Bilt Rewards has added its 19th transfer partner: Southwest Rapid Rewards. Transfers are 1:1 (one Bilt = one Southwest point) and are now live through both the website and the app.
Bilt says that transfers will start out being processed twice per day, so there will most likely be a slight delay between when you initiate the transfer on the Bilt side and when the points credit to your Southwest account. Eventually, the transfers will be instant.
What’s Happened
- Bilt Rewards has added Southwest as a 1:1 transfer partner, effective immediately
Quick Thoughts
Here we were, sitting around waiting for Bilt to announce transfers to Japan Airlines (JAL); instead we get Bilt transferring to Southwest and JetBlue (!) partnering with JAL. What a world.
We always like to see more choice instead of less, so adding Southwest to Bilt’s excellent group of transfer partners is nice to see. Chase already transfers to Southwest on a 1:1 basis and, while I’m sure it’s popular, Rapid Rewards isn’t a program that we often prioritize using transferable points for.
Southwest has been in the midst of a complete renovation lately, both in terms of its in-air product and its rewards program. None of those changes have been well-received, including moving Rapid Rewards to a “dynamic” redemption system, where high-demand flights will actually provide less value for your points than those that aren’t. Nick did an exhaustive survey of the value of Southwest points once that change was made. He found that, on average, Southwest points are worth ~1.3 cents each towards flights.
While that’s not a terrible use of either Chase or Bilt points, it’s not great either, especially considering that you can book Southwest flights directly through Chase’s travel portal at a rate of 1.5 cents per point (or Bilt at 1.25cpp)…and earn Rapid Rewards points in the process.
Southwest has been monkeying with the expiration dates of travel credits, and credits from the lowest Wanna Get Away – err, basic economy – fares now expire after six months if you have to cancel, which would make the flexibility of award tickets even more appealing. However, in general, Southwest still won’t be the program to transfer points to in order to get outsized value.
Bilt is known for providing incredible one-day transfer bonuses every few months and Rapid Rewards transfers would go from “meh” to very interesting if they participate in one…perhaps on May 1st?
Complete List of Bilt Transfer Partners
Hotels
| Rewards Program | Best Uses | Bilt Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|
| Accor Live Limitless | Use to pay hotel bill with value of 2 Euro cents per point. In some cases (such as hotel to airline transfer bonuses) it may make sense to convert Accor points to the following airline miles at a 1 to 1 ratio: Finnair, Iberia, Qantas, or Virgin Australia | 3 to 2 (Unknown) |
| Hilton | 5th Night Free awards. Best value is usually found with very low end or very high end Hilton hotels. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees. Note that Hilton points often go on sale for half a cent each and so its rare for point transfers to Hilton to be a good value. | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Hyatt | Use for Hyatt free nights, free suite nights, lounge upgrades, or suite upgrades. Hyatt points are often worth more than 2 cents each. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| IHG | IHG dynamically prices their awards and sometimes offer very good value. IHG Premier and IHG Premier Business cards offer the fourth night free on award stays. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 5th Night Free awards. Opportunities to get outsized value exist but can be hard to find. | 20K to 25K (Instant) |
Airlines
| Rewards Program | Best Uses | Bilt Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus rather than British Airways, Qatar, or Iberia. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Redeem for Star Alliance flights and/or flights with Air Canada partners (such as Etihad). No fuel surcharges; $39 CAD award booking fee; 5,000 points to add stopover on one-way award. See: Air Canada Aeroplan: Everything you need to know. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | Monthly Air France Promo Awards often represent very good value. Air France miles can be used to book Sky Team awards, including Delta awards. Air France often offers very good business class award pricing between the US and Europe & Israel. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Alaska MileagePlan | Alaska Airlines offers decent oneworld award pricing, excellent short-distant pricing, and uniquely allows free stop-overs one one-way awards. Additionally, Alaska allows free award changes and cancelations (although they do have a small non-refundable partner award booking fee) | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Avianca LifeMiles | Avianca LifeMiles can be decent for Star Alliance awards. They offer reasonable-ish prices and no fuel surcharges on awards. Best of all, their mixed-cabin pricing can lead to fantastic first-class award prices. See this post for details. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| British Airways Avios | While flights on British Airways itself often incur outrageously high fuel surcharges, many BA partners charge low or no fuel surcharges. Excellent value can often be had in redeeming BA points for short distance flights outside the US. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | Cathay Pacific has a decent distance based award chart, but they don't allow stopovers longer than 24 hours. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles can be a good option for booking American Airlines flights with a distance based award chart, especially if other OneWorld Alliance miles aren't available. For long distance flights, it is possible to reduce the cost of a premium cabin award by adding on a lower cabin segment. See this post for details. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Emirates Skywards | The best use of Emirates miles has been to fly Emirates itself. Unfortunately fuel surcharges can be extremely steep. One workaround is to book select routes such as JFK to Milan or Newark to Athens. See: How to find and book Emirates first class awards. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Finnair Plus+ | Finnair points are now "Avios" and points can be moved to/from other Avios programs. Finnair uses zone based award charts rather than distance based. As a result, Finnair sometimes has better (and sometimes worse) pricing than other Avios programs. | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| Iberia Avios | On their own flights, Iberia offers low award prices and a very reasonable 25 Euro cancellation fee. Partner awards can offer good value under some circumstances as well, but these are usually nonrefundable. Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Iberia rather than British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Qatar. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | Qatar has reasonable award prices for flying Qatar itself. Points are now transferable 1 to 1 to British Airways (and from there to Aer Lingus or Iberia). It is now also possible to book JetBlue flights with Qatar Avios. | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | Award flights are fully refundable. Point values vary. Lower demand flights and those with higher taxes tend to offer better value. | 1 to 1 (~12 hours) |
| TAP Air Portugal | Surcharge-free Emirates redemptions. Increased availability on TAP flights between US and Europe. | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles | Miles & Smiles offers a number of awesome sweet-spot awards including 7.5K one-way anywhere within the US, even to Hawaii. Many awards cannot be booked online but can be booked via phone or email. See: Turkish Miles & Smiles Complete Guide and Turkish business class sweet spots from the US. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| United MileagePlus | United offers free award changes and free cancelations. Like Avianca and Aeroplan, United never charges fuel surcharges for awards. Unfortunately, United charges many more miles for international first class awards. Good uses of miles include United's Excursionist Perk awards and (sometimes) dynamically priced United economy awards. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | Virgin Atlantic offers a few excellent sweet spot awards. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight). | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
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[…] are not instant and might take a few days, Frequentmiler reports, but they are slated to eventually become instant […]
Bilt’s stable of transfer partners is pretty robust. Perhaps add JAL as rumored and then Singapore. While the current card mimics the CSP, Bilt has surveyed cardholders about a premium card. A CSR-like card would be nice. But, given its relationship with WF, I’m not certain that would happen.
If Southwest did a transfer bonus, it would be a rarity as a domestic program engaging in one, right? Alaska did one when it joined, but otherwise the domestic programs haven’t really joined in, right?
When Hawaiian was a partner, there was a transfer bonus to it. But, never to AA. Your assumption is probably a safe bet. Absent a transfer bonus, probably best for a top-off only.