Bilt will offset the impending loss of American Airlines as a transfer partner by adding Alaska Airlines, effective today. The long-term benefits of this depend upon what Alaska Airlines does to its Mileage Plan program, but it marks a revolutionary step for the Seattle-based carrier.
Bilt Adds Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan As Transfer Partner
Earlier this week, we learned that Bilt and American Airlines will sunset their partnership in June 2024. Until then, you can still transfer your Bilt points to American Airlines on a 1:1 basis. Currently, Bilt is the only credit card program that offers American Airlines as a transfer partner.
But as a consolation…and perhaps even a better tradeoff…your Bilt points can now be transferred to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan on a 1:1 basis. Beyond the new point transfer option, Bilt will offer bonus points for using your Alaska Airlines credit to pay rent.
When using an Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card to pay rent through Bilt, cardholders will earn triple Alaska miles—3 miles for every dollar spent on rent, up to $50,000 annually. You’d link your Alaska card to your Bilt account, from which the rent payment would be made. Bank of America issues the Alaska Airlines card while Wells Fargo issues the Bilt card.
Bilt charges a 3% fee for third-party credit card payments, including here, but that works out to only one cent per point at 3 miles per dollar. That said, I would still lean toward earning 1 Bilt Rewards point per dollar at no cost with the Bilt Mastercard over the Alaska Airlines points at one cent each unless you need the points for a specific trip.
A New Path For Alaska Airlines?
Alaska Airlines is in the process of updating its historic assortment of carrier-specific award charts into a single chart, which I have outlined here. Overall, the changes keep the program competitive and make short-haul redemptions a far better value, even with most of the historic sweet spots on Qantas and Cathay Pacific eliminated.
Will see Alaska Airlines start partnering with more credit companies in terms of point transfers? It appears Alaska is testing the waters here…
Might we also see Citi again offer points transfers from Thankyou to American Airlines?
Bilt Mastercard = Useful Card
For those not familiar with Bilt, I’ve written about the Bilt Mastercard before and still love that it’s like a Chase Sapphire Preferred without an annual fee. This is a solid card whether you rent or not.
In 2022, the card became even more valuable with the addition of special spend bonuses on Rent Day, the first day of each month. Those include:
- Dining – 6x points per USD (regularly 3x points)
- Travel – 4x points (regularly 2x points)
- All other spend (excluding rent) – 2x points (regularly 1x points)
(Bonus miles are capped at 10,000 per month)
It’s not always possible to time travel bookings to the first of the month, but earning up to six points per dollar on a no-fee credit card with valuable transfer partners is such a cool value-add.
Bilt Elite Status
Bilt offers its own elite status program based on spending:
- Silver status – 50,000 qualifying points or $10,000 of eligible spending
- Gold status – 125,000 qualifying points or $25,000 of eligible spending
- Platinum status – 200,000 qualifying points or $50,000 of eligible spending
Points are earned based upon qualifying points you earn plus spending on the Bilt Mastercard.
Elite status carries the following benefits plus bonuses on “Rent Day” transfers that have historically increased by elite tier:
Bilt Platinum members also receive Air France-KLM Flying Blue Gold status and all tiers have Milestone Rewards (which I won’t get into, but you can check out here).
A Valuable List Of Transfer Partners
As a reminder, anyone can apply for the no annual fee Bilt Mastercard to pay rent directly and earn Bilt points for other transactions. You don’t have to rent to apply.
Airline and hotel transfer partners include:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France/KLM FlyingBlue
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- American Airlines AAdvantage (through June 2024)
- British Airways Executive Club
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Emirates Skywards
- Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles
- Iberia Plus
- IHG Rewards
- Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
- United Airlines MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- World of Hyatt
It’s a compelling program…and one of the most innovative.
CONCLUSION
I’m a big fan of Bilt and thrilled that Alaska Airlines has been added as a transfer partner, even though American Airlines will soon be lost. It’s too early to say what program will be more valuable six months from now, but it’s a big deal that Alaksa Airlines has a major transfer partner for the first time. As Mileage Plan continues to be retooled, might we see more partners like Capital One, Chase, or American Express? Might we see American Airlines again become a Citi transfer partner? We will soon find out…
I can’t explain it, but I just don’t trust Bilt. I know that sounds silly, but something about the card pusher party in the Caribbean, and their somewhat meteoric rise just puts me off. No doubt Alaska is a great add, and their promotions have been impressive. Yet their pickup by WF just adds to my distrust. I worry if I built of a stash of Bilt points that they might disappear overnight.
My concern is how willy nilly the partner changes will be. Gaining a partner out of the blue is great, but losing one is not.
I’m sure I’m not alone in liking the stability of a card currency so that I can plan how I earn/use points.