Over the past few years we’ve seen some crossover partnerships in the travel industry. For example, we’ve seen more partnerships between airlines, hotels, and ride sharing services. One of those partnerships has been between JetBlue and Lyft.
Lyft & JetBlue partnership ending
In November 2016 JetBlue and Lyft announced a partnership, allowing TrueBlue members to earn points for select Lyft rides.
With this partnership, members who linked their Lyft and TrueBlue accounts could earn 30 TrueBlue points for every ride to and from the airport, up to 1,200 points per year.
To me that wasn’t actually that exciting. If you value TrueBlue points at ~1.5 cents each (which is high), that’s like a 45 cent return on an airport ride. We’re talking about a maximum benefit of ~$18 per year at that valuation.
Well, even that partnership isn’t sticking around, unfortunately.
It has been announced that JetBlue and Lyft will be ending their partnership as of September 9, 2019. Per the announcement:
After three great years, Lyft and JetBlue have decided to part ways as of 9/9/19. It’s been quite the ride, and both Lyft and JetBlue thank you as one of the many TrueBlue members who took part in this partnership. We realize that being able to earn TrueBlue points on airport rides (and linking your TrueBlue and Lyft accounts) has been a convenient perk. Stay tuned as we look to roll out new ones in the future.
I can’t imagine this was that costly of a partnership, so I’m not sure if this decision was reached because one of the brands instead wants to work with a competing brand, or if they truly saw no upside to this partnership.
You can still earn Hilton & Delta points for Lyft rides
On the plus side, another useful partnership was launched just a few months ago for Lyft rides. As of a few months ago, those who link their Hilton Honors and Lyft accounts at hiltonhonorslyft.com earn points automatically for rides, at the following rates:
- Earn three Hilton Honors points per dollar spent on Lyft rides
- Earn two Hilton Honors points per dollar spent on Lyft shared rides
- You can earn points for up to $10,000 of Lyft spend per year
This is in addition to the Delta and Lyft partnership, which lets you earn 2x SkyMiles per dollar on US airport rides, and 1x SkyMiles on all other US rides.
One of the things that makes Lyft unique is that they let you take advantage of multiple partnerships simultaneously, so you can earn Delta miles and Hilton points for the same ride, for example.
Will you miss the JetBlue & Lyft partnership?
@Eric — more like I tweeted it to Lucky and Gary instantly on receiving the email before anyone had reported it (the day earlier). And one of the two acknowledged that. The other didn’t.
(Cue the incoming comment ban)
@M - More like tip of the hat to JetBlue and Lyft for sending e-mails to everyone the day before you made your comment.
Tip of the hat ... me ... as I tweeted this at you yesterday. But anyway
Awww. 1200 miles isn't that much, but it was a nice bonus for doing things I'd already do, and sometimes helped top off my mileage balance enough to get me a reward ticket. This is the 2nd really awesome partnership they've ended (after the one with Amazon); hope they replace it with some good ones!