Delta & Ticketmaster Announce Partnership, Earn 1x Per Dollar (3x Until 8/31/19)

If you weren’t targeted for the StubHub Amex Offer but would still like to be rewarded for event ticket purchases, there’s a new Delta and Ticketmaster partnership that might be of interest to you.

The Deal

• Earn 3 SkyMiles per dollar spent at Ticketmaster until August 31, 2019 and 1 SkyMile thereafter.
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• Applicable for US dollars or Canadian dollars.
• Miles are awarded based on the ticket price. Taxes, facility, service, parking, insurance, and other fees are excluded from mileage credit.
• Miles will be credited after ticket purchase.
• Your SkyMiles number must be entered every time on delta.com/ticketmaster prior to each purchase to qualify for mileage. The SkyMiles account holder must be the same as the Ticketmaster account holder in order to earn miles (Name in both accounts must match).
• Standard ticket inventory offered on ticketmaster.com for events taking place in the United States and Canada is eligible for miles as long as Member is originating from delta.com/ticketmaster and enters a valid SkyMiles number. This includes both primary and resale standard ticket inventory.
• Purchases made for events in international markets, purchases made without first visiting delta.com/ticketmaster, or purchases made or completed on affiliate sites linked-to from ticketmaster.com (including but not limited to Livenation.com, Frontgate.com, Universe.com, Ticketweb.com, TicketsNow.com) will not be eligible for mileage credit.

Quick Thoughts

New opportunities to earn bonus miles are always welcome, so it’s great to have this Delta/Ticketmaster partnership. In particular, earning 3x SkyMiles for ticket purchases up to August 31, 2019 is a decent reward.

After August 31 though, the value of this partnership drops. Ticketmaster is already available on several shopping portals, albeit none of the airline ones. Your valuation of SkyMiles will therefore affect whether it’s worth clicking through from DeltaTicketmaster.com or from a cashback portal.

For example, Ebates currently offers 1% for pre-sale tickets and regular ticket sales, with a higher rate of 5% for purchases of resale tickets. Personally, I’d rather earn 1% through a cashback portal than 1 SkyMile per dollar as the cashback can be used for anything.

Be sure to check the terms of each cashback portal as rates can be different for different actions. Ebates currently only offers different rates based on whether you’re buying first-hand or second-hand tickets. TopCashback on the other hand differentiates between both types of tickets and types of customer:

• 1.5% for new customers.
• 1% for customers who haven’t bought from Ticketmaster in the last 24 months.
• 0.5% for customers who have bought from Ticketmaster in the last 24 months.
• 5% for resale ticket purchases.

One thing that’s a shame about this Delta/Ticketmaster partnership is that you have to click through from the DeltaTicketmaster.com landing page in order to earn miles, rather than simply being able to add your SkyMiles account number to your Ticketmaster account. If you could simply link your accounts in this way, you’d be able to stack the bonus SkyMiles with cashback portal earnings which is presumably why that’s not been offered as an option.

h/t TPG

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