Scoring big on dining just got a whole lot tastier

Good morning from the bed I’ve been lying in for the last 48 hours straight…

I was supposed to be home in Toronto today, but instead, I got reeeally sick 🤢here in Guatemala over the weekend and need to recover before I’m okay to fly again.

After a moderately sketchy hospital visit, we’ve determined that it’s likely the giardia parasite… so that’s fun 😬

And FYI, depending on how much my hallucinations make their way into my newsletter writing, things might get a little weird…

But for now, here’s what I got:

• 🍽️ Bilt offers a new 5x dining program (no Bilt card required!)

• 🏨 New Hilton promo (up to 4k points per stay)

• 😮 There was a freaking gold heist at my home airport last week

🍽️ Bilt offers a new 5x dining program (no Bilt card required!)

Remember that time when Bilt came out with a game-changing points feature that put other cards and programs to shame?

Oh wait, that happens ALL THE TIME 🎉

And they’re up to it again! Bilt just launched a new dining program that will allow you to earn points at restaurants in major cities… Oh, and you don’t even need the Bilt card. 😮

Here’s how it works:

• Link your card (any card!) to Bilt’s new wallet feature (in the app)

• Use that card to dine at restaurants in these major cities:

  • New York City

  • Boston

  • Atlanta

  • Dallas

  • Chicago

• Earn 5x Bilt points per dollar, PLUS any points you earn from the card you use

Of course, the big caveat here is that it’s only available for those of you living in or visiting big cities, but I have a feeling Bilt will be rolling this out more widely in the near future.

So basically, this works similarly to other dining portals out there. This means that as long as you have a FREE Bilt account, you can participate in this program with any credit card you’d like!

But here’s the other kicker…

You’ll also get 100 Bilt points for every card you link to the Bilt wallet, up to 300 points total. And we love points around here 🤗

BUT THERE’S ANOTHER KICKER

On the first of every month, Bilt offers double earning rates on the Bilt Mastercard.

Now, the 5x from the dining program won’t be doubled, but you WILL earn 6x points per dollar on dining IF you use the Bilt card for dining, putting your total potential earnings at 11x on dining…

Overall, I’m not surprised at all to see Bilt pushing the limits of rewards programs and continuing to offer fantastic value for its customers. To be clear, I don’t even hold the Bilt Mastercard… but I’ve gotten quite a bit of value out of just being a Bilt member.

And keep in mind, sometime soon they’ll be announcing their latest “Rent Day” promotion. Last month, they offered free Hyatt Explorist status… I can’t wait to see how they follow it up next month. 😏

🏨 New Hilton promo (up to 4k points per stay)

Hotel promos are on fire lately… every major program is pretty much rolling out new promos as soon as the previous one ends.

Hilton has done just this, though with a somewhat underwhelming (but still decent-ish) promo…

Here are the deets:

• Earn 4,000 points for each Hilton Resort stay

• Earn 2,000 points for every other stay

• Valid for stays between May 1st and September 5th, 2023

• Valid for both cash and award stays

• You must register for the offer before your first stay

To be clear, this promo applies to each STAY, rather than each NIGHT, so don’t go thinking you’ll rack up 10k points from your 5-night stay… 😒

Still, the fact that this applies to award stays is awesome. Much like some other current promos, you can think of this as a little rebate for your award stays.

Of course, the more you’re able to break stays up into smaller batches of nights, the more points you’ll earn from this promotion 👍

The bottom line? This falls into the category of “might as well register for it in case you stay at a Hilton, but it’s not worth changing your hotel habits.”

😮 There was a freaking gold heist at my home airport last week

Bags get lost at Toronto Pearson Airport all the time. After all, it is the home base of planet Earth’s most “meh” airline: Air Canada 👌

But last week, this airport made a pretty big boo-boo.

You see, one of the bags they lost wasn’t a bag. It was a cargo container carrying $20 million of gold. GOLD. $20 MILLION.

I’m not joking...

And rather than losing this cargo as a result of complete incompetence, as usual, this was actually stolen.

So, in other words, there was a freaking GOLD HEIST at a major international airport in 2023.

It’s incredible.

I can’t even get through an airport with a tube of toothpaste, yet some genius thieves managed to snag a cargo container of gold 💰

As of now, the police have no idea who did this or how (what…), other than that it was done through illegal means (obviously), and it was highly organized (also obviously).

Look... I’m against stealing… Unless it’s little sandwiches from the airport lounge before a long economy flight. But if it’s free and I’m entitled to it… is it really stealing??

But want to know the craziest part?

This isn’t the first successful gold heist in this part of Canada… back in the 1950s, a similar heist took place where $2.4 million worth of gold was stolen from an airport.

Much like this heist, there were no robbers to be seen, no threats, nothing. Nobody ever saw a single person involved, and the case was never solved.

At the risk of getting way off topic here, there was also a famous Canadian group called the Stopwatch Gang, who robbed Ottawa’s airport of a bunch of gold in the 70s.

These guys are really cool to read about—they were famous for meticulously planning heists, not using any violence, and being extremely polite to hostages (very Canadian of them). They robbed over 150 banks in the U.S. and Canada, wore stopwatches during their robberies, and were always in and out in two minutes.

So apparently, Canada has a rich history of amazing heists and heisters.

As of now, we don’t even know to whom this gold belonged, who shipped it, or where it was going. Overall, such a wild story… Robbing a major international airport in this day and age is almost impossible.

I can’t help but be both curious and impressed by this 🤔

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That’s all for today, friends, because I desperately need to go back to sleep, so I’m gonna… do that… now… 😴

But don’t worry, I’ll see you first thing tomorrow. Or you’ll see me, I guess. Or read me? I don’t know. Reality is a myth.

Byeeeee ❤️

14.6349° N, 90.5069° W