March 18 (Reuters) - American Express Co will team up with seven companies, including Macy's Inc, AT&T Inc and Exxon Mobil Corp, to launch a loyalty program this spring, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The program, called Plenti, will operate like drugstore-rewards programs and let customers earn points by making purchases at the participating companies, which also include Rite Aid Corp and Hulu, the Journal said.

For example, users will be able to pay for their purchases at Rite Aid using the points they earn on paying their AT&T bills.

AmEx, which will operate the program and collect fees from partner companies, expects to launch it in May, the newspaper said. The company operates similar programs in Poland, Germany and Italy. (http://on.wsj.com/1betYdz)

American Express, Exxon Mobil, AT&T, Macy's, Hulu and Rite Aid were not immediately available for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

Last month, Costco Wholesale Corp said it would stop accepting AmEx cards after it failed to renew a deal. The agreement between AmEx and Costco is set to end after 16 years on March 31, 2016.

AmEx said the loss of the Costco contract would hurt earnings for the next two years. It raised interest rates for over 1 million of its cardholders for the first time in more than five years last month.

American Express runs co-branded contracts with Delta Airlines Inc, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, among others.

(Reporting by Shivam Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)