A relative new kid on the block, Bilt Rewards offers up some innovative ways to earn loads of Bilt Points and partners with great programs.

What are Bilt Points?

Bilt Rewards is a relatively new(ish) loyalty program, founded in 2019. The emphasis of the program was and remains on earning points for those who rent. In a way, it’s a little something extra for those who aren’t earning equity like homeowners get with paying off their mortgage. With so many in the United States forced to pay rent monthly, this loyalty program caught on quickly.

Bilt Points are among some of the most valuable as you can transfer them to a large number of loyalty programs, including fan-favorites like Alaska, Hyatt, and JAL. You can also use your points towards more niche redemptions like putting a down payment on your house, giving renters a sliver of hope towards homeownership.

The program has credit cards, but has suffered a bit during the transition away from Wells Fargo and onto Cardless products. It started complicating the simplicity of its rewards program by introducing Bilt Cash, giving preferential treatment to some customers, and messing up the PR. Bilt Cash is different from Bilt Points; you can think of Bilt Cash as a way to emulate a “coupon book” experience separate from your points. You cannot cash out your Bilt Cash by adding it to your bank account.

Bilt Rewards loyalty tiers

At Bilt Rewards, they have three elite tiers depending on how much you interact with the program. The intent is to obviously make thinking of Bilt Rewards and using their points a habit. The tiers are:

• Blue: entry level “status” that anyone can get by joining
• Silver: 50,000 Bilt Points earned or spend $10,000 on Bilt credit cards in a calendar year
• Gold: 125,000 Bilt Points earned or spend $25,000 on Bilt credit cards in a calendar year
• Platinum: 200,000 Bilt Points earned or spend $50,000 on Bilt credit cards in a calendar year

Qualifying points come from both rent and non-rent spend. Credit card spend also includes money spent within the Bilt ecosystem, such as spend in the Bilt Travel Portal. What does not count includes:

• Referrals
• Courtesy points
• Points earned from member surveys
• Campaign bonus points (such as 5X for 5 Days promotions)

What do you get for having elite status?

Bilt Silver status

The lowest elite status level produces the following benefits:

• 10% discount on BLADE helicopter flights
• Unlock the best 1:1 ratio for earning points via the Rakuten shopping portal
• Earn interest on your points balance
• Reduced points transfer minimums (2,000 for Blue, 1,000 for Silver and above)

An unspoken benefit of Bilt Silver status is that members will typically get a 50% transfer bonus during Bilt Rent Day promotions.

Perhaps the best benefit of Bilt Silver is either the Rent Day benefit or the best earn rate at the Rakuten shopping portal. The number of points you’d earn via interest isn’t material enough to sway our opinion.

Bilt Gold status

Bilt Gold members get the following benefits on top of what Silver members get:

• Access to Bilt’s “Home Away from Home” collection, an opportunity to emulate elite status with hotels by offering perks like early check-in, late check-out, upgrades, daily breakfast for two, and a $100 property credit
• Access BLADE lounges for two free drinks per person even when not flying BLADE that day
• Unlock the benefit of redeeming points towards a down payment of a mortgage

An unspoken benefit of Bilt Gold status is that members will typically get a 75% transfer bonus during Bilt Rent Day promotions.

In our view, the best benefit of Bilt Gold status is the better Rent Day bonus. Access to BLADE lounges only matter if you happen to be in Manhattan anyways and using points towards mortgages is rather niche.

Bilt Platinum status

Bilt Platinum members unlock the following benefits above what Silver and Gold members get:

• A free gift for reaching Platinum status from Bilt Collection, will vary by person
• One free BLADE helicopter flight per year from Manhattan to JFK or EWR airports
• Air France / KLM Flying Blue status match: get Flying Blue Gold status for one year when transferring 10,000 Bilt Points to Flying Blue (should be repeatable)

However, on top of that, Bilt Platinum members typically get a 100% transfer bonus during Bilt Rent Day promotions.

