Bilt has announced the launch of the Bilt Rewards Travel Portal powered by Expedia. Points can be redeemed at 500+ airlines, 700K+ properties, 120+ car rental companies and are worth 1.25¢ per point. Cardholders will earn 2x points on all purchases made through the portal.
This isn’t a hugely exciting addition as Bilt already has a number of good transfer partners that will be better options for most people, but it’s always nice to have additional redemption options and 1.25¢ per point is better value than we normally see. You can read our review of the Bilt card here.
Bleh!
They’re also targeting some people with 10k bonus points if you apply for the card
Got targeted after I got the card.
BTW, how are they gonna know if I pay someone else’s rent over a portal?
Anyone with Citi Prestige still, this can effectively make it 6X on air if the portal price matches (or beats) other booking channels for the same flight.
Richard, why a purchase of $1.99 only gets 1 point? this is the worst of all flexible currencies. Even Amex rounds up when it is 0.5 or more
Hard pass. I’m going to keep with the advice of the great Miles to Go Podcast folks and stick with my Capital One VentureX travel portal and get my 10X there.
How do you rationalize that? Earning rate and redemption rate are completely different variables.
Thank you! We need more people like you
Really kick CSP’s ass
No clue why these folks are sticking to a basic free card and not offering a premium version. They have a great set of partners, and I’d happily pay for a setup that includes lounge access and better earn rates.
The economics of that aren’t what you think.
Yeah, but it excludes an entire segment. I would need a second card that offers lounge access, and such cards typically also have additional perks beyond that and/or additional category multipliers. Or a free card of their own that could also be complementary (e.g. VentureX/SavorOne). So then instead of being complementary to Bilt, the question turns into “do I need Bilt also…?”. The partners are fantastic, but a higher earn rate with lesser partners can offset that.
This is from a non-renter’s perspective, of course.
High earn rate = more people MSing for high earn rate = lower profit
The card doesn’t even have an NFC chip
All we need now is a nice fat SUB.
Free annual bonus every year if you’re a renter – but a big SUB is never gonna be in our cards as a no annual fee card
Many no AF cards offer a SUB… With the 50K rent cap I think one is needed. Doesn’t have to be a mega bonus but an intro SUB would be nice. Without that, no matter how alluring it is to get points on rent spend, the numbers say I’ll do better using the 5/24 slot on a different card.
Is the annual bonus guaranteed though? It has to be offered by your property, right? And that’s even if you can convince your property to join the program. I’m struggling to get my property (I’m in San Francisco) which is owned by Related (who is supposedly a Bilt Alliance partner) to join the Bilt Rewards program. Feels like I’d have to pull teeth to get a bonus with them come renewal time.
Just got an email about a 10k sub. Not fat by any stretch but it’s something.
Ugh I want a fat SUB
*YAWN*
Does anything stop you from using the ACH and Routing Numbers to MS by loading into PayPal/Venmo balance? The website says suggests it is for rent, but do they prevent you from using it for other things instead?
Yes, the system looks at every ACH payment and we have walls set up to prevent gaming of the rent payments
LOL, it’s Wells Fargo!!! If anyone knows how to game, it’s WF, the most unethical bank in the country.
Richard, my daughter’s rent is variable & differs by $1 to $5 every month. Is that okay?