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Bilt Rewards has announced that it will be increasing the minimum point thresholds needed for elite status starting on January 1st, 2024. The points required for each level of status will go up by at least 100%.
In addition, Bilt is adding the ability to “fast track” elite status qualification via certain amounts of spend through several different channels and will also be adding Milestone Rewards for elite members as well. 
Bilt Rewards elite status
Bilt Rewards has a modest elite status program that offers the ability to earn interest on rewards points, along with other benefits:
- Silver and higher
- Earn interest in the form of points to a member’s Bilt Rewards account every month based on average daily points balance for each 30-day period (rate is based on the FDIC published national savings rate)
- Bilt will deposit bonus points on top of points issued by landlords to
members for signing for new tenant leases and lease renewal, depending on
member status. Silver status gets a 10% bonus.
- Gold and higher
- Bilt Homeownership Concierge: Members who redeem Bilt Points toward a home down payment can get help from a dedicated concierge who will walk the member through the home buying process
- Bilt will deposit bonus points on top of points issued by landlords to
members for signing for new tenant leases and lease renewal, depending on
member status. Gold status gets a 25% bonus.
- Platinum
- Members will receive a complimentary gift from the Bilt Collection (apparently some type of home decor / art)
- Bilt will deposit bonus points on top of points issued by landlords to
members for signing for new tenant leases and lease renewal, depending on
member status. Platinum status gets a 50% bonus.
Bilt Elite status qualifications are changing
Currently, Bilt Rewards status is attained based on the total points earned over a calendar year as follows:
- Blue – anyone enrolled in Bilt Rewards with under 25,000 points
- Silver – 25,000 points earned
- Gold – 50,000 points earned
- Platinum – 100,000 points earned
Starting on 1/1/24, the points needed and the methods that can be used to attain elite status will change significantly:
- Blue – anyone enrolled in Bilt Rewards with under 50,000 points
- Silver – 50,000 points earned or $10K in non-rent spend on your Bilt Mastercard or another card linked in your Bilt wallet
- Gold – 125,000 points earned or $25K spend in non-rent on your Bilt Mastercard or another card linked in your Bilt wallet
- Platinum – 200,000 points earned or $50K spend in non-rent spend on your Bilt Mastercard or another card linked in your Bilt wallet
You will now be able to qualify by total points earned or through spending via five different channels. For the spend thresholds, the following will apply:
- Bilt Mastercard (excluding rent)
- Bilt dining with a card that’s linked to your Bilt wallet
- SoulCycle classes booked via the Bilt app
- Bilt Travel Portal
- Lyft rides
Rent spending will not qualify towards the “fast track” spend thresholds.
Milestone Rewards coming
In the midst of this largely negative announcement, Bilt also says that it will make its elite tiers much more rewarding going forward through the addition of Milestone Rewards. These will unlock at every 25,000 points you earn and give special one-time benefits that I assume will increase in value as the tiers get higher.
Additionally, the company says that it will continue to provide transfer bonuses and other benefits as a part of its monthly Rent Day promotions. Members with elite status will earn higher levels of benefits during these monthly promotions.
No mention was made of exactly what types of benefits or features Milestone Rewards would consist of.
Quick Thoughts
At this point, without knowing more details about how the benefits of Bilt elite status will improve, it’s difficult to judge these changes. On the one hand, for most members, it will undoubtedly be more difficult to reach elite status than it was previously. But the trade-off is that, up until now, Bilt elite status wasn’t really that exciting, outside of being able to participate in higher levels of transfer bonuses on Rent Day.
If the perks of upper-tier elite status are greatly improved, than it may make sense for some folks to put $25-50k in spending per year through the various Bilt channels. If they stay fairly close to where they are now, it’s hard to envision why that degree of spend would be warranted.
Bilt has done a fairly decent job of adding value to its award program, so there’s reason to be optimistic. That said, we’ll have to wait and see before we decide how many resources to commit to the “new” program.
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Maybe after the status requirements are increased, Bilt will finally offer a good transfer bonus to Hyatt or AA in 2025.
