Travel Loyalty Partnerships: The Great, Good, and Meh
Airline and Hotel Loyalty programs have received a bad rap (rightfully so) over the years for devaluing points, offering stricter or impossible-to-obtain benefits buried with fine print, and tier qualifications that are so difficult that only those willing to live out of a suitcase can achieve. However, those road warriors are where the profit lies, and travel brands want to do everything to lure and keep them into their programs. Hence, loyalty program partnerships come in.
Loyalty partnerships are an (easier) way to obtain new customers or more business from an existing customer by tacking on benefits outside of your own program. But there are so many these days that it’s easy to get dizzy.
We broke down what’s worthy (a lot, thankfully!) and wimpy across 7 partnerships. There are many more, so we’ll likely do another post later on. However, these are key ones worth examining.
Note: All of these partnerships require linking of respective accounts.
United x Marriott: RewardPlus Partnership
✨ Benefits:
United Premier Silver and above members can convert their MileagePlus miles into Marriott Bonvoy Points on a 1:1 basis. (smile)
Convert Bonvoy points into MileagePlus and receive a 10% bonus of MileagePlus miles, plus a bonus of 5000 miles for every 60k Bonvoy Points converted. 🙂
Bonvoy Titanium Elite (75 nights+ a year), get complimentary United Premier Silver 🥱
United Premier Gold and above members get Gold Elite with Marriott
👍🏻 What we Like: The ability to swap points and miles between the two programs is a positive. Especially if you are short of the award you want. Hotel points tend to be more valuable than Airline points, so be cautious when transferring all your Bonvoy points to United unless you know for sure you can snag a seat or upgrade with them.
😐 What’s so-so: Giving United Gold, Platinum, and 1K members the same Gold membership with Marriott feels wrong. Platinum or at least 1K should get higher Bonvoy status. Marriott Gold doesn’t offer all that much extra, as their “based on availability” list of benefits is like being told you're on the guest list, but you only get in if the bouncers are in a good mood. Leaving it to chance. And the same goes for Bonvoy Titanium getting lowly United Premier Silver. Might as well be in boarding group 9.
👩🏻⚖️ Our Verdict: Rewarding!
We can support any partnership that allows for the swapping of currencies, even if the status swaps are somewhat weak.
United x JetBlue: BlueSky Partnership (Launching Late 2025)
✨ Benefits:
JetBlue Mosaic members will get the following benefits on United: priority check-in, priority boarding , preferred seats, and extra legroom seats at check-in.
United Premier Members (all levels) get similar benefits when flying JetBlue: priority check-in, priority boarding (C through A based on tier), 1 free checked bag, preferred seating at booking, and extra leg room at check-in.
United and JetBlue will display each other’s flights on their respective websites, and all members can earn and redeem points from either program on the other. JetBlue members can earn tiles toward Mosaic status by flying United.
TrueBlue members will earn 5 points per $1 on United, while Mosaic will earn 8 points per $1.
No details yet on the earning rate for United members on JetBlue.
Note: there will be NO transfer of points/miles between the airlines. You can only book directly with points/miles.
👍🏻 What we Like: This partnership approach which allows you to burn your main airline currency to book a flight on a partner airline, rather than transferring. Transferring comes with risk. Sometimes it doesn’t happen immediately, and seats can sell out. This partnership makes it easier. However, it remains to be seen what true redemption will be as the fine print all says “subject to availability”.
👀 What we’re worried about: If you’ve ever boarded a JetBlue flight in Boston or a United flight in Chicago or Newark, you know the number of elite members eligible for pre-boarding looks like a swarm of “gate lice”. This partnership will add a second airline’s elite status members into that mix, making the situation potentially dire. If there are a whole bunch of Mosaics boarding with United Group 1, that will only push United Elite’s in Group 2 at a further disadvantage. Airlines already have a problem with too many Elite qualifying members that erode the value of many of the benefits. We fear this could make it worse.
👩🏻⚖️ Our Verdict: TBD.
We’re going to hold off on a true rating until this actually goes live. It’s the right spirit and seems generous, but could end up making things worse for some Elite members.
United x Avis
✨ Benefits:
United MileagePlus members can earn 500-1,250 miles per rental, based on their tier status with both Budget and Avis.
Earn discounts (“up to 35%”) by inputting a special # into rental reservations.
United Platinum or higher get Avis President’s Club status, and Silver and Platinum flyers get Avis Preferred Plus status.
👍🏻 What we Like: We appreciate that United’s top members are earning top status with Avis.
⚠️What to Watch out for: There are numerous websites that offer rental deals, so we recommend comparing the price with United’s code against other sites.
😐 What’s so-so: The mileage earning caps are weak and could be better.
👩🏻⚖️ Our Verdict: Rewarding, mostly for the tier status. Meh for the miles earning.
