I Broke My Own Points Rule — And Turned 100,000 Bilt Points Into 200,000 Avios

I just went ahead and transferred 100,000 Bilt Points to British Airways using the Rent Day 100% transfer bonus. And I did it even though I do not have immediate plans for the points (and I’ll need more than 100,000 points when I do redeem). That runs counter to my usual advice not to be tempted by speculative transfer bonuses, so I thought I should explain.

• 100% is a big transfer bonus. I will eventually need the points. (BA points do expire after 3 years of account inactivity, but any transaction in that timeframe extends expiration – so it’s fine.)

• The transfer bonus is capped at 100,000 points moved over. Since I figure that’s something we may see more often from Bilt with their outsized regular transfer bonuses, I’m less inclined to save Bilt’s points for big transfers to programs like Japan Airlines (where I transferred several hundred thousand a few months ago).

• I’m earning Bilt Points exceptionally quickly between the Bilt Palladium Card (See rates and fees) and Rakuten.

I still like retaining flexibility and optionality, keeping transferable points in the account where they’re transferable. But this is a good deal and I have less reason to keep all my points flexible. The transfer bonus is available today only (May 1) and is also available to Aer Lingus and Iberia.

I earned 50,000 points from the Bilt Palladium Card initial bonus offer (after spending $4,000 on everyday purchases in the first 3 months). The card earns 2x on everything but in reality more than that because I can redeem Bilt Cash to earn points paying my mortgage through Bilt and for their ‘accelerator’ which gives an extra 1 point per dollar on spending up to 5,000 points, up to 5 times per calendar year. (Some people will even use this trick to turn Bilt Palladium into a 4X everywhere card.)

And I’m not trying to save Bilt Cash for the future, since just up to $100 of Bilt Cash earned rolls over to the next year. So I redeemed $150 in Bilt Cash as well to boost this transfer bonus – I would have received 75% as a Bilt Platinum member, but that made the bonus 100%.

Rakuten points add up fast for me too. New Rakuten members register free with a referral link, and then earn a bonus $50 (5,000 points) after you make your first purchase of $50 or more.

Rakuten is an online shopping portal that earns points or cash back for the purchases you make anywhere, akin to the mileage malls that work with airlines like American, United, Alaska, et al. You can choose between cash back, Amex points or Bilt points ($50 is worth 5,000 points – with Bilt, at least for the near future.)

The easy, quick win before this offer is just to go to GiftCards.com through the portal and buy a $50 gift card for Uber, DoorDash, Southwest Airlines or Delta. You get $50 or equivalent points back, making this a free $50 (or better, since the points are worth more than $50).

Bilt elite members (Silver and above) transfer points 1:1 from Rakuten. That helps earn BIlt points fast. And it quickly becomes by far the most lucrative shopping portal (it often is anyway) when the points earned there then transfer to an airline with a 100% bonus. That makes the ‘free’ 5,000 new account bonus actually 10,000 points.

And the Bilt Palladium Card comes with Gold status as part of its initial bonus offer (earned when you also earn the initial bonus points), plus status is earned quickly by cardmembers who are spending on the card.

The points I transferred from Bilt to British Airways posted instantly:

Ultimately I have plenty of uses for British Airways Avios – BA has two nonstop flights to London from Austin where I live. I used BA points last summer for intra-European flying, where the cash cost of tickets was expensive but points cost for short flights low. And they’re great for short flights on oneworld partner airlines as well.