[EXPIRED] Limited Time: Incredible 24 Hour Bilt Transfer Bonus
By John Ta - December 27, 2023
Get ready for an incredible transfer opportunity this upcoming January 1 that’ll allow you to get 75-150% more out of your Bilt Points.
On January 1, 2024, Bilt will be running an unprecedented 24 hour transfer bonus to Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic, and IHG One Rewards where Bilt Mastercard® cardholders can get 75% and 150% more on their points (depending on their Bilt Rewards status). Bonus will be based on cardholder status on 01/01/2024, so check your status cards to see where you’re at today. Transfer bonuses will be rewarded as follows:
BRAND
Bilt Status Tier
Transfer Bonus
Blue
75% (1,000 Bilt Points = 1,750 Partner Currency)
Silver
100% (1,000 Bilt Point = 2,000 Partner Currency)
Gold
125% (1,000 Bilt Point = 2,250 Partner Currency)
Platinum
150% (1,000 Bilt Point = 2,500 Partner Currency)
For context, this is an incredible offer if you have uses for these transferred points. None of these programs have ever run transfer bonuses of these sizes outside of Bilt (normally, we see around a 20-30% transfer bonus from other card issuers). Combined with Air France’s promo awards, this could prove to be a fruitful transfer for some.
What else is happening this January 2024 Rent Day?
The Bilt card traditionally runs a promotion the first of every month featuring a wide variety of special bonuses (such as the transfer bonus we talked about above). This rent day, Bilt is also doing the following:
- 50% redemption bonus on Amazon: Make sure your Bilt Card is linked to your Amazon account, add the items you want to purchase to your cart, and select your Bilt Card as your payment method. The points shown at checkout will automatically reflect the added 50% bonus.
- Activate a $5 ride credit with Lyft: Make sure your Lyft and Bilt accounts are linked and on January 1st select “Activate credits” in the Bilt app on the Rent Day tab. You’ll see your Lyft ride credit under “Lyft Pass” in the Payment section of the Lyft app within 72 hours of activating. The Lyft ride credit is valid for 90 days.
- Rent Free™ Game Show: You can play by submitting guesses to one of these questions. If you can correctly guess three of the most popular answers, you'll automatically be entered for the chance to get your January rent paid. Rent Free™ is available to play beginning December 27th at 9 AM ET.
Rent day in general runs these exciting benefits as well:
- Double Points on the First: Cardholders will earn double points on all purchases (excluding rent, which earns 1x), but only on January 1st and ends 11:59 PM PT. A maximum of 10,000 bonus points can be earned and cardholders must still use their card 5 times each statement period to earn points.
- Soulcycle Rent Day Rides: Members can receive a complimentary bike in the special-themed class when booking directly through the Bilt Rewards app beginning December 29th.
- Point Quest® Trivia: Earn extra Bilt Points by answering trivia with Point Quest®, available in the Bilt app only on January 1st.
Is This A Good Use Of My Points?
Yes, in most cases, it definitely can be. However, it’s still critical to compare it to using cash to ensure you’re getting the most value out of your points. Let’s take a look at a few examples for each of the programs.
Air France/KLM Flying Blue
The Flying Blue rewards program has become a top choice for award travelers, given its generally high value redemption opportunities. Despite the fact that Air France uses a dynamic award pricing system, it is one of the rare loyalty programs that announced that it was actually decreasing the price of its business class redemptions.
One of Air France’s best redemptions is its West Coast to Paris/Amsterdam flights. When searching this flight on Google Flights, the cheapest nonstops are typically over $1,000. With layovers, the flight can drop as low as $600. However, this flight only costs 20,000 points in each direction (economy) with about $250 in taxes.
For nonstop, that easily brings the point valuation to over 3 cents per point. In comparison to the layover options, you’re closer to 1 cent per point. While it’s not necessarily an apples to apples comparison to compare the nonstop and layover flights, it gives you a good sense of the opportunity cost of using points.
However, many card issuers run notable transfer bonuses with Flying Blue. For example, Chase and Amex have both run 20% transfer bonuses, making this flight actually cost just 16,666 points in each direction. With this transfer bonus, the award cost seems like a fantastic deal.
But, that’s not all. Air France sometimes runs “promo sales” every month where routes are discounted by 25%! Therefore, it’s possible for this route to just cost 15,000 points—with a transfer bonus, this would make the flight bookable with just 12,000 points. An absolute no brainer if you ask me.
Virgin Atlantic
Using Virgin Atlantic’s award program might seem like a strange way to book flights, but they also have some of the best reward redemption possibilities out there given their high value partner award charts. Virgin points are relatively easy to come by, with them being transferable by basically every single major card issuer in the United States.
One crowd favorite is Virgin Atlantic’s partnership with ANA. The following trip shows round trip pricing for ANA flights booked with Virgin Atlantic points:
This means, in theory, you could use just 47,500 Virgin Atlantic points to book a one-way business class ticket from New York to Tokyo. That’s incredible value for such a long flight on one of the world’s best airline carriers. With the BILT Rent Day 150% transfer bonus, this ANA business class flight would only require 19,000 points to book!
Unfortunately, finding ANA award space in business and first class is extremely difficult. It is not possible to simply search for it on Virgin Atlantic’s website; you must call in or verify the award availability exists on United Airline’s website.
IHG One Rewards
While Bilt is running a large transfer bonus, IHG’s redemptions may not be as valuable as Air France’s or Virgin Atlantic’s. IHG points are simply not as valuable when compared to these airlines, even with the transfer bonus.
For example, in looking at this incredible Japan hotel, we can see an immediate difference in point valuations:
In comparing a refundable, cancellable room vs a room booked with points (which has similar cancellation policies), IHG is suggesting that we can pay either $382 USD or 55,000 points. This comes out to a measly 0.7 cents per point (CPP) valuation (yes, less than 1 cent per point). If you take the transfer bonus into account, you’re looking at a 1.4 CPP valuation, but Bilt points are worth more than that when transferring to Hyatt or the other two partners we just talked about above.
Long story short, always compare the number of points agains the cash price.
Conclusion
Bilt’s upcoming Rent Day is going to be a historic one, featuring point transfer bonuses on a scale we have never seen before. While there are some good transfer bonuses, there are some that should be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, this year’s rent day is going to have some unique and incredible opportunities for cardholders to make the most of their Bilt points.
Should I Get The Bilt Card?
The Bilt card emerges as a game-changer in the credit card arena, particularly for renters who could never before earn rewards on their largest monthly expenditure—rent. With no annual fee and strong earning potential (cardholders must place 5 transactions per billing cycle to activate said benefits).
