Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Last month, Bilt Rewards announced Bilt “Rent Day” on the first of every month. This gives members access to a rotating series of promotions (like a Virgin Voyages cruise discount) and also the provides the opportunity for those with the Bilt Mastercard to earn double points on purchases.
This week, Bilt revealed one of the promotions for November’s Bilt Rent Day: free United Airlines Elite Status. The promotion is open to all Bilt Rewards members (not just cardholders) and gives United Premier Silver or Gold status for 120 days, with a path to keep it through January 2024.
The Deal
- Now through November 1st, get complimentary United Premier Silver or Gold status for 120 days through Bilt Rewards:
- Bilt Blue Tier members are eligible for United Premier Silver Status
- Bilt Silver, Gold and Platinum Tier members are eligible for United Premier Gold Status.
- You can then keep your Premier status through January 2024 by completing the following requirements during the 120-day Challenge Period:
- Silver Premier members must earn 1,000 Premier qualifying points (PQP) and fly 4 Premier qualifying flights (PQF) on United or United Express.
- Gold Premier members must fly 6 PQF and earn 2,000 PQP on flights operated by United or United Express.
- Enrollment is open now until 11:59PM PST on November 1st.
How to get United Elite Status with the Bilt Rewards App
- Download the latest version of the Bilt app
- Under “Rent Day” in the app, click on the United promotion
3. Link your Bilt Rewards account and your United Mileage Plus account in the app
4. Once you’ve linked accounts, click on the “Unlock Premier Status” button
5. Within 3 weeks, you’ll receive an e-mail from Bilt confirming your status level and challenge period dates. You’ll have status for 120 days, and if the challenge requirements are completed, your status will be extended through January 2024.
United Premier Silver and Gold Status Benefits
United Premier Silver:
- Group 2 priority boarding
- 1 free checked bag in economy
- Complimentary upgrades on the day of departure
- Access to preferred seating at booking and Economy Plus at check-in (includes 1 travel companion)
- 7x extra miles per dollar on United, United Express, and select partner airlines
- Avis Preferred Plus status
- Access to a greater inventory of United mileage awards
United Premier Gold
- Group 1 priority boarding
- 2 free checked bags in economy
- Complimentary upgrades starting at 48 hours pre-departure
- Access to preferred and Economy Plus seating at booking
- 8x extra miles per dollar on United, United Express, and select partner airlines
- Avis Preferred Status
- Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status
- Access to a greater inventory of United mileage awards
Quick Thoughts
First off, it’s worth noting that this promotion is open to all Bilt Rewards members, not just to those with the Mastercard. In order to qualify, you don’t need to do anything outside of downloading the app, opening a Bilt Rewards account and then linking your United Mileage Plus account.
I already have United Silver status by virtue of being a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium. I’ve heard reports that folks who are already Silver are being promoted to Gold, regardless of their Bilt status. I just submitted my request, so can’t confirm one way or the other, but will update this post once I find out for sure.
I barely fly United, but when I have, Silver has been surprisingly useful. I’ve been able to get into Economy Plus on every flight and I’ve even been upgraded to First Class on a couple of short regional flights. The free checked bags and priority boarding are nice for those that can use them.
For me, the most useful part of United Silver has been having access to greater award inventory. There’s been many times where I’ve been able to book saver awards only available to Premier members that P2 had no access to. It can be quite significant; I just searched for SEA-NYC in November and 11 of the 20 saver options were only available to Premier members:
So, while neither of these statuses are anything to write home about, they certainly do provide some value. The fact that the free status is available over the holidays for anyone with a free Bilt Rewards membership makes this an easy win if you’re going to be flying United at all, even if it’s only one trip to see family. The challenge requirements are reasonable as well and it should be easy to have the status extended if you have even a couple of trips planned in the next four months.
I’ve got to give credit to Bilt for driving interest in their rewards program. While I can’t imagine getting their credit card anytime soon (because I don’t rent), their first two months of “Rent Day” promotions have been better than expected.
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My account shows the new premier silver status. I just so happen to have a trip coming up in December, this will cover the bag charges.Thank you FM for the post!
Great!
There’s also a Status Match offered from United, for basically the same thing, if you have status with other airlines: https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/mileageplus/offers/promos/SM2022.html
Conveniently left off the disclosure about your pimp daddy Bilt on this article. I knew you would get in trouble in Miami by Father Richard for disclosing a relationship
Lol, you’re hilarious. I’ll just copy the same thing to all your comments, since you never respond to it. The different monikers for Richard Kerr are pretty good trolling though.
You mean like when Greg addressed it here?
https://frequentmiler.com/blogging-and-accepting-gifts-on-gregs-mind/
I’ve also noticed that you make the same comments when Stephen and I write about Bilt, even though we weren’t on the trip that it seems like you think has FM’s coverage in Bilt’s pocket. I can gaurantee you that I’ve never recieved a penny from Bilt and have never been told to write anything about Bilt by anyone else at FM.
