Lyft and United Airlines Launch Rewards Partnership for Business Travelers

On August 6, 2025, ride-hailing company Lyft announced a new strategic partnership with United Airlines. This partnership will enable United MileagePlus members to earn frequent flyer miles when booking eligible rides with Lyft.

The cooperation enhances value for business and frequent travelers by integrating ground transportation with air travel loyalty. When launched later this year, users will be able to link their Lyft and MileagePlus accounts to automatically earn United miles on qualifying rides—especially airport-related trips.

The announcement came alongside Lyft’s Q2 2025 earnings report, which highlighted a record 234.8 million rides and 11 percent year-over-year revenue growth, totaling $1.59 billion. Despite the positive performance, Lyft’s revenue missed Wall Street expectations.

This collaboration helps fill a gap left by the recent termination of Lyft’s previous partnership with Delta Air Lines, which moved its loyalty offering to competitor Uber. By aligning with United, Lyft reaffirms its focus on the business travel segment and reinforces its commitment to diversifying rider benefits.

The partnership also comes amid Lyft’s broader growth strategy, which includes a $200 million acquisition of European ride-hailing firm FreeNow and a new robotaxi rollout in partnership with Baidu.

Though the MileagePlus integration is not expected to go live until late 2025, analysts see it as a strategic step to enhance customer stickiness and loyalty. BofA Securities (the corporate and investment banking division of Bank of America) recently reiterated a “Buy” rating on Lyft, citing the United deal as a promising catalyst for growth into 2026.

Recently, another ride-hailing app giant, Uber, announced expanding its global partnership with Mastercard, adding new tools to modernize payments on the Uber platform.

Cover photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash.