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In case you didn’t know, Lyft is much more than just a glorified taxi service. You can rent bikes, electric scooters and even cars — all through the Lyft app.
While it may seem unusual to rent a car from a ride-hailing service, you’ll find competitive prices and several layers of promotions that can make Lyft the go-to agency for your next rental car.
For a limited time, you can save 20% on your Lyft car rentals and earn bonus American Airlines miles and Loyalty Points by stacking two targeted offers. The discount and added bonus miles can make your next rental less expensive and much more rewarding, which are both important given rental cars are still more expensive than they were in years past. These deals were first brought to our attention by Frequent Miler.
Let’s take a closer look at these offers and how to use them to save on your next Lyft rental car.
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There are two offers out there for Lyft rental cars: one from Citi Merchant Offers and another from American Airlines SimplyMiles. Both are targeted offers, but many TPG staffers have been targeted for both.
Citi Merchant Offers provides targeted statement credits for purchases you might make anyway. They act sort of like Amex Offers in that you simply add them to your card and will be automatically rewarded after using your card with select merchants. You must be a Citi cardholder to use Citi Merchant Offers.
Check your Citi cards for the following offer: 20% back on your first Lyft Rentals purchase. Here’s what you need to know:
These are pretty straightforward terms. Due to the $50 rebate cap, you’ll max out this offer by spending $250 on a rental car.
You can see if you’re targeted for this deal here.
Related: How to snag statement credits on travel, dining and more with Citi Merchant Offers
SimplyMiles is a portal that operates similarly to Citi Merchant Offers. You can add deals with select vendors to your card, but instead of statement credits, you’ll earn bonus American Airlines miles. You’ll also earn bonus Loyalty Points, which are needed to earn American Airlines elite status.
Anyone with an AAdvantage account can sign up for SimplyMiles. However, you can only add Mastercards to SimplyMiles.
Currently, you’ll earn 9 AA miles and 9 Loyalty Points per dollar on your first Lyft car rental. Here are the details:
These are very similar terms to the above Citi Merchant Offer. With the ability to earn 2,325 miles from this promotion, the magic dollar amount is $259 to max out the offer. If you have a Citi-issued Mastercard, add both the Citi Merchant Offer and SimplyMiles offer to your account to stack your earnings.
You can see if you qualify for this SimplyMiles deal here.
Related: Earn American Airlines miles and Loyalty Points with the SimplyMiles program
It’s worth noting that Lyft has its own rental car agency in select cities in California. When you book a rental car directly with Lyft, you’ll get a handful of perks and conveniences that can potentially save you a bundle. For example:
Outside of the Golden State, your rental may be fulfilled by Sixt and not have benefits like free ski racks. However, your rental should still qualify for the Citi and SimplyMiles offers and be eligible for these perks:
Related: Everything you need to know about Lyft’s game-changing rental car service
Lyft Rentals appear to be aggressively priced, so the additional discounts you’ll receive through these limited-time offers make renting even sweeter. Let’s do some quick math, assuming you’ve managed to book a $250 car rental reservation:
Not counting the benefits offered by Lyft Rentals (such as free additional drivers and complimentary child seats), you’ll get an effective return of $94.83 for your $250 rental car. Plus, you’ll get a healthy boost toward earning AA elite status. That’s an excellent deal.
However, one significant deterrent is that the most popular Mastercard credit cards, such as those issued by Citi, do not offer primary rental car insurance. You may have to buy insurance from Lyft if you want coverage — or just use your personal insurance if something goes wrong.
Purchasing a rental agency’s in-house insurance can be expensive and negate your savings with these deals. Additionally, it’s possible that Lyft Rentals may not be covered by credit card rental car insurance. Lyft is genetically a ride-hailing service, though the company wears more than one hat. Lyft’s FAQs indicate that you should be fine, but we haven’t tested it for ourselves.
Related: How to never pay full price for a rental car
If you’re in the market for a rental car in the near future, stacking the current targeted Citi Merchant Offer of 20% back on Lyft Rentals with SimplyMiles’ promotion of 9 AA miles and Loyalty Points per dollar spent is an excellent deal. You’ll even get a slew of extra benefits you won’t find with many other rental agencies, such as free child seats, additional drivers and sports equipment racks.
The biggest caveat is that you may need to either buy rental car insurance from Lyft or use your personal insurance to cover your reservation.
Featured photo by Andrew Kunesh/The Points Guy.
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Oops! Did you mean…
Welcome to The Points Guy!
The credit card offers that appear on the website are from credit card companies from which ThePointsGuy.com receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). This site does not include all credit card companies or all available credit card offers. Please view our advertising policy page for more information.
Editorial Note: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.