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Bilt Rewards has announced details of an awesome new transfer bonus that’ll be available on May 1 – a 100% transfer bonus to Flying Blue.
The Deal
- Bilt Rewards is offering the following earning & redemption opportunities on May 1:
- 100% bonus when transferring points to Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- Double points on the Bilt Mastercard
- Rent Day Challenge (get up to $2,500 rent paid for the month)
- ‘Point Quest’ Trivia – earn up to 250 points free
Key Terms
- Offers valid May 1, 2023 only.
Quick Thoughts
100% transfer bonuses from transferable points currencies are almost unheard of, with the only two previous examples both being from Bilt: IHG on December 1, 2022 and Hawaiian Airlines on February 1, 2023. The IHG one wasn’t as exciting seeing as IHG One Rewards points can often be bought for 0.5cpp, so that IHG transfer bonus was worth 1cpp in my mind; not terrible, but not amazing either considering Bilt Rewards points can also be transferred to Hyatt, American Airlines and more, thereby getting far more than 1cpp of value. The 100% bonus to Hawaiian Airlines was better, but this Flying Blue transfer bonus will likely be far more useful to a greater number of people.
Over the last five years we’ve seen 20 different transfer bonuses from transferable points currencies to Flying Blue (you can see historic transfer bonuses on this page in addition to current bonuses). Those prior bonuses had all been in the 20%-30% range, so getting a 100% bonus for Flying Blue specifically really is unheard of.
The transfer bonus can then be stacked with the new set of Flying Blue Promo Rewards. April’s list had a dozen or so cities in North America and May’s list is set to have a similar number. The new list of Promo Rewards will be valid on bookings from May 1-31 for flights from May 1-October 31, 2023, so a popular 6 month period for international travel. Upcoming Promo Rewards are due to include the following cities to/from Europe, although we don’t know yet how much award availability there’ll be to/from each city:
- Economy
- To/From Boston starting at 11,250 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Chicago starting at 12,750 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Washington-Dulles starting at 12,750 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Miami starting at 12,750 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Dallas starting at 15,000 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Houston starting at 15,000 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Atlanta starting at 15,750 Miles Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Austin starting at 18,375 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Los Angeles starting at 20,250 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- Premium economy
- To/From Houston starting at 30,000 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Washington-Dulles starting at 22,500 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Newark starting at 22,500 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- Business class
- To/From Newark to Paris starting at 41,250 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Houston starting at 48,750 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Washington-Dulles starting at 52,500 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Atlanta starting at 52,500 Flying Blue Miles one-way
- To/From Dallas starting at 52,500 Flying Blue Miles one-way
A downside with this transfer bonus is that it’s only available on May 1. That means you either need to find award availability that’s bookable on that day or you’ll need to make a transfer speculatively. If you frequently make redemptions with Flying Blue or have definite plans to visit Europe this summer/fall, a speculative transfer could be worth the risk.
If you don’t have any immediate plans to book with Flying Blue though, I’d be hesitant making a speculative transfer, especially if you have a healthy stash of Membership Rewards, ThankYou points, Ultimate Rewards or Capital One miles seeing as Flying Blue is a transfer partner of all of those. Needless to say, a 100% transfer bonus from Bilt is better than a zero – or even 20%-30% – transfer bonus from those other programs, but having double the number of points isn’t going to do you too much good if you don’t have any plans to use them. I have miles stuck with Flying Blue from a cancelled booking a few months ago and no plans to be able to use them in the next 18+ months, so that’s something to consider.
It’s also good to see all of Bilt’s usual Rent Day promotions making a return on May 1. Earning double points on the Bilt Mastercard means you’ll earn 2x on non-bonused spend, 4x on travel and 6x on dining that day. I also love the ‘Point Quest’ trivia in the app each month as it’s an easy way to spend 90 seconds or so to get some free transferable points.
We’ll republish this post on May 1 as a reminder of the transfer bonus to ensure you don’t miss out if you’re interested in it.
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Hello Everyone, I am trying to get this transfer bonus, but get “whoops, something went wrong” on the Bilt app. Any idea how to make it work?
I personally think you’d be insane to transfer Bilt points to Flying Blue, even with this bonus. Flying Blue points are dead easy to accumulate — it’s easy to rack up hundreds of thousands for free by riding the Ink train, for example.
By contrast, AA points are extraordinarily hard to accumulate once you’ve churned through the Barclay & Citi cards. Not to mention the difficulties of dealing with those issuers — inquiry sensitive, utilisation sensitive, etc etc.
Agreed AA points are tougher to earn and that is what gives me pause. I guess it comes down to the uses of AA points that are unique and highly valuable to the traveler. What are some unique uses for AA points that you enjoy? I’m relatively new to traveling with rewards. This year I flew to Hawaii using Turkish/United and lived well in Hyatt redemptions but I’m still in learning mode when it comes to flying business class. Thanks!
Qatar Airways in business class to Middle East and beyond.
Etihad Air in business and 1st class to ME and beyond.
Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific in business and 1st class to Asia.
I agree it’s worth a speculative transfer with this insane 100% bonus. My family now has a place in Nice, so we expect to travel to France periodically. It’s also easy to refresh the expiration of the miles by another 2 years by simply transferring points.
What holds me back from transferring all of our Bilt points is they can be used for American Airlines and AA points are tougher to generate.
I think it’s absolutely worth a speculative transfer given all the possible uses of FB miles. 100% transfer bonus is nuts.
I would flip the script on this one — ie., do this transfer UNLESS you have another immediate use for the Bilt points.
Unfortunately I have no Bilt points 🙁