Bilt Platinum status offers some bigger opportunities. We’d argue the best feature is likely the massive transfer bonus potential on Rent Day but having Flying Blue Gold status is pretty sweet too.

What about Bilt Cash?

Diving into the nuances of Bilt Cash is a bit outside the focus of this post, but we wanted to briefly touch on it. Bilt Cash is completely separate from Bilt Points, so don’t get them confused. You can earn Bilt Cash in $50 increments for every 25,000 qualifying points towards status. You also get Bilt Cash for holding the right Bilt credit cards.

Bilt Cash can be used towards an assortment of “coupon book” benefits, but the most relevant choices for this article would be:

• Earning an extra 1X bonus points on the next $5,000 in spend for Bilt Obsidian and Palladium cardholders
• Unlocking an extra 25% transfer bonus above what your Bilt elite status normally provides

Note only $100 in Bilt Cash can be rolled over to the next calendar year. Use it or lose it.

The easiest ways to earn Bilt Rewards points

Credit card sign-up bonuses and spend

There are currently three Bilt credit cards you can choose from:

• Bilt Blue: $0 annual fee, $100 Bilt Cash sign-up bonus, 1X points everywhere
• Bilt Obsidian: $95 annual fee, $200 Bilt Cash sign-up bonus, 3X points at dining or grocery, 2X points at travel, 1X everywhere else
  • Also earns either 4% back in Bilt Cash or 1.25X points on rent/mortgage
• Bilt Palladium: $495 annual fee, $300 Bilt Cash and 50,000 Bilt Points sign-up bonus, 2X points everywhere
  • Also earns either 4% back in Bilt Cash or 1.25X points on rent/mortgage

The only card offering Bilt Points as a sign-up offer is the Palladium but it comes with a hefty annual fee. Some might instead value the simplicity of the Bilt Obsidian and use it either dining or grocery stores. But the bonus doesn’t apply to both categories–it’s your choice on which one gets the 3X.

One important restriction currently in place is that each person can only have one credit card. If you choose the Obsidian, you’ll be unable to get the Palladium, and vice versa. So, make your choice carefully.

Bumping up your normal earn rate with Bilt Cash

One of the better features of using your Bilt Cash is to use the points accelerator feature. Simply use $200 Bilt Cash and you can earn yourself an extra 1X earn on all spend. If you use this on the Bilt Palladium card, your 2X earn everywhere becomes 3X earn everywhere.

This also stacks on top of category bonuses. For the Bilt Obsidian card, your 3X bonus at either dining or grocery becomes a 4X bonus.

There are a few limitations to be aware of:

• This feature is not available for the Bilt Blue card
• The bonus only lasts for the next $5,000 in credit card spend after activation
• You are limited to just 5 activations per calendar year

You can think of this as spending $200 in Bilt Cash to get 5,000 Bilt Points. It might not seem all that impressive to “pay” for Bilt Points at a rate of $0.04 each, but with how lackluster the options are for Bilt Cash, we thinks it’s not a bad choice for earning extra Bilt Points.

Paying your rent or mortgage

The quickest earn rates in the Bilt Rewards program will come from either paying your rent or your mortgage. Unfortunately, this is where things are very complicated with the Bilt 2.0 program. Under Bilt 1.0, you just needed to use your card 5 times to unlock benefits. Under Bilt 2.0, however, it’s a bit of a mess:

Option 1: Up to 1.25X earning

Earn Bilt Points at the following rates based on how much your monthly rent is and how much non-rent spend you put on the card:

You can think of this more simply as:

• To earn any points from rent, you must spend at least 25% of your housing payments on your card monthly
• Maximizing this will require matching your monthly housing payment

Unfortunately, you’re going to need to pay close attention to how much you spend on the card each month. Charges might not post on time and returns add a complication. Those with higher rent payments or mortgages may find it more difficult to maintain the minimum spend monthly (since you need to spend 25% each month to get anything).

In exchange for using Option 1, you will not earn any Bilt Cash on your Bilt credit cards.

