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Bilt Rewards
Bilt Rewards has added both United and Asia Miles to their list of travel transfer partners. This brings their total up to 11, and is a completel and total game changer. Bilt Rewards has done what no other rewards program has been able to do…create a program whereby you can transfer 1:1 to more than 1 of the big 3 US Airlines: United, American, and Delta. As if that wasn’t enough, they also added in Cathay Pacific Asia Miles which can be fantastic for reduced fuel surcharge redemptions on British Airways, favorable rates on Qatar Airways QSuites to the Middle East, and better access to Cathay’s own incredible products. Let’s get into the details.
What is the current list of Bilt Rewards Transfer Partners?
Bilt Rewards has 11 Transfer Partners
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France/KLM FlyingBlue
- American Airlines Aadvantage
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Emirates SkyMiles
- World of Hyatt
- IHG Rewards Club
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Turkish Miles and Smiles
- United MileAge Plus
- Virgin Red
How good are these transfer partners?
This list is absolutely fantastic and is very palatable for both points and miles beginners and experts. Beginners will find they have a lot of access to US based programs they recognize, and experts will love the value in partners like Turkish, Virgin Red, and Asia Miles. The ability to transfer into both United and American is a gamechanger.
Any of these look familiar?
- Hyatt
- IHG
- Hawaiian
- American
- United
I just redeemed 60k United miles for a Polaris Business Class flight for my wife this past week. You can read our review from our last trip here on the 767.
How do you earn Bilt Rewards?
First and foremost – the Bilt Alliance
If you rent from any of the 2 million+ apartments currently in the Bilt Alliance and pay through the app… you’ll earn Bilt Rewards. There are even bonuses for signing a lease, or renewing a lease as well as paying rent. It’s a super easy way to accumulate some of the most valuable rewards in the business.
2nd – the credit card
The credit card still isn’t open to the public, but hopefully will be soon. Once it’s publicly available we will have links that will make applying easy as cake. You’ll earn points on your rent as long as you make 5 non rent transactions every month. You can read all about the card here
Overall
Providing onramps to earn some of the best points in the business on your rent? That’s a game changing idea. But delivering two of Big 3 as transfer partners? The game has changed.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back. .
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.