How to Earn Delta SkyMiles on your Everyday Purchases, No Credit Card or Flying Required
While SkyMiles might not be everyone’s favorite rewards program, it is still a valuable program to earn miles for. I personally love Delta SkyMiles or SkyPesos as some call it. Keep in mind you cannot transfer your SkyMiles as they are Delta’s Reward Progam.
I have the Delta SkyMiles Platinum American Express Card which helped me earn medallion status, which has upgraded me to first and comfort+ on every single flight since earning status.
However, because I want transferable miles, think Chase, and being able to transfer to a ton of airlines/hotels, my Delta Credit Card is not always the card I reach for. Here are additional ways to earn SkyMiles that do not require the Delta SkyMiles credit card or flying. You just need your SkyMiles number!
If you need to sign up for a SkyMiles account check out the Delta website.
Let’s check out the ways to earn Delta Skymiles without flying!
1. Buying Tickets on Ticketmaster
Instead of heading to the regular Ticketmaster site, head to the Delta-branded Ticketmaster site to purchase your tickets. Once you log in, you can purchase the same way you would on the Ticketmaster site. You earn 1 mile per dollar spent on the site excluding taxes, facility fees, service fees, parking, and insurance. There is a limit of 2,500 miles per month. There is a FAQ if you have additional questions.
2. Booking Airbnbs and Hotels
There are multiple ways to earn miles when booking stays or even your entire vacation.
Airbnb
Delta has a partnership with Airbnb where you earn 1 mile per dollar spent on Airbnb. There is no minimum spend required. You earn miles for both accommodation and guest fees, the only exclusion is government-imposed fees and taxes.
If multiple people are staying at the property who are SkyMiles members, only the person who booked the Airbnb will be eligible for the miles.
Miles can take up to 8 weeks to post after your stay to your account. If you have additional questions there is an FAQ on the site.
Hotels
For Marriott, IHG, and Accor Hotels, if you do not want to earn their Points you can instead earn Delta points by changing your earning preferences.
- For Marriot under your profile to miles and then choose Delta.
- For IHG, under your profile change your earning preferences from points to miles
- For Accor, under your profile, go to Loyalty, then Use Reward Points with Partners section, In the convert section choose, Delta SkyMiles.
For Hyatt Hotels, you can earn additional miles at specific brands in their hotel collection. You must provide your SkyMiles number at check-in.
Choosing to earn Delta SkyMiles instead of Hotel points is completely up to you. Think about your long-term travel plans so that you can make sure you have points where you need them!
Delta Stays + Vacation Rentals
If you want to book your hotel via Delta, you can book via Delta Stays. It is powered by Expedia so this makes it a third-party booking. You earn 2 miles per dollar excluding taxes and fees. If you book this way, I would also call the hotel to make sure they receive your reservation. I recently completed a stay via Delta Stays, because of my credit card benefits. So while it is not my preferred method to book hotels, I have used it.
Delta Vacations
if you are interested in booking your entire vacation through Delta you have the ability to do that using Delta Vacations. You can book a flight, hotel, transfer, and even add excursions.
3. Riding in a Lyft
When calling a Rideshare, if you utilize Lyft, you can earn Delta SkyMiles. The earnings for Lyft vary depending on where you are heading. Regular rides earn you 1 mile per dollar spent where as airport rides earn you 2 miles per dollar spent.
To make your Reward Partner on your Lyft Account Delta SkyMiles you will need to link the two accounts.
- Log into your Lyft Account
- Look for the 3 lines at the top on the left
- Scroll down until you see Rewards
- If Delta SkyMiles is not your Rewards Account, Click on Change Partner
- Once you hit, Change Partner, all of the Partners will be available.
- Click on Delta and enter your SkyMiles number, once you go through the verification, it will show as linked!
- You can start earning Delta SkyMiles on each Ride!
If you want to check the miles you are earning on the Delta site you will need to log in and check under your Delta account for recent activity.
There you will see the Lyft symbol anytime you have earned miles for Lyft and how many miles you earned for that particular ride!
Miles can take up to 10 business days to post to your account but typically I see them by the next day. There is no cap on the number of miles you can earn from Lyft! However, if you split the fare, only the person who requested the ride will earn the miles.