Option 2: Use Bilt Cash

What if you just want to earn Bilt Cash and use that to earn rewards on housing payments instead? This is the original Bilt 2.0 strategy to earn points.

Each $3 in Bilt Cash you spend can unlock 100 Bilt Points up to the monthly cap of your monthly housing payment. Using the same $2,000 rent example above, it will take you $60 Bilt Cash to earn the maximum 2,000 Bilt Points each month.

The normal earn rate for Bilt Cash is 4% when using your Bilt credit cards. That means in this example, you would need to spend $1,500 monthly in non-housing spend to earn the $60 Bilt Cash needed to cover 2,000 Bilt Points.

This is the better option for those who don’t feel confident in spending at least 25% monthly on their card, but it’s also capped at 100% while Option 1 is better for big spenders (capped at 125%).

Rakuten shopping portal

Official link: https://www.rakuten.com/

We’ve chatted extensively about the Rakuten shopping portal before. But once you’re in the Bilt Rewards program, you might have interest in earning extra rewards on purchases you could already be making today. It’s great to shop around on the site and rack up bonus multipliers when shopping at online retailers. That gives us some extra incentive using merchants other than Amazon, which doesn’t get much opportunity for bonused spend these days.

To get the best rate with Bilt Rewards and Rakuten, you’ll need to hold at least Bilt Silver elite status.

When you really start getting into the points earning craze is when you notice certain times of the year when online merchants might have 100% back offers. That’s the equivalent of “buying” Bilt Points for just 1 cent each. Transferring to travel partners means buying those points for just 1 cent each, which can be much better than what they sell the points for.

There’s a lot of potential here to go beyond normal earn rates if you’re patient and look for the right deals. Some of the better deals tend to happen around holidays (both minor and major).

Earn bonus Bilt Points with any credit card, not just Bilt credit cards

You can link any credit card to your Bilt account and earn a modest number of points depending on the purchases you make:

• 1 Bilt Point per $2 of on-time rent payments through Bilt
• 2X Bilt Points on Lyft rides
• 1X+ Bilt Points on dining at Bilt Neighborhood Restaurants
• 2X Bilt Points on fitness at Bilt Neighborhood Fitness
• 2X Bilt Points at Walgreens for Walgreens-branded products (1X on other spend at Walgreens)
• 100 Bilt Points for fulfilling prescriptions at Walgreens
• 1X Bilt Points at the Bilt Travel Portal

Admittedly, this won’t inflate your balance significantly, but earning rewards for spend you’re making anyways is always helpful.

Spending Bilt Rewards points

Bilt Rewards transfer partners

Bilt is arguably the most well-rounded of the bank programs allowing points transfers to other programs. On top of an excellent 18 airline partners, you also get an industry-leading 6 hotel partners to choose from. Below is a list of those programs, along with our primers for each point currency.

Airline programs (18), all transfer at a 1:1 ratio:

Hotel programs (6), all transfer at a 1:1 ratio except as noted below:

There are only two unique transfer partners that no other bank program covers:

• Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards
• Free Spirit

Transferring your hard-earned points to partner programs can be the most affordable method to flying in first or business class.

Should you need assistance looking for award availability with Bilt’s airline partners, check out their free version of the point.me tool.

Spending points directly on flights

If you don’t want to deal with trying to maximize points with loyalty partners or you just can’t find award availability, another option is to just book your travel via the Bilt Travel Portal. You’ll get a value of 1.25 cents for each Bilt Point used in this manner. On top of that, you’ll earn miles with the airline as though you paid for the flight with cash.

Getting “just” 1.25 cents per point isn’t quite as good as some of their competitor bank programs, but it’s still a strong consideration for us. If you’re flush with Bilt Points and found a great cash fare, it might make sense to go forward with this redemption.

Massive transfer bonuses on “Rent Day”

Bilt is known for its massive Rent Day promotions. Each first of the month is a new promotion that can include a large one-day-only transfer bonus to a loyalty program of its choosing. This can be the stuff dreams are made of. If you have top-tier Bilt Platinum status and boost your earnings with Bilt Cash, you could earn a massive 125% bonus on top of the normal transfer rate. That’s insane.

