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How to earn Velocity Points on car rentals
Earn Velocity reward points on the road when booking your next car rental.
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The Velocity Frequent Flyer program allows you to earn points on a lot more than just flights with Virgin Australia. If you need a car rental for your next holiday or road trip, renting with one of Velocity’s car hire partners could be one way to get more bang for your buck.
Here we’ll show you how you can earn Velocity Points on car rentals as well as some of the terms and conditions you’ll need to keep your eye on.
Where can I earn Velocity Points on car rentals?
| Car Rental Company | Velocity Points Earned (Aus/NZ) | Velocity Points Earned (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|
| Hertz - Book a vehicle | 3 per $1 spent | 800 Velocity Points per rental |
| Europcar - Book a vehicle | 4 per $1 spent | 800 Velocity Points per rental |
| Thrifty | 3 per $1 spent | 800 Velocity Points per rental |
You can earn 3 points per $1 spent on car rentals with Hertz, Thrifty and Europcar in Australia and New Zealand. If you need to rent a car overseas, you can earn 800 points per hire with the same three companies.
Just make sure you quote your frequent flyer program and number at the time of booking to collect the points on your rental.
Extra perks for frequent flyer tier members
If you’ve moved up the Velocity frequent flyer tiers, you can look forward to some extra benefits:
- Silver members. Earn 50% extra bonus points
- Gold members. Earn 75% extra bonus points
- Platinum members. Earn 100% extra bonus points
| Car Rental Company | Qantas Points Earned (Aus) | Qantas Points Earned (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|
| Avis Car Rental - Book a vehicle | 4 per $1 spent | 700 Qantas Points per rental |
| Budget Car Rental - Book a vehicle | 4 per $1 spent | 700 Qantas Points per rental |
Learn more about how earning Qantas Points on car rentals compares
What to do if I've already booked a car rental
If you’ve booked your car rental with Hertz, Thrifty or Europcar and forgot to redeem your points, you’ll just need to present your Velocity card when you pick up the car to earn your points. Otherwise, you can log in to your online account to claim the points online after you’ve returned your car.
Are there any restrictions on how many points I can earn?
How many points you can earn will depend on the car rental company. Here are some of the differences you can compare.
- Europcar. You can earn points within the first 30 days of an eligible Europcar rental. If you rent more than one vehicle at once, you’ll only earn points on the first vehicle you rented.
- Hertz. You can earn points on Hertz passenger vehicles, commercial, 4WD and minibus rentals, although it will take around 30 days for the points to appear in your account.
- Thrifty. You can earn points on Thrifty passenger and luxury vehicles, commercial, 4WD and minibus rentals. There's a 30-day delay between completing the rental and receiving your points.
What can’t I earn points on?
You can only earn points on the cost of the rental, so you won’t earn rewards for additional costs, including:
- Damage liability cover
- Optional insurance
- Equipment such ski racks, baby/booster seats or GPS rental costs
- Vehicle registration fees
- Premium location fees
- Other admin fees, taxes, GST, one way fees, age surcharges and additional driver fees
Redeeming your Velocity Points for car rentals
Not only can you earn points on car rentals, you can redeem your points on them too. However, you can only redeem your rewards for car rentals with Europcar via Car Trawler. You’ll need a minimum balance of 4,000 points and you can only redeem points for car hire in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland.
The number of points you’ll require for the rental will vary, although you can use points plus pay if you don’t have enough to cover the cost.
Not a Velocity member yet? Sign up for free here
Images: Shutterstock and Velocity.
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