Update: the offer is live, today only, and I’ve taken advantage of it.

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Bilt Rewards is back with Rent Day and for some members this will be the most lucrative one yet by a wide margin. They have the usual offers of free points for trivia questions, double points on their credit card, and an opportunity to your rent paid for. But this is also the first time they’ve added an elite status benefit as part of Rent Day transfer bonus.

The first of each month is extra rewarding.

Up To 150% Transfer Bonus To Virgin

Bilt has been the only program to offer 100% transfer bonuses (IHG, Hawaiian, Air France KLM). Now they’re offering up to a 150% transfer bonus depending on your status when you make the transfer on August 1 (Rent Day).

BILT STATUS	TRANSFER BONUS
BLUE	75% (1,000 Bilt Points = 1,750 Virgin Points)
SILVER	100%  (1,000 Bilt Point = 2,000 Virgin Points)
GOLD	125%  (1,000 Bilt Point = 2,250 Virgin Points)
PLATINUM	150% (1,000 Bilt Point = 2,500 Virgin Points)

The status you have with Bilt on August 1 determines your bonus level, though bear in mind that your August 1 status may not reflect transactions made after July 27. Blue members have a 2,000 point transfer minimum.

What Are The Best Uses Of Virgin Points?

Virgin Atlantic’s points are usually best used on partner redemptions that do not incur fuel surcharges. That’s because while business class between the Northeast and London runs just 47,500 points each way (as little as 32,000 Bilt points with this transfer bonus) which can be $1750 roundtrip on a Virgin Atlantic business class award.

Although you might transfer now for this bonus and redeem later when they’re running one of their 30% discounts on redemptions. And bear in mind that while you pay surcharges, Virgin Atlantic awards do count towards elite status.

If you do use your points to fly Virgin, pay attention to the aircraft you’re flying, for instance Airbus A350s have the 2019 seat and there’s a new seat for A330s while you’ll want to avoid 787s.

Retreat Suite, Credit: Virgin Atlantic

Consider using your Virgin points to fly Japanese carrier ANA. West Coast – Japan roundtrip is 90,000 points in business class or 145,000 points in first class. Midwest and East Coast – Japan roundtrip is 95,000 points in business class and 170,000 points in first.

Or use Virgin points to fly Italian flag carrier ITA for 75,000 to 100,000 points each way in business class without surcharges. And you can use Virgin to book Delta award travel for a fraction of the points cost that Delta charges.

I’m Sorely Tempted By This Offer

They’ve run 100% transfer bonuses in the past to IHG, Hawaiian, and Air France. This transfer bonus is up to 150%, and no one other than Bilt has ever run a 100% transfer bonus to a 1:1 transfer partner before. (In 2008 Delta accidentally ran a 150% bonus on partner activity, which included Membership Rewards transfers, but then shut that down quickly though they did honor it.)

This is actually hard for me. I’ve earned Bilt Platinum. 6x on restaurant spend with my Bilt Mastercard on the first of each month counts towards status, Lyft earn does as well, Platinum is achievable. I could book Necker Island with my current stash of Bilt points and a 150% transfer bonus.

I made the mistake of not transferring to Air France KLM at 100%, and then earlier this month my wife told me she wanted to hop over to Amsterdam (Austin – Amsterdam non-stop on KLM). I had to settle for Capital One at a 30% transfer bonus to top off my Flying Blue balance.

But Bilt keeps doing 100% bonuses! I don’t know what comes next, for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, for the holidays and the New Year… So I’m not sure I’m going to do this. I have four days to decide. What do you think?

New Bilt Game Show Earns Free Rent

Bilt has a new Family Feud-style game show called “Rent Free” where they’ve surveyed 1,000 program members and you have to come up with answers to the same questions to see whether yours match.

If you can correctly guess three of the most popular answers, you’ll automatically be entered for the chance to get your August rent paid.

To show you how it’s done, we’re bringing on a special guest to play Rent Free live. The better our guest plays, the more rent we’ll pay…up to 10 winners each month.

This month, we’re excited to have comedian and best-selling author, Claudia Oshry (AKA @girlwithnojob), join us on Rent Free to secure that free rent for you.

Double Points For Cardmembers Is Back

Honestly my favorite part of Rent Day is the recurring one. Every month Bilt World Elite Mastercard cardmembers earn double points on Rent Day (up to 10,000 bonus points). And this isn’t just ‘two points per dollar’ it’s doubling the earn you’d otherwise achieve on all spend other than rent.

That means travel earns 4 points per dollar instead of 2, and dining earns 6 points per dollar instead of 3. And that’s stackable with an additional 5 points per dollar at their Bilt Dining curated list of restaurants. Plus take Lyft to and from the restaurant…

As always, cardmembers need to use their card 5 times each statement period to earn points. They’re generous but they want to make sure you don’t just use your card to pay rent (to earn up to 100,000 points per year with no fee) and a single monthly meal out.

Earn Free Points Playing Trivia

‘Point Quest’ returns – a regular feature of Rent Day, there are 5 trivia questions in the Bilt app worth up to 150 points. Plus, if you answer all 5 correctly you earn an additional 100 points, for a total of 250 free Bilt points available for trivia. That may not seem like a lot, but since Bilt has given out plenty of free points for linking accounts with partners this can push you over the top to have the 2,000 minimum points needed in your account to transfer out to partners. (And do trivia each month and potentially earn 3,000 free points per year.)