Bilt Gets Even Better
Tl;dr: Bilt adding Marriott as a new transfer partner means 100 free and easy Bilt points, plus added flexibility.
Bilt recently announced that they are adding Marriott to its already-impressive roster of transfer partners, bringing the total to 15. While there are better uses for Bilt points than transferring them to Marriott, this news means 100 free and easy Bilt points plus more options to put them to good use. And, if you don’t have the card already, another good reason to add it to your wallet.
The Bilt card is awesome.
I could go on and on about why this is one of the best cards out there. And I have. Some of the highlights:
No annual fee
Earn 1x points for rent or HOA fees
Earn 3x on dining, 2x on certain travel purchases, 1x on the rest
Earn double points (except on rent) on the first of the month
Redeem points for 1.25¢ each when booking travel through Bilt
Transfer points to ultra-valuable partners like Hyatt and American Airlines
Free concierge service
Tons of ways to earn extra points
The addition of Marriott is awesome
Bilt awards 100 points every time you link a loyalty program to Bilt, so the addition of Marriott means you can now earn 100 Bilt points just by plugging in your Marriott Bonvoy information. It also means you can now earn 1500 Bilt points just by linking loyalty programs, a completely free process.
And while actually transferring Bilt points to Marriott is probably a bad idea in most cases (more on that later), it is always nice to have options, and if you are a few Marriott points away from an important booking, this option could come in handy. And although the 1:1 transfer ratio isn’t anything special, you can get 5,000 extra Marriott points for every 20,000 Bilt points you convert:
That means an actual transfer ratio of 1.25:1 if you transfer in multiples of 20,000 points.
Bilt also has a history of big transfer bonuses (e.g. 75% bonus when transferring to Virgin or to Emirates, or 100% to IHG), so big deal with Marriott points may pop up in the future.
But you should avoid this transfer generally.
Bilt points are generally more valuable when used with other programs. Marriott points tend to be worth less than a cent each, significantly less than Bilt’s 1.25¢ redemption rate through its own portal. You can derive even more value by transferring to partners. Hyatt’s points are extremely valuable, and we got much better value than 1 cent per point when we used some Bilt points to fly to Japan.
Conclusion
Even if a Marriott transfer isn’t the best use of Bilt points, this new option is great news (and free points) for Bilt cardholders. And if you are not one yet, it’s another good reason to get the best no-fee credit card out there (others seem to agree).
If you’d like to check it out, click HERE for our referral link.