“excluding rent” lol
Bilt knows that their status program, right now, provides little incentive to spend outside of a few transfer and experience promotions (which are cool). I got the card later in the year, but made the effort this month to clear the Silver threshold just in case a transfer option in the first half of the year pops up. Based on natural spend and these new thresholds, I will probably stay in the Silver for 2024. I put a lot of restaurant spending on the card and a few other things as there are 2x or better options. I love the dining program. But I would not go out of my way to hit Gold. A transfer bonus bump that you may or may not use is worth doing a little bit, just in case.
However, there’s no reason to build in these new status tiers unless there is more to roll out. I think the “we will see” position is the correct one. With the Avianca add earlier this month, I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt that they are trying to build a sustainable value proposition for customers.
It is really interesting that these changes seem to follow a similar model to Airline loyalty programs. Specifically, they seem to be offering a program modeling some of the gaming rules of American Airlines, rather than United or Delta. Of the US programs, it is the most interesting one from a points and miles perspective.
Regardless of these changes, Bilt is still the best CC value long-term proposition for travel points around due to both the no AF card and the best-in-class transfer partner list.
ChatGPT- Write me a blog post that makes a rewards program that has absolutely gutted their program and only provided 1 week of notice.
Come on FM- had this been anyone else but rent boy Richard, you would have had such outcry about it. You dedicated an entire podcast to the Delta GUT but you won’t give a main event to Bilt because Richard doesn’t want the negative coverage. Anyone who has followed you for a while can clearly see that there is a moratorium on bad press of Bilt that you’ve signed up for and its starting to get embarrassing.
Lets look at how you covered Delta’s changes.
Headline- Delta’s 2024 elite program: it ain’t pretty
Bilt- Bilt Rewards will double elite status thresholds in 2024
The framing of this headline is definitely negative to Delta, and the Bilt headline can be read positively as if they are doubling what elites get if you do not understand elite thresholds.
Opening words- Delta has officially released the news about changes to their elite program for 2024 and beyond. Yikes. As I predicted, they’re settling on a single metric for earning elite status: MQDs (Medallion Qualifying Dollars). Also as predicted, they’re increasing the MQD requirements for each elite level. Unfortunately, the increases are much higher than I predicted, especially for top tier Diamond status. And for those of us rolling over a lot of MQMs into 2024, there’s good news and bad news.
Bilt- Bilt Rewards has announced that it will be increasing the minimum point thresholds needed for elite status starting on January 1st, 2024. The points required for each level of status will go up by at least 100%. In addition, Bilt is adding the ability to “fast track” elite status qualification
Already positively framing the Bilt changes
Closing words:
Delta- Ouch!
Bilt- At this point, without knowing more details about how the benefits of Bilt elite status will improve, it’s difficult to judge these changes.
COME ON! Hahahahahaha. This is SUCH a joke…. Please please please take a serious look at how you are covering Bilt
Good to hear from you again, it’s been awhile! Happy Holidays!
This sarcastic response is a really bad look. If you don’t want to engage with his arguments, don’t respond…
It’s not sarcastic in the least. He’s been commenting on most of our Bilt posts since almost the launch of the program (and many other blogs too). He seems to have a grudge against a guy who does marketing for Bilt, who he usually points out by name in his comments. We originally tried engaging, but realized he wasn’t really interested in dialogue with us (or other blogs), and we got a kick out of what he would say. Haven’t heard from him for awhile.
Please explain to us all how these are not serious arguments….. Wow….. Just say you aren’t allowed to speak badly about Bilt- that would get you a LOT more credibility. You’re like the LIV players going to “expand the game of golf”….
First of all, our pronouns are They/Them and we are all of the people who are calling out the BS that is the Bilt marketing scheme which is to pump up the credit card pumpers. Please do not misgender us.
Secondly, you have not heard from us in a while because you (thankfully) haven’t been pimping their inferior “product” recently. Further proof that it is inferior as if the program was any good (like Hyatt) it may make more appearances on your show.
Thirdly, look at the responses. As we send this- 9 likes on our post, 6 dislikes on your response. And we can 100% say none of those have come from us. Although shortly we will be disliking your sarcastic response.
