Want to earn lots of airline points booking a hotel room? Both Pointshound and RocketMiles offer up options which can net you a ton of points in a variety of airline programs. But, interestingly, both appear to have dropped Delta SkyMiles as an earning option in recent months. Both booking sites are in to double digits of earning partners now (RocketMiles has 11 and Pointshound has 16) but both have lost Delta as a partner. If we take the reasonable assumption that both companies were willing to pay Delta’s asking price to buy the miles being issued then there must be something else at play. What??
Both sites had SkyMiles in the initial set of programs they launched with. And Pointshound also had United, though they don’t any more. That changed last July when United and Pointshound split up, reportedly because United invested in RocketMiles and didn’t want to work with their competitor. Could it be that Delta is looking to make a move in this space as well so they’re cutting ties with the future competition?
Or is Delta just cutting back in general on which travel partners they’re willing to work with? They’ve cut their participation in a small rewards program offered by Binghamton, New York’s airport. And, according to a note received by a member there, “Delta’s involvement in many like programs are being discontinued in similar fashion.”
This is only surprising to me in that Delta gets paid when these partners distribute the miles. And selling miles to 3rd parties is typically very good money for the programs. Maybe Delta wants to charge more than the 2.2 cents/mile that the SkyIncentives program currently sells at. Or they’ve changed some other marketing agreement which has an exclusive partner in it.
Whatever the cause, it generally means fewer options for earning SkyMiles. I’m rarely a fan when programs change in that direction.
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