Loyalty programs are really two components bundled in one: recognition and reward. Earn and burn of points matters, but so do elite benefits, which entail better treatment for your best customers.

Bilt Rewards has been mostly an earn and burn program to do, and a very lucrative one at that. But when they launched they clearly recognized the need for an elite level and built out the skeleton of one.

• General member: they call it Blue
• Silver: 25,000 points earned in a year
• Gold: 50,000 points earned in a year
• Platinum: 100,000 points earned in a year

Bilt Rewards Status So Far

I earned Platinum status in 2022 and again in 2023. Points from any source counted, and I’ve earned 6 points per dollar on restaurant spend the first of each month (and I’ve bene using my Bilt card for dining even outside of rent day, trying to build up this account balance at 3x, since I have big balances in my other card programs already). Various bonuses made it easy, and I earn through Lyft and other partnerships too.

But earning status was mostly by happenstance rather than something I was trying to do since there really weren’t published benefits that were meaningful, other than being able to transfer 1,000 points to their travel partners rather than a 2,000 point minimum.

As a Platinum member I was entitled to a free merchandise gift from the ‘Bilt Collection’ and I received a nice coffee table book last year. Elites earn interest on their points balances which is kind of cool. But bonus points on leases and a home ownership concierge don’t really help me.

It’s become much easier to earn Bilt status, with their promotions and new partnerships added since program launch, such as up to 10 points per dollar on dining through their restaurant program stackable with up to 6 points per dollar spend with their credit card on restaurants on the first of each month plus you can earn taking a Lyft to and from the restaurant.

And Bilt has begun adding benefits over the past six months, introducing tiered transfer bonuses such as up to 150% bonus (for Platinums) transferring points to Air France KLM, Emirates and Virgin.

Changes To Bilt Status Earning

Bilt has rethought status – with new ways to earn and new requirements – and are promising further new benefits.

• Doubling the number of points earned ‘from any source’
  
• But also offering a lower requirement to earn status from card spend on things other than rent.

	ANNUAL POINTS EARNED	NON-RENT CARD SPEND
Silver	50,000	$10,000
Gold	125,000	$25,000
Platinum	200,000	$50,000

Non-rent card spend doesn’t just include spend on Bilt’s co-brand credit card but also “spend on a linked card at a merchant in the Bilt network counts; which for now is Lyft, fitness classes in our app and Bilt dining.” So if you link another card in your account and use it with one of these partners, that spend counts as well.

New Status Benefits Coming For 2024

They are only teasing the new benefits, with several queued for announcement – but they wanted status requirements to go into effect January 1 so needed to share this piece now. What they’re saying about elite benefits:

• Tiered Rent Day offers, such as priority event access and transfer bonuses up to 150% for elites, “will continue in the new program.”

• New Milestone Rewards every 25,000 points earned enroute to status. I expect things like the ability to pick an additional bonus category for spend on the Bilt card for a limited time period.

• More benefits to be announced “in the coming months.”

Fair Enough, We’ll Have To Wait For The Good Stuff

The original elite program didn’t really offer much, so raising requirements for status now that there are benefits (like 150% transfer bonuses!) seems fair. There wasn’t even a ‘Rent Day’ with its concomitant double points offers when the status program launched.

At the same time, without greater detail on these new rewards, it’s hard to know whether the higher status thresholds will be worth it for some members. That should come shortly – they just had to get the new status earning requirements out before end of year.

However based on the 150% transfer bonus offers that have been available to me, I’m going to make sure to maintain Platinum status under the new program. That’s just been way too valuable, and makes my points go substantially farther.