Yesterday, Bilt Rewards announced that it was adding Southwest Rapid Rewards as its 19th transfer partner. Although we noted that we don’t usually recommend transferring points to Southwest because of the minimal opportunity for outsized value, we also said that:
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?
We’re not usually known for laser-like accuracy when it comes to predictions. In this case, we were right on the money, as Bilt has announced that this month’s Rent Day Promotion will be headlined by a transfer bonus to none other than Southwest Rapid Rewards.
As per usual, the promo is tiered, depending on your level of elite status with Bilt. Lowly Blue members (like me) will get a 25% bonus on any Bilt points transferred to Southwest on May 1st, while Bilt Platinum members will get a whopping 100% bonus.
In addition to the Rapid Rewards transfer bonus, Bilt is also doubling up its “Rent Free” game in honor of its recent foray into redemptions for student loans. This month, the top 10 winners of Rent Free will get up to $2,500 towards rent AND $2,500 towards student loan repayments.
The Deal
- Get a 25%-100% bonus when transferring Bilt points to Southwest Rapid Rewards on May 1, 2025.
- Bonus rates depend on status in the Bilt Rewards program:
- Blue = 25% transfer bonus
- Silver = 50% transfer bonus
- Gold = 75% transfer bonus
- Platinum = 100% transfer bonus
- Bonus will be applied on transfers made between May 1 at 12:00 AM ET – May 1 at
11:59 PM PT
Other Rent Day Deals
- Bilt Spending Offer
- Earn double points on the Bilt Mastercard (up to 1,000 points) on 5/1/25:
- Dining – 6x points (normally 3x)
- Travel – 4x points (normally 2x)
- All other spend excluding rent – 2x points (normally 1x)
- Earn double points on the Bilt Mastercard (up to 1,000 points) on 5/1/25:
- “Rent Free” Game Show
- When the Rent Day tab launches in the app, members can guess the top three answers to questions that were asked to 1,000 Bilt members.
- Top 10 winners will get up to $2,500 of their rent paid as well as up to $2,500 of student loans.
- The next 100 winners will earn 1,00 Bilt points.
- The next 500 winners will get 500 Bilt points.
Quick Thoughts
Nick recently did an exhaustive survey of the value of Southwest points and found that, on average, Southwest points are worth ~1.3 cents each towards flights.
At a 1:1 transfer ratio, that’s not a terrible use of either Bilt points, but it’s not great either. This transfer bonus would make it much more attractive, especially for folks who travel on Southwest a lot and/or have upper-tier status with Bilt. Even that 25% transfer bonus starts to look sexy given the additional flexibility that award tickets have on Southwest…especially now that travel credits on basic economy fares expire in 6 months.
Whether or not this bonus is worth it for you probably depends a lot on how you use the airline. Personally, I fly Southwest once every year or two and have enough Rapid Rewards points to keep me sated for quite some time. For those who exclusively fly Southwest and/or have a companion pass, this could be the moment you’re waiting for…and going all-in might be the right call.
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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Has there been any follow-up information about Bilt’s survey last year regarding a version 2 of its card?
I think you made a typo about the double points on May 1. You said “up to 10k points” but it looks like it’s still “up to 1k points”. You got my hopes up that they were going to increase it for one month.
10k was the good old days.
Yeah this wouldve been exciting 3 months ago. The devaluations of the southwest program make this a nothing burger unfortunately.