I guess this change was bound to happen sooner or later…
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?
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