Category Archives for Credit Cards.
Fifteen months ago Bilt raised $150 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. It became one of the fastest companies to ever become a ‘unicorn’.
Now they’ve raised an additional $200 million at a $3.1 billion valuation.
This blog post delves into the intricate and often concealed aspects of banking and payment systems, drawing on insights from an expert interview. It explores various elements of the finance world, from the motivations behind banking operations to the complexities of credit card processes and the impact of crypto on transaction fees.
Bilt Rewards get ‘first to know’ advance reservations for New York City Restaurant Week, January 16 – 24. Plus, take advantage and earn up to (3) $10 statement credits on $45+ spend at participating restaurants.
Answering this question starts with looking at the transfer partners each program has (they’re all different), which partners provide the most value, and also how flexible each currency is when you want to use your points directly against a paid ticket or hotel night rather than redeeming for a free flight or free hotel award night.
Wow wow wow. On New Year’s Day “Rent Day” January 1st, Bilt Rewards is offering up to 150% bonuses on points transfers to Air France KLM, Virgin, and IHG One Rewards. They call this “2023’s Most Loved Benefits Return” a repeat of some of their best offers from the prior year, together on one day. These are bigger transfer bonus offers than we see from other programs.
My county takes credit cards for property taxes, but they charge a 3% fee. I could have Plastiq charge my credit card for the rewards and send the county a check, but they now charge a 2.9% fee.
Property taxes in Texas are a big deal. I pay about 1.5% of my home’s assessed value each year (the assessed value is likely lower than current market).
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.
Chase travel did $8 billion in sales in 2022 with 40% growth in number of customers purchasing travel through their portal. They have had public goals to hit $10 billion in sales this year and $15 billion in sales by 2025.
Chase Travel believes they’ll pass American Express and become the third largest travel agency within two years. Last year they were less than 8% behind.
Avianca LifeMiles is a popular Star Alliance frequent flyer program for U.S. members because they sell miles inexpensively on a regular basis, and because you can transfer points into their program from several different credit card currencies.
They have generally reasonable redemption pricing with no fuel surcharges, though getting customer service when things go wrong can be challenging at times.
Airlines charge banks more for loyalty points than the average consumer realizes, often differentiating between initial bonus miles and ongoing spend, and also accounting differently for miles earned through flying versus credit card spending. During the pandemic, financial disclosures revealed significant margins in airline frequent flyer programs, with American, Delta, and United showing varied margins due to different internal accounting and pricing strategies.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
