Lazy Points of the Week: April 26, 2025
We’ve had some quiet weeks in this space recently. NOT THIS TIME.
Story of the Week: Bilt
Bilt adds Southwest as a transfer partner
Bilt is having a bit of a crazy week. Arguably its biggest announcement is the addition of Southwest as a transfer partner. Rapid Rewards have never been the most valuable points in the world, and it has been hit by a string of recent devaluations, but there’s still some potential to get good value from them. The main advantage of SWA points is that they are pretty easy to redeem. Southwest has a huge network in the US, so if you want to travel domestically (or to Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean), you can pretty easily convert Rapid Rewards points into travel at a respectable value. Southwest loyalists who receive perks with the airline might get even more value.
To me, this just makes my case for the Bilt Mastercard over the Chase Sapphire Preferred even stronger—the ability to redeem Chase points with Southwest was one of the few edges the CSP had over the Bilt card, and that advantage is now gone.
In the short term, Bilt is kicking off the partnership with a 25-100% transfer bonus (depending on Bilt status tier) for May’s Rent Day.
You can pay your student loans with Bilt points (but shouldn’t)
Bilt also launched the ability to pay student loans with several major servicers using Bilt points. While this is a nice option to have, at a redemption rate of just 1¢ per point, the value pales in comparison to booking travel through Bilt (1.25¢ each) or via transfer partners.
Is a Japan Airlines tie-up coming?
A page to transfer Bilt points to JAL went live this week before being taken down. We have been using our Bilt points to book JAL flights to Japan via Alaska—would it make sense to start transferring Bilt points directly to JAL instead?
For us, probably not. That flight alone got me halfway to elite status on Alaska and cost under $100 out of pocket. Although JAL redemptions require fewer miles (even with an upcoming devaluation), they wouldn’t provide a status boost and cost much more out of pocket in taxes and fees.
However, premium cabin tickets are harder to book via Alaska, and the fees for those tickets have a much more moderate impact on the value of those redemptions, so there might be a real use case for transfers to JAL for those tickets, especially if Bilt kicks off a JAL partnership with a big transfer bonus like it has done with Southwest.
Other card and points news
Fly to Japan with JetBlue points. Speaking of JAL, you can now use TrueBlue points to book flights on the Japanese airline. TPG thinks this might be a sweet spot. I tend to disagree, as the fees look pretty onerous, but there might be some opportunities to be had here. Just remember that while Chase and Citi points transfer to JetBlue at a 1:1 rate, Amex and Capital One points do not, so you’ll likely want to limit this strategy to the former.
Extra earning opportunities 💸
Earn Delta miles on Uber. Link your Delta and Uber accounts to earn Skymiles on premium Uber rides, UberX rides to the airport, and Uber Eats orders over $40. (If you book reserved rides, are staying at certain Marriott properties, or are a Bonvoy loyalist, you might want to stick with Marriott.)
Have a co-branded Chase Card? Sign up for possible extra points. Follow the steps outlined by AwardWallet here.
Gifting travel for Mother’s Day? Get free coffee. Delta is offering a $20 Starbucks egift for $300+ Delta gift card purchases. It’s a nice perk if a Delta gift card was already on your shopping list. Just beware that by paying with a gift card, you might lose out on credit protections like trip delay insurance.
Get $40 with Rakuten. Rakuten is now offering $40 in cash back after spending $40 through the site within 90 days (up from the usual $30 and $30), so if you have some online shopping planned and haven’t signed up yet, use our referral link to get started boosting your rewards.
Easy elite status 🥂
Get elite status with Frontier until the end of the year for $40. Frontier is offering Gold status to anyone who was a Southwest Rapid Rewards member (elite or not) prior to April 16th, 2025; all it takes is a non-refundable $40 application fee. Check out the details here.
Delta elites get status with SIXT. AwardWallet explains how to status match.
Devaluations 😞
Citi cuts transfer ratio with Emirates. Goodbye 1:1 transfers. I’ve never seen a use case for Emirates points, but this isn’t good news.
No more automatic OneKey cash on Vrbo stays. Base-level OneKey members won’t earn any OneKey cash on Vrbo stays, while higher-tier members will see earning rates cut.
End of the road for Amex —> Alaska transfers in sight? Thrifty Traveler thinks that door might close in late June.
Sign up bonus of the week
The Hilton Aspire is offering a 175,000-point welcome offer, which is just about as good as it gets on this excellent card. It’s expensive to hold, but the unique and outstanding perks it offers might just make it worthwhile.
Previously highlighted bonuses with offers still available:
•100k ‼️ on the Chase Sapphire Preferred
•70k miles on the AA Aviator Red
•75k points + $250 travel credit on the Venture Rewards