Delta Grand Slam – Partners Section

As I have previously written, I am participating in a mini Grand Slam with Delta. Under this promotion, we earn 500 bonus miles for each unique partner one participates with within your first year of membership. You can earn 10 of these bonuses for a total of 5000 bonus miles.

One of the best ways to attack this section of the new member challenge is to map out one strategy from the beginning. The rules for this unique partner awards section are as followed:

Unique Partner Activity: Earn 500 bonus miles for each unique partner activity–up to 10 partners–for a total of up to 5,000 bonus miles. A partner activity is defined as an activity which earns 1+ miles within 12 months after enrollment. A Delta Buy Miles purchase and a partner points to miles conversion transaction are considered eligible unique activities. Converting hotel partner points to miles and a stay/activity with the same hotel partner do not count as two activities. Delta SkyMiles Credit Card is not eligible. Flight activity on partner airlines is not eligible for this promotion.

Promotion Partner List: Offer includes Hotel Partners, Check Card Partners, Dining, Retail, and other partners: SkyMilesShopping.com qualifies as only one activity, SkyMiles Dining by Rewards Network qualifies as only one activity, participation with a SkyMiles incentive partner qualifies as only one activity, and SkyMiles Shopping UK qualifies as only one activity. Promotion partners also include: Buy, Gift or Transfer Miles; Points to Miles Transfers; Membership Rewards®; Diners Club®; Puntos de Oro; SuperBônus Program and Club de Beneficios; Internet & Telephone Partners, Real Estate & Financial Partners, Vacation and Cruise Partners. For a complete list of partners, please see delta.com/partneroffers.

The rules for this section provide us with valuable information:

1)      You can earn as little as 1 mile to trigger the bonus

2)      Partner to miles conversion (ie hotel points to SkyMiles) count as unique activities

3)      You can not credit a hotel stay from “X hotel chain” and transfer points from the same “X hotel frequent account”. For example, crediting a Hilton hotel stay and transferring Hilton points into SkyMiles counts as 1 transaction, not 2 transactions.

4)      Getting a Delta Skymiles Credit Card does not count as a transaction in this section

5)      Flying a partner airline and crediting it to Delta does not count as a transaction

6)      Purchasing something through SkyMilesShopping.com only counts as one transaction

7)      Dining through SkyMiles Dining qualifies as only one activity

8)      Buying, Gifting or Transferring Miles counts as unique activities

The biggest thing I have received out of the rules is that 1 mile triggers the bonus. This makes for some very easy and cheap transactions, which I will highlight in other posts.

With the rules out of the way, lets look at the various partners:

Car Rentals/Limo/Shuttles:

Hertz

Alamo

Avis

Budget

Carmel Car Service

EuroCar

E-Z Rent A Car

National

Sixt

Super Shuttle

Major US Hotel Chains: 

Hilton

ING

Marriott

Starwood

Accor Wyndam

Hyatt

Carlson

Choice Hotels

Best Western

La Quinta

Red Roof Inn

The Ritz Carlton

International and Smaller Hotel Chains:

Melia, Shangri-La, Langham, Taj, Almond, Concorde , Delta Chelsea Hotel – Toronto

Hotel Emperador – Buenos Aires, Hotel JAL City, The Leading Hotels of the World

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Maritim Hotels, Millennium Hotel Group, New Otani Hotel, Nikko Hotels International, Okura Hotels & Resorts, Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts

Rotana, World Hotels

Flowers/Gifts: 

1800 Gift Baskets

1800 Flowers

FTD.com

Biscoff

Organic Bouquet

Teleflora

Vinessa Wine Club

Shopping: 

SkyMall

Skymiles Shopping

Thanks Again

Travel Related: 

AmericanPassport.com

VisaCenter.com

Hartmann Luggage

Boingo Wireless

Travelling Connect

Dining:  

SkyMiles Dinning Rewards

Heath & Wellness:  

Nutrisystem

Organic  Style

SpaFinder Wellness

Financial:  

Fidelity Investments

Sentry Insurance (only available residents of AZ, CO, IL, IN, KS, MN, OH, TN, & WI)

ShareBuilder

Entertainment: 

Bose

Audience Rewards

getAbstract

Netflix

Point Earning/Transfer:  

eMiles

eRewards

Points.com

Other:  

Energy Plus

FEDEX

Georgia Natural Gas

Ohio Natural Gas

Network Solutions

The Whiteboard

PetCar RX

International Partners:

Skymiles Shopping Asia

Skymiles Shopping Canada

Skymiles Shopping Latin

Skymiles Shoping Japan

Triple J

Skymiles Dining Japan

Shell Lucky 7 Passport  (Guam & Saipan)

NetMile (Japan)

I did not add direct links to the individual partners, because I have heard reports that people did not get mileage credit for their purchases because the links did not register their entrance.To find partner links, go here . 

As a reminder, we have 12 months from our registration date to complete 10 partner rewards to get the 500 mile bonus. There is no rush to accomplish all 10 tonight.

In my next Delta Grand Slam post, I will lay out which 10 partners I plan on targeting. With a plan, we can start to tailor our spending habits to accomplish these partner rewards with minimal effort. 

Until the next post, start strategizing.