of visiting Orlando without a Hire Car
