Bilt Rewards is adding three new transfer partners from the Avios family, including Aer Lingus, British Airways, and Iberia. These new partners make Bilt an even more compelling product.
British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus Now Bilt Rewards Transfer Partners
The Bilt Rewards Alliance is a collection of over two million rental homes across the country that lets you earn points by paying rent. Bilt Rewards Alliance allows you to use your points to travel, pay rent, workout, or even put a downpayment down on a house, though the best use of your points is transferring to airline or hotel partners.
There are two ways to earn points: the Bilt Rewards program allows qualifying U.S. renters to earn rewards each time they pay rent through the free Bilt app. If your landlord is part of the Bilt Rewards Alliance, you can use any credit card to earn Bilt points by paying your rent through the Bilt app.
Now everyone can also apply for the Bilt Mastercard to pay rent directly and earn Bilt points for other transactions like dining and travel. The card has no annual fee and earns:
- 3x points on dining
- 2x points on travel
- 1x points on rent payments and other purchases
It’s like a Chase Sapphire Preferred without the annual fee.
Of course the heart of the program is rent. Not all landlords allow tenants to pay rent using a credit card. Those that do often pass on a credit card processing fee of 2-3%. The beauty of Bilt is that even if your landlord does not even accept credit cards, you can still pay rent using your Bilt Rewards Mastercard via the Bilt app and Bilt will send a check to your landlord, scoring you free points for renting.
This is a superb value-proposition. Yet even if you own home or do not pay rent, this is still a compelling card to keep in your wallet.
Bilt Rewards also recently unveiled a new travel portal which will allow allow members to use their points to book airfare, hotels, and car rentals without blackout dates.
The Value Proportion Of Bilt Rewards
Airline and hotel transfer partners include:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France/KLM FlyingBlue
- American Airlines AAdvantage
- 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
Where else can you transfer to both American Airlines and United Airlines (not to mention the other great pool of partners) at attractive rates and near instantaneously (unlike Marriott Bonvoy)?
The addition of Avios currencies is particularly significant because British Airways offers excellent value on shorthaul awards and Iberia offers excellent value on premium cabins redemption on its own metal. With great pricing and low fees, it’s one of the most overlooked values of traveling between the Americas and Europe.
Bilt Points will transfer to Avios at a 1:1 ratio (in increments of 1,000 Bilt Points). As with all Bilt travel partners, when you link your Bilt Rewards account to any of the Avios airlines, you will earn a 100 Bilt Point linking bonus per partner.
CONCLUSION
Bilt Rewards has added three new transfer partners from the Avios family including Aer Lingus, British Airways, and Iberia. These two partners make Bilt an even more valuable proposition.
I don’t think the model of Bilt paying rent without getting credit card fees is sustainable in the long run for the company. While the product is marketed to people in this niche hobby, I do think they will slowly widle away the benefits after a while.