There’s no guarantee that Rent Day will give you a transfer bonus, and still less of a guarantee it will be with a program you need. but if you’re lucky, this can be the big jackpot. This on its own is probably the most valuable thing you can do with your Bilt Points if you’ve got top status, saved up your Bilt Cash, and need the loyalty program.

We still argue against prospective transfers if you’d otherwise have no need for the points. Just because there’s a large bonus doesn’t mean you need to take advantage of it.

Using points to pay down your down payment on a house

Want a niche redemption that actually gives great value? Look no further than using your Bilt Points to contribute towards a down payment.

First off, you’ll need to hold at least Bilt Gold status. Then, you’ll need to get in contact with Bilt to work through the details, as you can’t just redeem it using self-service methods. The great news is that points redeemed in this fashion will give an impressive 1.5 cents each of value.

This won’t work for everyone as most people aren’t going out to buy houses with regularity. But if you can take advantage of it, it’s worth your consideration!

Bilt Rewards sweet spots

What are the best awards you can get with your Bilt Rewards points? Here are some of the best redemptions to travel partners (in no particular order):

Virgin Atlantic: Book ANA First Class

Consider this a theoretical option for you, but ANA First Class is one of those options that everyone would love to experience. Add on top of that how popular Japan has been lately and the fact that ANA doesn’t release more than one first class seat at or near schedule opening, and you’ll find that it’s tough to take advantage of this. That said, if you’re persistent with checking options within two weeks of departure, you might find more seats open up.

Being able to book ANA First Class for as little as 57,500 points (via Hawaii) or 72,500 points (via West USA) is a treat. Unlike booking with the ANA program, which requires round-trips, being able to book one-ways gives you more flexibility. This is especially relevant if you only find award space in one direction but not the other or if you want to use different award programs to build your award.

Virgin Atlantic: Book Air New Zealand Business Class

Want another difficult-to-find award flight to find? If so, then you’ll love Air New Zealand’s cheap business class awards bookable with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Assuming you are successful in finding flights, you’ll be able to book flights for just 62,500 points. Or you could book Hawaii to New Zealand for only 45,000 points in business class.

Similar to ANA, this is an option that might become available at the last minute before the flight departs when they release how popular (or not) any given flight will be. And this is another award booking that will need to take place over the phone if you are lucky in finding award space.

Avianca Lifemiles: Asia to Australia for 40,000 miles in business class

If you’re looking to travel between Asia and Australia in business class, it’s hard to beat this rate with Lifemiles. Only 40,000 miles for the journey between Tokyo and Sydney? Sign us up for that!

Air Canada: Europe for as little as 60,000 miles in business (no fuel surcharges)

East Coast US to Europe only comes in at 60,000 miles in business. This includes the excellent Singapore Airlines on the JFK to FRA route. Of course, since award pricing doesn’t incur fuel surcharges, you can take any of the European carriers and not be stuck with a fee.

Pricing in first class could be as cheap as 90,000 miles on shorter hops, but more than likely a connection and other marginally longer flights (like IAD-FRA) will push you into the 100,000 mile range.

West Coast US to Europe is theoretically possible for only 10,000 miles more to either cost, but good luck finding the award space in advance.

Air Canada: Cheap stopovers and excellent infant pricing

One thing I absolutely love is when I can piece together multiple destinations on an award trip for an efficient price (5,000 miles). Sure, the old round-the-world style bookings were nice back in the day, but most programs got rid of those. Instead, I’ve been looking more for programs that offer a stopover along the way. Recall that a stopover is defined as a stay that’s longer than 24 hours on an international journey.

On top of that, Aeroplan only charges $25CA or 2,500 Aeroplan points for the lap child. This applies regardless of the cabin booked. Talk about a cost-effective way to bring along your pint-sized loved one! That ranks it as one of the absolute best programs for your infants and one that I would tell parents to go check out.

