Earn Delta SkyMiles With Airbnb Experiences
Whenever I plan a trip to a city, I review Airbnb experiences in that location. I’ve used the platform for almost a decade as a way to gauge what can be done (in addition to my other travel research).
My first Airbnb experience was an overnight kayaking trip through Miami in 2017, and since then I’ve done dozens around the world, from cooking classes to market tours and jungle walks. As with any activity portal, there are as many duds as there are gems — but verified reviews and photos from past guests make it easy to tell the difference.
On a recent trip to Rome, I earned nearly 900 SkyMiles across two experiences — without ever stepping foot on a Delta plane. No, it’s not a groundbreaking number of miles, but they’ve piled up based on activities I’d be doing anyway. Here’s how it worked.
Experiences I booked in Rome
Rome is one of those cities where the tourist version and the local version look almost nothing alike. In addition to the recommendations I received from locals, I booked two Airbnb experiences to discover another side of the city.
The first was a culinary walk through Testaccio, a working-class district in the southeast of the city where Roman cuisine was born. It included food tasting, along with a history lesson, in the main gastronomic hall, the Mercato di Testaccio. My guide, Francesca, took us through everything as we ate: the crispy “supplì”, the “bollito” sandwich, the “tagliere” of cheeses and the “salumi” of one of the oldest sellers.
Francesca also explained how the old slaughterhouse next door gave rise to the cooking that has become one of the most famous dishes in Rome. I left full and knowing a lot more about the city.
The second tour was a morning search for antiques at the Porta Portese, the great Sunday flea market in Rome. My guide, Olga, has lived in the city for 25 years and pointed out real designer pieces and discoveries I would have missed.
I was traveling with a friend and booked both tours for the two of us. Testaccio walk came around $232; Porta Portese was about $65.
As part of the expanded partnership, SkyMiles members earn 3 Delta SkyMiles per $1 spent on qualifying Experiences and Services, minus taxes and fees. Therefore, the food tour earned 697 miles and the flea market experience earned 195 miles. Both bonuses posted to my Delta account the day after each tour ended, not the six to eight weeks mentioned in the fine print.
An easy way to earn some miles
The number of miles you earn with the Delta-Airbnb combination is probably too small to hunt down on your own, unless you’re booking an expensive experience for a large group. Three miles per dollar on a $1,000 group cooking class is 3,000 miles — a solid number.
🤓Nerd advice
Sometimes it would be better to book a comparable tour through Delta SkyMiles Shopping portal on Viator or GetYourGuide, so it pays to comparison shop first.
If Airbnb experiences are already part of your trip, there’s little reason not to. It took me two minutes to link my accounts, and I earned several hundred miles on trips I booked anyway.
