Bilt announced this morning that you can now transfer your Bilt points to Southwest Rapid Rewards at a 1:1 ratio. That brings the total number of transfer partners to 19, with JAL Mileage Bank (Japan Airlines’ program) expected to join the list soon.
I’m excited for JAP, but less so for Southwest, which is also a Chase Ultimate Rewards (Guide), transfer partner.
Why?
Well, as covered in this post about the Southwest Rapid Rewards devaluation, while we used to value Southwest Rapid Rewards points at 1.4 cents, we now value them at just 1.25 cents. Remember that the program is not only based on the cost of a flight, the recent devaluation made the value given per point towards those revenue based redemptions worse for more popular flights – making you lose on both ends of the candle.
By contrast, we value Bilt Rewards (earned with the Bilt Mastercard® or even without by paying rent directly with a Bilt landlord, taking advantage of their Neighborhood Dining, etc) at 1.8 cents a piece.
So while more transfer partners are always nice, and Bilt’s lineup is impressive, I’d rather see you redeem your Bilt points for World of Hyatt or Alaska Mileage Plan or, soon, JAL Mileage Bank to maximize the value of your points.
Thoughts?
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