Finally, the fact that you all are “worried” proves that we’re making a point. The fact that you never address this on a podcast, furthers our points. Bilt has you in their back pocket, like all the other blogs, and we’d love to hear you actually have an honest conversation about Bilt on your podcast but you never do. The old guy only ever points out that “Bilt also transfers to them” and the cool dad only ever says things like “This transfer bonus from Bilt actually has me interested in getting into the program”. Imagine the old guy, the Delta Diamond, raving about Delta without ever flying them- we’d all know that it was about $$$ in that case.
Please- we encourage you to actually write an HONEST review of Bilt like you cover other programs, or at least dedicate some time on your podcast to speaking honestly to the criticisms that we are all pointing out. Until then, all the dislikes will continue on your bilt sarcastic responses. We would respect you a lot more if you actually were honest about your reviews of them. Richy Rich however has obviously put a muzzle on you talking badly about them.
FYI to others: Bilt Shills regularly posts scathing comments like this one with accusations that we’ve been paid to write good things about Bilt, but when we respond, they fail to engage in any constructive debate and they never seem to take into account the fact, which we’ve declared many times, that we do not take any money from Bilt (or anyone else) for the content of our posts, we would NEVER let Bilt or anyone else tell us what we can or cannot write, and even if we did (but we don’t), earnings from our affiliate relationship with the Bilt credit card (which is the only way in which we have a financial relationship with Bilt) are not enough to even be a rounding error in our finances. It would be like suggesting that a hotel desk clerk gave someone a great upgrade because they gave a one penny tip. It’s ridiculous.
Regarding the Bilt elite status changes:
We just liked your post above, Old Guy. Appreciate the response, and on Christmas Day at that!! It may be the Christmas Miracle that we were looking for.
Now that you are engaging (no idea why you say we have never wanted to engage- we always engage and get wine boy Tim or Super Stephen instead of the old guy or the cool dad who are the real voices of FM) we urge you to continue giving fair coverage to Bilt. Yes, you may not have been paid for any of your Bilt trips, but you did nonetheless receive swanky trips to Moskito Island and other trips (We believe you were all together at a swanky Hyatt recently…). When, not if, they release some negative changes- report on them like you would any other program. That is all we’re asking for. Equal coverage. You trash on Delta/Marriott/Hilton and handily say “No deal/Terrible deal”, but whenever there is a Bilt “deal” you put it in the most positive light possible- the next Four Seasons invite being waved in your face, nonetheless.
Thats all we’re collectively asking for. And your readers are too.
While the amount of rage posted is excessive – and at the risk of ticking off some of my favorite people in the points and miles space (ya’ll rock) – I do think it’s a little bit disingenuous to say “we do not take any money from Bilt” and quietly leave out the complimentary trips and events they provide to you (not just you – it seems like pretty much all of the big names in the points and miles space).
I also think after years of listening to your podcasts and reading the site, it’s accurate to say that the normal vibe for a post about an elite program where you “don’t know anyone who has thought much at all about <insert company>’s elite program” would be something more like “already overlooked elite program doubles thresholds – why?”
I could also envision a hearty laugh at the podcast about it. I can imagine ya’ll joking, asking who was even using the program…saying how usually when a program increases thresholds it’s because they’re overwhelmed by usage and members (Delta’s excuse), but you can’t imagine how that would be the case since you think everyone overlooks this program, etc. etc.
Maybe that will be in the next episode! But, I sort of assume not given the tone of the post above.
TLDR it does seem to me like Bilt does get treated differently, and also the omission of free trips was surprising and disappointing (and seems intentional to me). I do have a high standard for FM though as I think you’re pretty much the cream of the crop!
Small note…I think under Gold you meant to say “25%” rather than “10%” (looks like a copy/paste error).
This is an excellent take, Adventure NML.
We too are BIG fans of Frequent Miler and we want that on the record. We as a group listen to all the podcasts, we text back and forth about them, we sign up for all our CCs through FMs links. Of all the blogs out there, Frequent Miler is the best and our goal in commenting on these posts was to get FM to (once again) set themselves apart but evidently they have been “paid” (through trips and other things) to give the BEST coverage of Bilt like all the other blogs. A real shame.
Thanks for this comment. I appreciate you pointing out specifics that we can address rather than accusing us of shilling.