Delta x Uber
✨ Benefits:
Delta SkyMiles members earn 3 miles per $ on Uber Reserve trips, 2 miles for $ for Uber Comfort and Uber Black, 1 mile per $ on UberX to and from the airport, and 1 mile per $ on Uber Eats orders over $40
👍🏻What we Like: This is a straightforward way to earn miles if you're someone who occasionally uses Uber. Once your accounts are linked, there’s nothing you need to do. Frequent travelers who tend to use Uber while on business trips (or city dwellers too lazy to walk or take mass transit) can earn serious miles, as there is no cap.
💡What’s worth noting:
Delta points are not exactly the most valuable currency, so even a lot of points earned through Uber might not get you to a free flight, but it will certainly help.
You can link your Uber account only to one Partner, and they have partnerships with other brands, such as Marriott.
👩🏻⚖️ Our Verdict: Very Rewarding!💰
This one’s a no-brainer if you use Uber and even occasionally fly Delta.
Delta x Starbucks
✨ Benefits:
On travel days, earn double Starbucks stars
Earn between 25 miles and 200 miles for reloading your Starbucks card in your Starbucks account.
“Unlock more promotions”
🥱 Why we’re lukewarm on this: Coffee spend just doesn’t drive the high amount of miles like Uber can. Even a Starbucks Loyalist spending $50 a week would max out at 5,200 Skymiles annually from this. Yes, you could add on another 1,000 or 2,000 from reloads. Now that might seem like a lot, but the number of miles needed to redeem for anything is increasing, so you can’t really drink your way to a free flight.
👩🏻⚖️ Our Verdict: Meh
Go ahead and link, but don’t expect a windfall of miles here.
Delta x Hertz
✨ Benefits:
Delta Silver and Gold Medallion Members get Hertz Five Star Elite status, and Delta Platinum and Diamond members get President’s Circle status with Hertz.
Earn miles on Hertz rental at a rate of 5 points per $1 (silver tier) up to 8 pts per $1 (Diamond tier).
👍🏻What we Like: This partnership offers a higher rental earnings rate than the United x Avis partnership. Rental car prices have been…shall we say… very high the last few years, and you’ll be able to rack up some good miles with this one.
👩🏻⚖️ Our Verdict: Very Rewarding!
For Delta elite members this is a good partnership.
American Airlines x Hyatt
✨ Benefits:
Hyatt Elite’s can choose AA benefits as their Milestone Reward options upon hitting each level:
At 20 and 30 nights, they could choose (as one of their options) 2 preferred seat coupons for a better seat on AA.
At 50 nights choose 2 Main Cabin Extra seat coupons.
At 70 , 80, and 90 nights, choose AA Gold status.
At 100 nights and above, choose AA Platinum Status
AA members can unlock Hyatt perks when they hit certain Loyalty Point Reward thresholds as items to choose from:
100k Loyalty Points: Hyatt Discoverist status
175k and 250k Loyalty Points: Hyatt Explorist status
400k, 500k, and 750 Loyalty Points: Cat 1-4 free night
1 Million, 3 Million, and 5 Million Loyalty Points: Cat 1-7 Free night.
AA Members at the 40k Loyalty Point tiers can redeem 25k miles for a Cat 1-4 free night award and the 125k Loyalty Point tier can redeem 65k miles for a Category 1-7 Award.
Hyatt Explorist and Globalist members can redeem Hyatt points for a one-day AA status upgrade (status levels depend on your Hyatt tier), with a maximum of 4 or 6 upgrades per year.
AA members can redeem miles for Hyatt Free Nights and Hyatt members can transfer points to AA. ‘
👍🏻What we Like: Redeeming points for a one-day AA status could be a good use of points on certain trips.
👎🏻 What we don’t like: While there are many benefit choices at the respective levels of both programs, it means forgoing other benefits you could choose from at your milestones.
👩🏻⚖️ Our Verdict: Meh
This seems great at first glance due to the myriad benefits listed, but the devil is in the details; this isn’t as rich as it appears.
SUMMARY:
| Partnership | Verdict | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| United x Marriott | Rewarding | Currency swaps are good; Status swaps are a bit weak. |
| United x JetBlue | TBD (launches late '25) | Likely will be a great partnership, but a few things have us nervous. |
| United x Avis | Rewarding | Tier status is good; the miles earning is just so-so. |
| Delta x Uber | Very Rewarding | No brainer partnership to rack up a lot of Delta miles. |
| Delta x Starbucks | Meh | You won’t earn enough miles to make a big change in your Delta account. |
| Delta x Hertz | Very Rewarding | High rental earning rates and good status swaps. |
| AA x Hyatt | Meh | Most benefits are a choice at the expense of other options. |
Leave us a comment below! Do you agree or disagree with our partnership assessments?
