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This is going to seem like a minor thing to some readers, but I’m really excited about it. Two of my favorite brands in points-earning and redemption are now better-integrated. Point.me award search tool now shows the best ways to make use of your Bilt points.
I’ve written about the best one-stop tool for all of your award booking needs, Point.me.
- It lets you search award space across pretty much every airline
- It shows you the best way to book a flight, with the lowest prices, and which points to use
- And it even walks you through the process – click by click – of transferring points and creating your booking (this is the past I like the best)
Since they also offer full service concierge booking, and they’re doing an incredible job and are being built by people I greatly respect, I’ve even partnered with them in my own award booking business.
Point.me award search results show you what flights are available and what they cost. They show pricing for the same flight in different currencies, and show you how to book the seat. For instance it will show you the cost in United miles, Air Canada miles, Turkish miles… as well as American Express, Citibank, Chase, Capital One, and Brex. And now, also in Bilt Rewards points. (And they keep this updated with transfer bonuses, too, so you know to take advantage of those.)
This news means anyone using point.me, the world’s only realtime comprehensive search engine for points will be able to see comprehensive live search options, which will now include points transfer options unlocked via BILT Rewards. BILT brings interesting possibilities to the points game as a transfer partner of American and United Airlines, as well as loyalty favorites like Aeroplan and Avios.
With the addition of BILT Rewards, point.me now supports all the major US credit card programs, including American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, Capital One, and Brex. Now no matter what card you’re using, point.me can help you find better flights, for fewer points.
And of course the no annual fee Bilt Mastercard is the only way to earn points at no cost when paying rent. It earns 3x on dining and 2x on travel (and once a month on the first of the month – Rent Day – points-earning doubles). You must make at least 5 purchases each month to earn points. Those points can be used towards paid travel at 1.25 cents apiece or transferred to airline programs (like United, American, Turkish, etc) and hotel programs (including Hyatt!).
In some sense making self-service tools that are this easy for getting the most of your points will be a bummer for the hardcore among us that do the hard work, because it means more members competing for limited seats. But I’m a fan of democratizing a process that airlines have made too opaque, and that credit card issuers haven’t done a good enough job demystifying for their customers.
I also like services that place airline results side-by-side. Airlines that don’t make much saver award space available, and charge exorbitant prices for the best awards, aren’t going to come out looking good. As well they shouldn’t. The ability to compare programs is great for consumers, and for holding the devaluating impulses of programs in check!
Warning: Point.me is chronically buggy to the point that it does not work. Support in non-existent. Set them a hard problem and they give up and give you your money back (walking money). C redit for their ethics on that, but these peole have had a long time and shown only that they don’t have the technical savvy to develop this software.
Entrepreneurs: Good opportunity to get some VC money and write a competitor. The usefulness of a working version of Point.me is obvious.
Does Bilt Master card offer a high referral bonus?
They must. The only reason why the card is constantly being highlighted in this website.
@john – most of the time there’s been no initial bonus, there were some targeted 10,000 point offers once they tested but I haven’t seen that much
@L3 – ‘chronically buggy’ has not been my experience using the tool quite a lot, at all, for what it’s worth.
@Gary Leff
I got an apparently targeted offer of 5x points on all spend but only for the first 5 days (lol) of having the card up to 50k points when I signed up last year. My SO who also got the card last year got no offer.
Have to agree with “L3”. I actually love the idea; the interface is great BUT numerous times there were glaring omissions in flight award searches. One such time, I checked the airline (s) sites after getting the Point.me search results. The airlines had “better” results. (and of course, if I didn’t do my own check after, I would have missed out on a great FF opportunity (and yes, Point.me had my credit card and frequent flyer status per airline prior to doing search) Hope they work out the kinks since the idea is fantastic and sorely needed. I didn’t ask for a refund since there was some value in the service and may use it again but it needs work.
I would say it was chronically buggy but it’s much better now. A bit slow perhaps, but even that seems to have improved. As I have no Bilt use I’m going to see if I can weed that one out of my point.me results.
Has anyone found something better?
Daytime drinking really in a problem for some peole it seems.
While this can be done on your own, I like its ease. My issue is their pricing model at $129 a year for self-search. They are missing out on a huge part of the market, and most people that “Might” consider using this at a reasonable price, would never at this price. Also, as their partner, it would have made sense to include a promo code in your article that lets people test-drive it for 24 hours.
A trial code is one of the best marketing tools at their disposal to get impulsive people to purchase for a year.
@DaninMCI – You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.
@ Gary — BEST at what? Taking your mney? If this is the BEST tool for finding awards, that is great news. I won’t need to wory anout competion.
Bilt defines “Travel” so narrowly and after a few times of missed bonuses they’ve lost my trust and I’ve only used them for dining an rent now.
@Gary, I paid the $5.00 for a 24 hour preview on Point.me. I did not see any of those much touted 75K-85K RT Biz class awards to Japan, or the 100K-150K RT Biz class fares to Europe (examples of what others found, but not guaranteed). Also, no good awards to Australia or NZ. I spent a whole hour looking the entire year. What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?? @Gary
Does point.me allow searches over a week or just one day at a time?
I’d rather do 5 airlines for a week than all of a day.
I used it quite a lot in its old iteration. Was reasonably helpful. Got it free with amex platinum. The new one seemed super buggy and unhelpful. And I’d prefer a week long preview. Will give it another go but didn’t find it that much better than searching United aeroplan and American.
Agree. Would be keen for a five day trial
@DaninMCI – “peole”? Sounds like you’re doing pretty well on the day drinking yourself. Cheers, bud!
Say Gary, where did my comment go and why was it deleted? I thought it easily passed all the benchmarks.
Not sure what happened but i found it
Wished Point.me included alert emails. Expert Flyer is the only one that does this, I think?
BREAKING NEWS!
Point.me has just announced that they are renaming their flagship product to…
DISAPPOINT.ME
@L3 lol
Yep, add my voice to the chorus. Juicy Miles worked pretty well and I found some good prices and routes, but after several $5 efforts with point.me I just have not turned up anything exciting in my searches. Conceptually it is the holy grail, but in reality I have not found it to deliver on its promise. I wouldn’t hesitate to pay the annual fee if I felt it was comprehensive in its searches, but, alas.
@Ivan X: Yes. I don’t expect the breakthrough product to come from point.me although I do expect it to happen. The goal is just so valuable to frequent flyers.
The reason I don’t expect it to happen at point.me is that they act as thought they are not particularly interested in fixing their product (or they just act like a teenager when being criticized ‘those are haters’).
It’s been months and months and they still have not added the ability to search from cities (e.g. “NYC” and “TYO). Quite a disappointment.
Can also echo the previous comments about bugs. Not horrendous but it does occur.
The trial code VFTW is “maxed out” – do you have another?
BTW the AMEX link has expired too