The biggest points news in months

Good morning from the single best flight of my life – Emirates’ “game-changer” first class suite!

I’ll tell you more about how I booked it (or didn’t book it) tomorrow… But today, we’ve got some hot-off-the-press news for you, so let’s get crackin:

• 💳 Bilt just launched THREE new cards

• ✈️ Earn bonus MQDs with Delta through February

• 🏨 Another brand new sub-par Hilton promo

💳 Bilt just launched THREE new cards

For a while now, Bilt has been teasing the launch of a series of new credit cards, along with some updates to how their program works on the whole.

Well, the day has finally arrived, and we now have ALL of the juicy details. So today, we’ll tell you a little bit about Bilt 2.0.

We have a full article that delves into all of the nitty-gritty details, but here is the summary:

Three cards instead of one

Bilt now has three cards ranging from no-fee to… big-ass fee.

Personally, I think the top-tier card (now called the Bilt Palladium card) is the most exciting, for a few reasons.

First of all… THERE’S A WELCOME OFFER. 🥳

That’s right, for the first time ever, you can earn 50,000 Bilt points for signing up for a card.

The top-tier card has a $495 annual fee, but comes with some credits that make it more palatable (pallad-able? I don’t know, there’s a Palladium pun in there somewhere).

Anyway, the unique thing about all of the new Bilt cards is that the spending rewards come in two forms:

• Bilt points

• Bilt Cash

For example, the Palladium card earns 2x Bilt points on all purchases (move over, Capital One Venture cards).

But it also earns 4% Bilt Cash… on top of those rewards.

But what the heck is Bilt cash? Well, folks… It’s confusing.

Bilt Cash, explained

Bilt has introduced a new currency called Bilt Cash. You’ll earn Bilt cash as part of the new card welcome offers, and also on everyday spending, as I mentioned earlier.

Here are some of the ways you can use Bilt Cash:

1. Redeem directly for stuff

You can use Bilt Cash at “face value” to pay for things like booking hotels in the Bilt portal (which is what I find most exciting).

That alone makes Bilt cash quite valuable, in my opinion.

2. Unlock points… or the ability to earn them?

This is where it gets weird…

Historically, you earn Bilt points for paying your rent. That’s kind of Bilt’s whole thing.

Now, you can still pay your rent or mortgage, but you’ll only earn points if you redeem Bilt cash to “unlock” points earning on your rent or mortgage.

If you don’t want to redeem Bilt cash for this, you can opt to pay a 3% fee to earn points on rent… which is not a great tradeoff.

3. Get a one-time status boost

This is also an interesting option. You might know that Bilt has monthly Rent Day promotions that often involve a transfer bonus to an airline or hotel program.

If you have higher status, your transfer bonus ratio is better.

With Bilt cash, you can upgrade your status to unlock these elevated transfer ratios.

For the right bonus to the right program, this alone could be a reason to accumulate some Bilt cash.

So what’s the takeaway?

Well, a lot.

For starters, Bilt has made its program, card portfolio, earnings, and redemptions extremely complex.

The days of “pay rent with a $0 card, redeem for travel” are over.

At the same time, earning 2x Bilt points and getting cash and credits to redeem for things like hotels is definitely something I’d consider, especially factoring in the welcome offer on the top-tier card.

Anyway, like I said – this is just my quick take.

McKay wrote a much more in-depth and coherent article breaking down the new changes and the other two cards I didn’t highlight here, so please check it out:

And to be clear, you can “pre-order” these cards now, but they will officially launch next month in February.

✈️ Earn bonus MQDs with Delta through February

If you’re a Delta fan and want a little boosty-boost toward unlocking elite status, you’re in luck.

For the next month, you can earn MQDs on non-flight activity:

When you book a hotel or car rental through Delta Stays before February 16, you’ll earn 1 MQD per dollar.

This is a great opportunity to have early in the year as you start to plan trips and crunch the numbers for elite status.

With this in the mix, you have tons of ways to earn MQDs, including:

• Spending on co-branded credit cards

• 2,500 MQD Boost if you have certain co-branded cards

• Flying on Delta or SkyTeam airlines

• Car rentals and hotel stays

In other words, Delta status is looking fairly accessible compared to other programs.

There’s not much to say here, so just keep this in mind if you have any plans to rent cars or book non-chain hotels over the next month.

🏨 Another brand new sub-par Hilton promo

What has been going on with Hilton lately?

Do you guys remember the days when every few months, Hilton would drop a “triple points on all stays” promo?

Well, Hilton is back with another lukewarm offer to earn 2,000 bonus points on every stay.

Here are the deets:

• You must register for this offer

• Valid for stays between January 15 and April 30

• No limit to the amount of bonus points you can earn

• Paid stays only

Here’s why I’m so sad about this offer…

Hilton points are worth about half a cent each. So if we had to assign a rough cash value to this, it’s about $10 worth of points.

But keep in mind, this is per stay, not per night.

So if you have a $1,000, ten-night stay, your winnings are still $10. If you have a single-night, $50 Hampton Inn stay in Southeast Asia, your winnings are also $10.

So while I am definitely happy to get 2,000 extra points on my next Hilton stay, it’s just not exciting when other programs tend to have far more rewarding offers.

But I’m curious to know what you think:

If you do book a cash stay with Hilton, there are a couple of ways to easily beef up these rewards:

• Book through a portal like Rakuten or Capital One Offers

• Use a Hilton co-branded credit card to pay

That’s all for today, my friends! I hope you enjoyed this mix of big news, solid offers, and less solid offers.

Take care and see you tomorrow to finish off the week.

25.2048° N, 55.2708° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt