I guess this change was bound to happen sooner or later…
In this post:
Lyft now only lets you earn rewards with one partner
As of June 30, 2021, you’ll only be able to earn points through your Lyft account with one travel partner rewards program. You’ll be able to change which travel partner rewards program you want to activate at any time through the Lyft app. If you don’t make this selection by June 30, 2021, you’ll be defaulted to the travel partner you enrolled with first.
For some context, Lyft has partnerships with both Delta SkyMiles and Hilton Honors, allowing you to earn rewards for your Lyft rides. Up until now it has been possible to “double dip,” meaning you could earn Delta SkyMiles and Hilton Honors points for the same ride. That will no longer be possible.
Should you earn Delta or Hilton rewards with Lyft?
For context, here’s how the rewards structures of Lyft’s partnerships compare:
- With Hilton Honors you can earn 3x Honors points per dollar spent on Lyft rides, and 2x Honors points per dollar spent on Lyft shared rides
- With Delta SkyMiles you can earn 2x SkyMiles per dollar spent on Lyft airport rides, and 1x SkyMiles per dollar spent on other Lyft rides
Personally I value Delta SkyMiles at 1.2 cents each and Hilton Honors points at 0.5 cents each, so to me the Hilton Honors partnership offers more value on balance. That’s because you can earn 3x Honors points per dollar spent on most rides, while you’d otherwise earn 1x SkyMiles per dollar spent on most rides.
Everyone’s math may work out differently there, based on how much you value rewards currencies and what kind of rides you take.
Lyft has been good to me the past year
I used to exclusively use Uber for ride sharing, but I almost entirely made the switch to Lyft about a year ago. That’s because of the Chase Sapphire Reserve offering a complimentary one year Lyft Pink membership, and also because of the excellent double-dipping points opportunities.
The value proposition of Lyft rides is about go get a bit worse:
- My one year complimentary Lyft Pink membership expires next week
- At the end of the month I’ll start earning fewer points for Lyft rides
Ultimately I’ve had good experience with Lyft so I guess I’ll keep using that, though I’ll definitely be comparing pricing between Lyft and Uber more often. In light of the pandemic I’m frankly surprised that the complimentary Lyft Pink membership hasn’t been extended, but I guess it was introducing during the pandemic in the first place, so that’s fair enough.
Bottom line
Soon it will only be possible to earn either Delta SkyMiles or Hilton Honors points for Lyft rides. That’s fair enough, since there aren’t many programs that allow double-dipping in this way. Individually this isn’t a huge deal, but between this and my complimentary Lyft Pink membership running out, I probably won’t be as blindly loyal to Lyft as I have been for the past year.
Are you sad to see points double-dipping ending with Lyft, and will this impact your ride sharing choice?
It's sad when lyft takes it upon themselves and charges peoples credit and debit cards for booked rides, and when something comes up unexpectedly, doesn't have a frigging local phone number for live customer service to ask for a refund to explain why the ride booked needed to be rescheduled. I do not have an address to resolve this problem and receive my $$$$ back. So, now I have to google to see if I...
It's sad when lyft takes it upon themselves and charges peoples credit and debit cards for booked rides, and when something comes up unexpectedly, doesn't have a frigging local phone number for live customer service to ask for a refund to explain why the ride booked needed to be rescheduled. I do not have an address to resolve this problem and receive my $$$$ back. So, now I have to google to see if I can find a darn address to get my $$$$ back for those to rides I could not get and did not get!!! I think it is ludicrous NOT to have a local number (phone number) to speak to a live assistant!!! Rip off!!! Calling BBB now to report how they do not give your $$$$ back!!! That was a total of $50.00 in rides! U live on fixed ssi income only. No food stamps, below poverty level income!!!! D G!!! No car to drive myself!!!
It's absurd to call this "double dipping". They were entirely separate rewards offers from what I assume are different companies. I've had numerous rewards offers from company partnerships via credit cards.
Double dipping implies you're getting more than intended. It references situations where you're exploiting a loophole and getting one over on people. That isn't remotely the case. The companies offering the points are doing so specifically to get you as a customer. They...
It's absurd to call this "double dipping". They were entirely separate rewards offers from what I assume are different companies. I've had numerous rewards offers from company partnerships via credit cards.
Double dipping implies you're getting more than intended. It references situations where you're exploiting a loophole and getting one over on people. That isn't remotely the case. The companies offering the points are doing so specifically to get you as a customer. They are glorified coupons. While stacking two coupons for one item might be double dipping, buying two entirely different products, each having a coupon, isn't.
This is a huge bummer for me and if next year the CSR goes up to $550 without a Covid reprieve statement credit, I'll be pissed. The value I gained through Lyft Pink and Grubhub+ really helped me stomach the increased annual fee. Without it I'm much more inclined to cancel or downgrade to the CSP.
I think Lyft lets you switch as often as you want between crediting to Delta vs. crediting to Hilton, so I plan to credit airport rides to Delta and all other rides to Hilton going forward
Ah well, it was good while it lasted!
