Finally! A Partner Mileage-Earning Bonus (Albeit a Small-ish One, From Delta)

Promotions giving out bonus miles for earning with a frequent flyer program’s partners used to be all the rage. Now, while most programs love the miles purchased by partners (more so than the miles earned by flying in many cases) they no longer bonus the activity as frequently — other than the occasional shopping portal bonus. And Delta in particular used to give out big bonuses but no longer seems to.

We used to see partner offers all the time — have transactions with a certain number of partners and earn bonus miles. For the 20th anniversary of the AAdvantage program we had 20,000 bonus miles for 20 partners. US Airways used to run its Grand Slam promotion and they had their November/December 2009 holiday shopping promotion. Northwest used to have its annual “Fly Free Faster.” Delta even once ran a 150% partner bonus by mistake. That’s just to name a few.

Delta SkyMiles used to be among the easiest to earn. There was a school of thought that it didn’t matter their awards were more expensive than everyone else’s much of the time, because you could earn their miles so easily. Before the time of big signup bonuses, there weren’t even any credit card spending bonuses — except for Delta’s co-brand American Express which used to give double miles for ‘everyday spend’ (sadly it no longer does). Earning Delta miles was easy. Now you see fewer partners and definitely fewer promotions.

So it’s nice to see a partner earning bonus, and from Delta in particular, even if it’s a small one.

You can earn 1000 Delta miles if you register and then earn miles with at least 2 non-airline partners of SkyMiles by February 29, 2016. (HT: John M.)

Participating non-airline partners include:

– Delta SkyMiles Credit Cards from American Express in the U.S.
– Delta Credit Cards in select countries
– Financial Partners
– Hotels
– Car Rental, Limo & Shuttle
– Cruises & Vacations
– SkyMiles Dining
– SkyMiles Shopping
– Retail & Specialty Partners

Terms and Conditions:

Offer: A one-time bonus of 1,000 miles per member will be credited once registered members earn miles with two or more distinct participating partners between the offer registration date and before February 29, 2016.

Participating Partners: The following non-airline partners are participating in this offer: Credit Card Partners, Hotels, Car Rental, Limo & Shuttle, Cruises and Vacations, Dining, Retail and Specialty, Financial Partners and Home Entertainment & Wireless. For a list of partners in each category, please click here. Other categories of partners, including airline partners, are expressly excluded from this offer.

Eligibility of Transactions: Only accrual partner transactions with an activity date between the offer registration date and before February 29, 2016 will be considered for eligibility of the bonus. Activity date is defined as the date of the transaction as reported by the partner regardless of the date the transaction is posted in the member’s account.

To earn the bonus, registered members need to earn miles with a minimum of two (2) different partners. Some partners offer multiple ways to earn miles under different products, brands, merchants, conversion of currency to miles, etc. These will still be considered as a single partner. Some examples of these cases are: Hotels booked via delta.com Hotels and/or Agoda, merchants under the SkyMiles Shopping program, restaurants under the SkyMiles Dining program, Cruises under the SkyMiles Cruises program, Hotel brands under the same Hotel portfolio, partner activity and a points conversion to miles from the same partner and others.

Please allow up to 60 days after the second qualifying transaction for bonus miles to be added in your account.

Members residing in the US who register for this offer will also be opted in to receive SkyMiles Partner Offers by email. Members can manage their notification preferences at any time by logging into their SkyMiles profile on delta.com.

Delta may change the SkyMiles program rules, change or terminate program partners, regulations, benefits, conditions of participation or mileage levels, in whole or in part, at any time with or without notice, even though changes may affect the value of mileage already accumulated. This offer may be terminated by Delta at any time, with our without notice. All SkyMiles program rules apply to SkyMiles program membership, miles, offers, mile accrual, mile redemption, and travel benefits. Offers void where prohibited by law. Other restrictions may apply. To review the rules, please visit delta.com/memberguide.

Delta, SkyMiles, and the Delta logo are registered service marks of Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Promotional Reference Code: To enquire about this offer, please refer to code 970642 when contacting any Delta customer service representative.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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