JAL: Flying business class for a low price

JAL charges a hefty premium for first class on its own flights. However, they offer a very reasonable redemption rate for business class. Flying between Japan and North America in business class for only 55,000 miles? Yes, please! How about flying between Manila and Japan for only 24,000 JAL miles in business class? That’s a steal!

JAL: An efficient price for first class

Let’s say you really want to try out JAL first class. What’s the sweet spot in that cabin? Try flying between Tokyo and Hong Kong for as low as 36,000 miles. Sure, it won’t give you a long time to bask in the service level and cabin. But that route is five hours long, so it’s not bad on a per-hour basis.

Want another cheap route given the distance flown? Try the route between Tokyo and Doha, which sits at 12.5 hours in length. However, the price is as cheap as 70,000 miles for the journey in first class.

Otherwise, it’s not a terrible deal to fly first class between North America and Japan at 110,000 for low season and 140,000 for high season. That turns into a great deal if you pair it with the stopover program below.

Aer Lingus: Off-peak business class between North America and Ireland as low as 50,000 miles

How about business class on the route? That’s also not a bad deal, assuming you can find the award space. You’re looking at only 50,000 Avios between the northeast section of North America and Ireland. Or, expand your horizon and travel from the west coast for only 62,500. The best part? There are no pesky fuel surcharges you have to worry about. That makes this pricing far more attractive than what sister program British Airways charges.

British Airways: Flying on Qatar in business class

If you’re flying on Qatar between the US and Doha, expect the price of the award to be a flat 70,000 Avios. I’m not sure why that holds, but it’s not an unreasonable price to pay. Some flights are operated by their Qsuites product, so it’s worth taking a look.

British Airways: Flying short distances nonstop in economy on some partners

This might sound anti-climactic, but the British Airways program offers a decent award price for economy flights. However, not all economy flights are made the same. The best options are going to be the shortest flights on flights other than British Airways, American, Alaska, Japan Airlines, or Cathay Pacific. Basically, you want the flights that price at 6,500 Avios or the Qatar flights at 8,000 Avios.

Examples of potential flights include Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Sri Lankan Airlines, and China Southern.

Just keep in mind that ideally you don’t want to connect since the price of each segment is additive. So if you happen to take two short flights, the total price might double. Ouch.

Also, importantly for economy flights, please double-check the cash price of the ticket to make sure you’re getting a good deal.

Qatar: Fly on JetBlue

JetBlue has a good Mint product available on transcontinental flights within the United States and between the U.S. and Europe. Pricing is cheaper than what JetBlue would charge in its own program. And if you need to connect (say, Los Angeles to New York to London), pricing isn’t terrible at 95,000 Avios for business class.

Even economy awards aren’t a terrible price compared to cash rates. You might not appreciate the stopover if connecting (and paying 35,000 for the privilege of doing so), but the nonstop economy rates aren’t bad at all.

Now if you could find Mint to somewhere in the Caribbean? That might only cost you 26,000 Avios according to what Qatar Avios charges and would be a steal.

Iberia: Flying off-peak long-haul Iberia in business class

Let’s take a look at some examples. You can find New York JFK to Madrid MAD for only 40,500 Avios in business class. Or maybe you want Los Angeles LAX to MAD for just 50,500 Avios in business class? Despite the devaluation, this is still an efficient way to get to Europe in lie-flat business class. Isn’t that the name of the game anyways?

Alaska: Short-distance intra-Asia flights in premium economy

This includes routes like Tokyo to Taipei (we loved the Starlux product offered on the route) and Hong Kong to much of Southeast Asia. Why premium economy specifically? Because airlines will fly aircraft that legitimately offers great service and an awesome experience on these routes in that cabin. If you find routes under the 1,500 mile threshold, it’s only 10,000 Alaska miles to fly the route in premium economy. That’s cheap for what you get in return.

