I’m sure you’ve noticed the push towards “portal bookings.” Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are aware that credit card issuers want you to book through their own booking portal, generally white labeling someone else’s platform, and they push hard with boatloads of extra points earned and, like with the Venture X, it’s the only way to redeem your annual $300 travel credit.
I hate travel portals. I hate them a lot. The reason is as I always describe is two fold:
- When you book flights through a portal, the portal (usually their outsourced customer support) owns your reservation. Until check-in, only they can deal with changes to the ticket or irregular operations.
- When you book hotels, you are treated as a third party booker. No loyalty benefits, no elite nights, no points… nothing. The only exceptions are Amex’s FHR hotels and Chase’s new The Edit hotels.
Why do banks love portals so much?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Yes, it’s that simple. Hotel bookings can net them 15% or more of the booking price. So dropping you half of that back in points is nothing. It’s super profitable.
I’ve had countless meetings with issuers where I’ve said something along the lines of “the first issuer that figures out how to allow customers to book “direct” through their portal for all bookings (air that can be managed by the airline and hotels that get treated as direct across the board) would win it all – and I have always suggested that the decreased margin would be offset by exponentially more bookings. And it’s never resulted in more than a polite nod back.
None have done it – until now.
While it’s being rolled out in phases, Bilt is doing exactly this.
By the time they have fully rolled this out, you’ll be able to “book direct” with airlines via their portal, redeeming Bilt points at 1.25cpp, and you’ll be booking directly with hotels, at member rates with full benefits, via the portal the same way.
Right now, Bilt Gold and Bilt Platinum members can test drive the hotel portion of this by booking any Home Away from Home labeled hotel on the platform. And sure, right now that is just similar to FHR or the Edit (although with what feels to me like a lot more properties at the start).
But by the time they are done, you’ll be booking air directly simply by looking for a “Direct Booking” label on the app under the flight you want. This is done using a newer NDC booking channel vs the legacy GDS system.
And you’ll be booking most or all platform hotels as direct bookings by the time they are done as well. (My understanding is that, for now, some bookings will continue to go via a third party simply to reach everywhere in the world, but onboarding as many hotels as possible directly is the goal.) This means full loyalty / elite benefits and points earning at the hotels, stacked with the Home Away from Home benefits at participating HAFH properties.
If you need help, you’ll get live chat support from some nice helpful folks in England.
Want help planning a trip?
You can use a Virtuoso travel planner at no cost. Yes, people still like help planning trips and these folks will take your booking, if you ask for their help!, and suggest the itinerary for you. Again, no cost.
Bilt’s working on a whole lot more than that, as I learned at a lunch at Bilt HQ on Wednesday, leaning heavily into the “connected neighborhood” which is a super cool evolution of Bilt which, in retrospect, has been happening in bits and pieces for years with things like Soul Cycle and Neighborhood Dining.
Us miles and points geeks are squarely focused on the points aspect of it all, and the thing is that even if you don’t pay rent (and yes, soon mortgages will be payable with Bilt as well!) they are the most valuable points!
On top of the standard transfer partners, you have Hyatt, Alaska, and JAL. And you can book via the portal at 1.25 cents per points at a time when nobody else still gives you more than a penny on all bookings (yes, you can get 1.5-2 cents now on Chase Points Boost bookings, but those are limited and ever changing).
But this “direct booking” thing? That’s what got me to take a minute and write this because for even the average traveler, being able to use points via transfer partner OR in the portal with no disadvantage to booking direct is huge.
And one last thing. They *admit* this is less profitable for them per booking. But they don’t care because it’s simply the best customer experience. And if you use Bilt, you know that their tech stack just works. They don’t skimp on experience to save a few bucks.
And my personal take? Their portal will wind up getting so much use that they will, quite literally, make it up on volume.
Thoughts?
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This reads like a paid commercial for worst in the biz at customer service BILT. What are they paying you? You should disclose this!
Not only are they not paying me, I don’t even currently have affiliate links for the card.
I was at their office when they had 8 employees and never had the chance to invest (it’s up over 500x) and am not even an advisor like so many others are.
I was very hard on them early on.
They’ve won me over with solid product, plain and simple.
My only disclosure was that I wash i had an equity position in Bilt, but I do not.