If you have any additional questions about the partnership they have a FAQ.
Pro Tip: If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, You can link your SkyMiles number to Lyft but pay with your Chase Card. That way you earn SkyMiles and 5x Chase points on the same ride!
4. Starbucks Purchases
To earn miles on your Starbucks purchases you will need to link your accounts. You will need both a Starbucks account and a Delta Account to link them. You earn miles as long as you reload $25.00 or more into your Starbucks account excluding gift cards. If you reload less than $25.00, you will not earn any miles. The more you reload the more miles you earn however there is a limit of $2,000 per day. There is no cap on the number of miles you can earn through the partnership, to check how many miles you have earned head to your Delta Account. The earning structure is as follows:
$25 – $49.99 = 25 miles
$50 – $74.99 = 75 miles
$75 – $99.99 = 125 miles
$100+ = 200 miles
In addition to earning miles, you also earn Starbucks Stars and on travel days booked through Delta, you earn Double Stars! If you have additional questions about the program, they have a FAQ.
5. Rental Cars including Turo
Delta has partnerships with various rental car companies.
Car Rentals
If you are booking a car through Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty, Alamo, Enterprise, National, Avis, Budget, Payless, Europcar, and Sixt you can earn delta miles on that booking. I would highly recommend heading to the Delta SkyMiles Car Rental Partnership part of the site to ensure you are earning miles on those bookings.
Turo
For Turo, make sure to link your accounts online.
6. Shopping via SkyMiles Shopping
To use this feature there are two ways to do it. You can either always start your shopping at skymilesshopping.com or install the button.
Installing the button, makes a pop-up happen anytime you visit a website that is eligible for Delta SkyMiles.
The button will let you know how many miles you will earn per dollar and if it says up to, click on view terms to find out more information about what the earnings are.
If you have additional questions check out the FAQ.
7. Going out to Eat via SkyMiles Dining
To earn miles with SkyMiles Dining, you will need to sign up for an account and connect your credit card or debit card. If you are using a debit card you must process it as credit in order to earn miles. There is no limit to the number of miles you earn but restaurants may have limits. The earning structure is as follows:
- Members earn 1 mile per $2 spent if you elect to not receive email communication from SkyMiles® Dining.
- Select Members earn 3 miles per $1 spent if you elect to receive email communication from SkyMiles Dining.
- VIP Members earn 5 miles per $1 spent if you elect to receive email communication from SkyMiles Dining AND have already completed 11 qualified transactions in the calendar year. (Members start earning at the VIP level on their 12th qualified transaction.
The biggest thing to remember about earning miles for Delta Dinning is that you MUST do a review to earn the points! So when they send you the email about your restaurant visit make sure to set aside time to do the review. Also, whatever card you enroll in Delta Dinning cannot be enrolled in any other dining program, so you will need to select wisely.
I have not been keeping up with this program, but plan to fix that!
8. Energy for your Home
If you live in Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania you can earn 5,000 miles after two months if you select Energy Plus as your electricity Supplier. In addition, you earn, 2 miles per dollar on the supply portion of your bill.
I do not live in these states so, I am not sure if this is worth it but wanted to point it out in case you already use them. Anytime I have ever changed my supplier, it has increased my bill, make sure to look into that before enrolling so you are not increasing your spending just to earn miles, it is never worth it to earn miles that way.
Conclusion
You do not always need a credit card to earn miles though it can be helpful and speed up the process of earning miles. Using these strategies you can increase your Delta SkyMiles by doing things you were already going to do. I hope this helps you earn miles and let me know if you have any questions in the comments.
Related Post:
Where can I transfer my Chase points to?
Save for Later!
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While I don’t have a Delta card, I do use an airline credit card to earn miles. We also pay some of our utilities on the card, as well as car insurance. This certainly helps with increasing our award miles.
Wow I had no idea about all these ways to earn Delta Miles! I could have earned a lot! Thanks for sharing.
I didnt know you could link all these other places to get miles. Great tip.
OMG reading this article reminded me that I am absolutely missing out by not linking my Starbucks account. On my way to do that now!
YESSS I love all the ways there are to earn points without ever having to get a cc. I had no idea about linking Starbuck so will be doing that today.