Bilt Rewards points no longer transfer to Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles. According to Bilt Vice President Richard Kerr,
- They had a three year deal with Hawaiian, which came to an end
- Since Hawaiian is expected to fold into Alaska Airlines – also a transfer partner – it didn’t make sense to incur the overhead to extend it.
The legal and manpower overhead required to create a new agreement with HA didn’t make sense for either of us when we were confident the partnership would return shortly.
— Richard Kerr (@KerrPoints) August 20, 2024
That leaves Bilt Rewards transfer partners as:
- Star Alliance: Air Canada Aeroplan, Turkish Miles & Smiles, United Airlines MileagePlus, Avianca LifeMiles
- oneworld: Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards
- Hotels: Hyatt, IHG Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors
Bilt has 1:1 transfers to Alaska Airlines, and HawaiianMiles should get folded into Alaska’s Mileage Plan anyway. In the meantime, American Express Membership Rewards points transfer to Hawaiian, which should be a temporary back door way to eventually get Amex points 1:1 into Alaska.
Hawaiian’s own program isn’t great overall, but offers pretty good award availability on its own flights and uniquely two levels of upgrade inventory so that being willing to spend extra miles means that more often than not it’s possible to confirm an upgrade.
Certainly transfers from Bilt to Hawaiian were a great deal when they were offered last year with a 100% bonus.
No timing has been announced for when to expect Hawaiian Airlines to be folded into Alaska, or their miles to be moved (presumably at 1:1, but also not announced) into Alaska’s Mileage Plan. The Department of Justice has signed off on the deal from an antitrust standpoint. It awards DOT approval prior to transaction close.
Worth noting that Bilt did not announce this change, via email or their website or anywhere. Kerr only admitted this when called out on Twitter. It’s a totally valid reason, but the lack of notice is a bad precedent for future decisions by Bilt.
According to reddit posts, it looks like Bilt removed Hawaiian as a transfer partner on May 31. Pretty ridiculous that not only did they remove a transfer partner with no notice, but that they didn’t even announce it.
Between this and other poorly communicated changes, it’s really become clear that you can’t trust Bilt at all. I rent so it still makes sense for me to earn points for that, but I’ll be speculatively transferring out my whole balance whenever there’s a transfer bonus from now on.
Meh. Bilt is still underrated for a card with NO ANNUAL FEE. The partners that matter to me are Hyatt for obvious reasons (highest value points among hotels) and United because that’s where I travel, and my travel patterns are squarely representative of those of high-end travelers.
Bilt targets well-off young professionals. The vast majority of them live in SFO and EWR (United hubs) because those metro areas are home to the bulk of the country’s serious professions for ambitious young professionals.
Is VX a member of sky team?
Only thing Bilt is good for is free points every month for a fake rent payment. Not going to disclose how to get the free points as a homeowner, but it’s pretty straightforward if you think about it.
Many of us have been doing it for years (hundreds of thousands of points) and Bilt hasn’t caught on.
The “vast majority” of the entire country’s “ambitious young professionals” live in the SF Bay Area and New York? So > 75% of them? Less than a quarter in LA, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, DC, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, Phoenix, Miami, Atlanta… yada yada?
The typical hyperbolic pro-Bilt noise.
BA, Iberia and Aer Lingus are still transfer partners for oneworld.