In the last 30 days, we’ve written over 50x the amount of posts on Amex and 40x the amount of posts covering Chase as we have on Bilt. Why the sensitivity here? You seem to trust FM when it comes to waaaaayyy larger affiliates than Bilt, but not with posts on Bilt..even here when there’s literally no affiliate link and thus no way to get paid from it.
I’m honestly confused about the Bilt hate (and how you seem to apply it to FM) even though you trust us to be fair and honest with much bigger fish (and justifiably in my opinion…the firewall that Greg has between affiliates and what we write is incredible).
a) I didn’t comment on the original posts about Bilt because they were just early posts and thought nothing of them. But the constant posts are now getting to be too obvious that there is something nefarious at play, monetary in nature, and not independent reporting. Greg and Nick have just handed off the Bilt shilling to you and Stephen. You are both still team FM, right?
b) You post clear disclosures about the credit cards that you do post about. We know that you are getting reimbursed for these posts, its actually why most of us choose to use your links to support the site. We are a-ok doing that because you disclose it and you post better links when available. No other blog does that. We all appreciate and support you for that.
c) I am an equal opportunity Bilt hater on other blogs too, no worries. Ol’ Dick left Awardwallet to go and work for TPG (vomit just typing that!) and then on to Bilt. Used to listen to his podcast too but it became the Richard Kerr show, the all about me show, the I am better than any of you show and that was enough for me. They claim to listen, but then shut down anyone who does a Fluz purchase or two (see tweet today admitting this). They claim to be of the people but then act like the Amex RAT team. They say that it is because they are trying to run a profitable business, but they all have no problem doing it to the banks they all hold cards for. Do it to all them, we’ll even teach you how to, but don’t do it to us!!!
Does earning Silver status this way open award availability for dates beyond the 120 days?
I would assume so. As long as you are a Silver member, you should see special premier award availability of any flight on United Schedule, even beyond 120 days, which you can then book.
Would PQP earned from spending on the United Quest card count towards the challenge? Thanks.
Yes, it should…they just require PQP, there’s nothing specifying that any method of earning PQP won’t count.
I got the status confirmation email and there’s a link to the terms, one of which disqualifies PQP from credit cards:
PQP and PQF earned on flights operated by United or United Express during the Challenge
Period, will count toward meeting the Qualifying Travel Requirements; however, any bonus
PQP and PQF, promotional PQP and PQF and/or credit card PQP do not count toward the
Qualifying Travel Requirements.
Ah, ok. Thanks for the update.
Is it correctly understood then that these legs must be flown on United or UnitedExpress metal? In other words, achieving the PQP and segments flying only on partner airlines would not trigger the extension?
Not sure about the PQP earning, but the terms indicate that the flight segments need to be on UA/UAE. Will that enforced? Who knows, but I wouldn’t plan on it NOT being enforced.
I’m currently UA Plat and have Bilt Silver. I still need 3,500 more PQP by the end of the year just to qualify for UA Gold for next year. Does this mean that I can instead just qualify with 2,000 PQP through the Bilt challenge? I don’t see anything in the terms that would rule this out.
Separately, it’s interesting to see Bilt differentiating special deals based on Bilt Tier status. I was going to end up the year about 3,000 points short of Bilt Gold. The published Gold benefits are worthless to me, but now I’m wondering if I should make the effort to get the extra 3,000 points just in case they have other one-off deals next year that are only for Gold status or above.
My assumption is that you wouldn’t be approved for the challenge, but might be worth a shot? I don’t see anything precluding it in the terms, either.
Got an email yesterday from Bilt saying I was approved for the challenge. Hopefully it all works and I don’t end up having to fight with them over it.
I jumped in, I have a 2-leg one-way on UA in Nov (just over 3 weeks away) and a 4- or 5-leg roundtrip to Europe in Jan that I will probably do on Star Alliance. Between those, I will easily hit the PQFs and I think I will be within ~50 PQPs of hitting the 1000 threshold needed to keep Silver for another year. If I am that close, I might try to spend ~$50 to upgrade my seat position or something like that, just to get over the PQP hump. Paying $50 to likely get some Economy Plus seats on transatlantic flights later in 2023 seems like a good enough bet.
Totally agree. DO note that the terms inidcate that the PQF’s need to be on UA or UA Express…that may not be enforced, but it could be risky to plan on it.
I’m trying the same thing as Tim (LT Marriott Titanium) so kind of curious how this will work out. If they follow the rules, I don’t get Gold but hey, you never know!
If you find out before I do, let us know!
Do you know if this will affect my ability to do a status challenge directly with United in the future?
I currently have Delta status and have considered doing a United challenge, but I know they only let you do it once every few years. So wondering if something like this would block me from doing that in the future?
I don’t unfortunately. My assumption is that a cross-promotion like this would be looked at differently than one that is directly with United…but that’s all it is, an assumption.
Scratch that. Bilt confirms that it will be looked at as the same thing.
Hmm so if I am already Silver and they only give me silver and not gold, will I lose my opportunity for future status challenge? So I received nothing extra but lost something?
My hope is that they just won’t approve you for the challenge, but I can’t say for sure until I see what happens with my request.
Thanks for checking on that.