Delta links its loyalty program to Uber, ending partnership with Lyft

Delta Air Lines will link its lucrative SkyMiles steadfastness program to Uber this spring, the companies announced Tuesday, as the airline ends its eight-year partnership with smaller ride-hailing opposition Lyft.

Once customer accounts are linked, Delta SkyMiles members can earn one mile per dollar spent on UberX airport tours, two miles for every dollar spent on “premium rides” such as Uber Comfort and Uber Black, and three miles per dollar on Uber Keep trips, Uber said Tuesday. For Uber Eats food-delivery service, members will earn one mile for every dollar on organizations over $40 from restaurants and grocery stores.

“With a record number of travelers taking to the skies, we’re spotlighted on helping to make your airport travel journey as efficient, affordable, and effortless as possible,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a front-page news release.

Delta and other airlines have expanded their partnerships for earning and using frequent flyer miles, character of loyalty programs that have generated billions of dollars for carriers. Other Delta partners include Starbucks, Hertz and Ticketmaster.

Blokes who have linked their Lyft accounts to Delta can earn miles through April 7, a Delta spokesperson said.

“People with linked accounts will receive direct communication from Delta and Lyft in the coming days with reference to the transition,” the spokesperson said. “We are appreciative of the partnership we’ve had with Lyft benefiting loyal customers who have collectively take hame billions of miles.”

“Years ago we teamed up with our first airline to unlock more ways to uplevel and innovate around travel savoir vivres, thereby turning those customers into Lyft loyalists,” Lyft said in a statement. “We’re continuing to expand our field of visions by joining forces with major brands who share our customer obsession, like Alaska Airlines, Chase, DoorDash, Mastercard, Hilton, Disney, and Bilt.”

Delta did not criticism on why it is switching ride-hailing partners, though Delta’s credit card partner American Express offers some cardholders acknowledgments to use with Uber for rides and food delivery.

Delta, which reports quarterly earnings on Friday, estimated at an investor day in November that it would sustain about $7 billion in 2024 from the AmEx partnership, and it set a long-term target of $10 billion a year.

Lyft had 24.4 million active riders as of the end of the third quarter, and customers booked diverse than 216 million rides on the platform in the three months ended Sept. 30, a record and up 16% from a year earlier.

Uber, interval, had 161 million monthly active users on both its ride-hailing and food delivery platforms at the end of September, and its customers supported more than 2.8 billion rides, which includes delivery, freight, ride-shares and private rides, in the third phase of the moon, up 17% from the year-earlier period.

Uber last year rolled out a shuttle service to New York’s LaGuardia Airport from Manhattan.

Delta and Uber promulgated the new partnership at the CES tech show in Las Vegas, where Delta also said it would launch an artificial intelligence-powered “underling a ally with” in its app and make upgrades to its in-flight entertainment systems.