Alaska: USA to Iceland in premium economy

Iceland is a popular destination, whether it’s to check out the Northern Lights or to see the natural beauty of the country. Flying between the US and Iceland will cost you as little as 30,000 or 35,000 miles in premium economy, depending on your originating airport. That’s actually not a bad deal at all. However, Icelandair has been stingy with releasing award space lately, which means it can be a tricky award to find.

Hyatt: excellent hotel rates all around

The World of Hyatt program is a fan-favorite for those looking for excellent hotel rates. We have some reservations on how good it will be on a long-term basis with the massive devaluation coming in 2026. But, that said, spending only 45,000 points on a top-end hotel night isn’t too terrible. Arguably more attractive are stays in very good hotels in the 20,000-30,000 point range.

Things get even better if you have Hyatt Globalist status, unlocking a slew of extra benefits. If you don’t have that status, don’t forget the excellent Guest of Honor feature that will unlock those same benefits for a single stay.

Is there anything to look out for?

“Gotchas” hidden in the terms and conditions for Bilt credit cards

Bilt is trying to encourage you to use their card for all spend. While Bilt will collect merchant fees on all spend, they’re not going to reward you for everything you buy. There are three big items hidden in the terms and conditions that do not earn Bilt Points:

• Gift cards. Those of us used to Amex limitations might not be surprised to see gift cards, but Amex’s limitations are just for the sign-up bonus. You’d still earn regular points on those purchases with your credit card. Here, Bilt is more restrictive than Amex. But what happens when you pick up a gift card to give as a gift on your grocery shopping trip? Or is it only at merchants that exclusively sell gift cards?
  
• Tax payments. No one limits earning on tax payments except for Bilt. Their definitions seem to pick up both federal, state, and county payments, including property tax. So if your mortgage includes property tax, you could earn points on property tax. But if it’s carved out, you earn nothing on it. Is paying your tax considered gaming the system? I’d argue no–the bank gets swipe fees for the purchase but they’re not giving you any rewards in return. If anything, this seems unfair by that metric,
  
• Online resale marketplaces. The worst categories are those that are ill-defined, such as this one. They give two examples of what doesn’t earn points (eBay and Facebook). What about the others, like Etsy or Amazon? Surely they can’t exclude Amazon, the largest online e-commerce site, but it is full of re-sellers. And how absurd it is to tack on this restriction in the fine print when no other credit card has a similar restriction? They’re worried about someone buying and selling their own goods in some points scheme but ticking off the majority of users making valid purchases with a hidden “gotcha”. This alone will erode confidence in Bilt.

We’re not going to pass judgment on ethical considerations about Bilt collecting a fee from merchants but not paying out rewards. This is more of a heads up to make sure you don’t get surprised if points don’t arrive as expected.

Only one Bilt credit card is possible… currently

There might be 3 Bilt credit cards to choose from, but you better like the selection you make. Do not make the painful mistake of thinking you want one card and figuring you’ll pick up the other later. Allegedly, this restriction is due to Cardless, not Bilt itself, but it will limit your ability to earn points faster.

You’ll need to therefore make a choice: do you go for the credit card that earns bonus categories or the card that gives 2X everywhere? There’s no easy choice and it will depend on which cards you already have in your own portfolio.

Customer service is still a work in progress

The rollover–and fallout–over the Bilt 2.0 program update to start 2026 has us a bit skeptical about customer service. There were plenty of reports out there of customers just being told to pound sand when they encountered legitimate concerns. Some of those have been worked out after the issues went public, but wouldn’t it have been nice if it was resolved satisfactorily before getting to that point?

We’d classify Bilt Rewards as a program that does great if you don’t run into any issues, but you might pull out some of your hair if you have problems. Case in point for us: we’ve had issues pairing up our Bilt Rewards account with our Rakuten account, and customer service just isn’t helping.

Are you ready to earn and redeem Bilt Points efficiently?

Suggested reading:

• Destinations we’ve visited
• How to Travel with Kids
• How to Book Award Travel Like a Pro