Both Lyft and Uber have been a disappointment over the last year, and they're slowly getting worse. Even in LA it's been hard to get drivers (and I have 5-star ratings), especially to and from LAX. Prop 22 was supposed to be "beneficial" for the drivers according to Uber and Lyft (hint: it wasn't) and seems to have made things worse. Looking at Lyft's Reddit page, it is full of drivers only getting $7 for...
Both Lyft and Uber have been a disappointment over the last year, and they're slowly getting worse. Even in LA it's been hard to get drivers (and I have 5-star ratings), especially to and from LAX. Prop 22 was supposed to be "beneficial" for the drivers according to Uber and Lyft (hint: it wasn't) and seems to have made things worse. Looking at Lyft's Reddit page, it is full of drivers only getting $7 for a ride that cost the driver $60, and this move seems like one more way of Lyft trying to keep more money.
I used to solely ride on Lyft, and the 5x on CSP, Delta SkyMiles, and Hilton points was a nice bonus. But with them increasing rates, not passing that onto drivers, and becoming less reliable, it's just not worth it.
Lyft gave me 3 months free Lyft pink today when my sapphire ended. Albeit it also enrolled me for auto renewal.
Ben,
If you value Lyft take the option to sign up for Lyft Pink when the CSR promotion ends on June 15th. Don't get me wrong, I don't value it at $19.95 a month (which is the charge after the CSR promotion) but Lyft is running their own promotion that if you sign up for Lyft Pink they will give you the first 3 months free and then start charging $19.95 after that (and this...
Ben,
If you value Lyft take the option to sign up for Lyft Pink when the CSR promotion ends on June 15th. Don't get me wrong, I don't value it at $19.95 a month (which is the charge after the CSR promotion) but Lyft is running their own promotion that if you sign up for Lyft Pink they will give you the first 3 months free and then start charging $19.95 after that (and this will start on June 16th when my CSR "free" Lyft Pink status expires).
I assume I can cancel right at the end of the 3 month free period and owe nothing. Worst case I pay 1 month of $19.95 and get basically 4 months of service (so $5/month). Given Lyft is more available (and cheaper) than Uber in my recent experience I get value from this plus I use the Grubhub+ membership that comes with it.
Now that we are not stuck at home anymore, do you know how much food delivery has scammed you?
All these apps have BS pricing and the next thing you know, you paid 50% more than take-away.
All I want from these apps is same menu price + reasonable delivery fee + tips, just like how we ordered pizza the old fashioned way.
Today I'm paying 20% extra menu price + some...
Now that we are not stuck at home anymore, do you know how much food delivery has scammed you?
All these apps have BS pricing and the next thing you know, you paid 50% more than take-away.
All I want from these apps is same menu price + reasonable delivery fee + tips, just like how we ordered pizza the old fashioned way.
Today I'm paying 20% extra menu price + some fee + service fee + misc + surcharge + delivery fee which costs me at least 50% more.
My advice, avoid Grubhub+ (or any apps) when possible, free delivery isn't even close to offset BS surcharges.
Actually I think that's because restaurants set higher prices on these apps, because these apps are taking a huge cut. Many restaurants owners ask their patrons to order straight from their website, or over the phone so they can get the regular menu price. To your point I've also started reverting to ordering directly when possible.
Also and more importantly, Lyft is known to treat their drivers a bit better than Uber. Every driver I've asked told me they prefer working for Lyft than Uber, so that's something to keep in mind if the price difference isn't ridiculous (it rarely is).
I drove for Lyft and Uber for 2 1/2 years. The legend of Lyft treating their drivers better is completely false. People used to ask me that all the time and my reply was "Neither treats me at all."
Drivers have almost no interaction with the companies besides the same interaction riders do, via the app. The only difference is drivers end up having more interactions overall but they aren't any different. Drivers are...
I drove for Lyft and Uber for 2 1/2 years. The legend of Lyft treating their drivers better is completely false. People used to ask me that all the time and my reply was "Neither treats me at all."
Drivers have almost no interaction with the companies besides the same interaction riders do, via the app. The only difference is drivers end up having more interactions overall but they aren't any different. Drivers are equally ignored by the companies if they try to contact them with an issue.
I preferred Lyft because I liked the riders better. While the meme of the company treating their employees better was false, it did help foster an image, among other ways, to end up with more riders who were the kind of people that wanted drivers treated better, and so the riders were usually much more respectful and friendly.
Thanks Joshua, that's very good to know, and very interesting as well to see that it was mostly based on Lyft's image.
Sadly not a whole lot of alternative these days! Living in NYC, we had a 3rd app named Juno that lasted for a couple of years, and that seemed to actually treat their drivers better (at least paying them slightly more). Too bad they shut down.
I remember when Lyft first came about around 2014 and they gave drivers pink mustaches to attach to their cars. Seemed like a fun idea until all the legacy taxi drivers losing their business now knew exactly which cars to smash and harass on busy downtown nights haha.
It's sad, but I still feel like Lyft might still be a better value proposition than Uber overall, personally? I guess you get credits each month through Amex Gold/Platinum, but I'd rather save those for UberEATS and exclusively use Lyft on rideshares to get 10x on CSR.