To your first point about me leaving out the meetings/events when I said we never get paid by Bilt, I specifically wrote: “we do not take any money from Bilt (or anyone else) for the content of our posts, we would NEVER let Bilt or anyone else tell us what we can or cannot write”. That is all 100% true. There is nothing about the meetings we have attended that directly influence us to write anything one way or the other. If there was even a hint of anything suggesting that we had to write positive stuff we simply wouldn’t go to these. Note too that Tim is the one that wrote this post about the elite status changes and he has never gone to or been invited to a Bilt event of any kind.
Please see the question about this and my in-depth reply here: https://frequentmiler.com/the-single-best-deal-of-2023/#comment-2389914
I like your take on how we could have / should have joked about the changes on the podcast. That never occurred to us or maybe we would have done something just like that.
And finally thanks for pointing out Tim’s copy and paste mistake. I’ll fix that now.
Thanks for the comment, Adventure NML. Greg already responded to most of this, but just wanted to add a couple of things.
First off, Bilt has never provided anything free of charge for Stephen or I and we, by far, do the lion’s share of the writing that covers them. Everything that each of us has written about Bilt was our opinion and we’ve never received any marching orders from Nick or Greg (or, least of all, anyone at Bilt).
Even then, not only did Greg disclose that travel, he actually wrote an entire (and very transparent) blog post about it. I’d suggest giving it a read. It’s great and speaks to the integrity that he runs FM with.
You’ll also find the following on every single FM post:
I’m actually not a huge fan of this disclosure as I think it makes it sound like we accept more than we do. None of us ever accept gifts of status, points, money, etc. In the two years since I’ve been here, Stephen and I have declined every offer for paid travel that we’ve received. Nick and Greg have accepted lodging and flights to attend a meeting twice…in two years.
We say no to literally 90%+ of the requests we receive and only accept when we feel like there’s an informational gain that we can pass on to readers AND when it’s not simply a schmoozy event. There’s a lot of those schmoozy sorts of events put on by every single credit card issuer and travel program in the US…and they are well-attended by folks in the industry. We don’t attend them.
What you seem to interpret as an attempt to go light on Bilt’s elite change is, from my perspective, simply due to the incomplete nature of the current announcement AND that their elite program has been, up ’til now, a complete afterthought to us. It offered very little value. It still might not after these changes.
However, IF they add a lane to reach status through credit card spend AND provide meaningful milestone rewards, I think doubling the points thresholds could be a price worth paying for an elite program that’s actually meaningful. If the milestone rewards suck, then the program changes are much worse.
That said, Bilt is a credit card company, not a travel company. Comparing their loyalty program to United, Delta, American, Hilton, Hyatt etc is like apples to oranges because there’s nothing that we’re buying from them. Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt compete with each other and the loyalty of folks who stay in hotels, not with Bilt.
Comparing Bilt to other credit cards is appropriate, in my opinion.
Here’s a list of other issuers that don’t have an elite program at all: Chase, Amex, Citi, Barclays, US Bank, etc. Bilt is the only one that even tries to offer one. Given that, I don’t hold anything against them for having a lame elite program…it’s something that their competition doesn’t offer at all.
I don’t have any horse in this game. I don’t use Bilt, have a Bilt card nor know anyone at Bilt. This is just me (not Greg or Nick) passing on the info that I’ve received and giving my opinion…which is, effectively, incomplete. Now, I might be wrong in that opinion…but it has nothing to do with a trip that Greg and Nick took two years ago.
Where you stand on these changes depends on where you sit. For some, they are negative. For others, indifferent. For still others, positive. For me, the tier status changes have no effect but the 25k milestone awards will be gravy (if they are something I can use).
Yeah, I tend to agree. It’s all about the Milestone Rewards.
“Difficult to judge”
Really? Come on!
Does your tier status expire at the end of year and have to start over?
Your tier points start over at the beginning of the year, but your status is good for the year you earned it and the following year. Like most status programs.
Does Bilt still offer an informal signup bonus?
Hard to justify any regular spend on the card other than Rent Day absent significantly better elite perks. This is a massive devaluation. I have Gold with 50K points, but next year I’ll need 125K? – 150% more points. Zero. Point. Zero chance I’m going to spend $25K on the card with such lousy bonus categories. Meh.
Did you do spending outside of Rent Day before these changes? I’ve never had the card, but I think I’d have a hard time finding a use for it outside of the double awards on Rent Day.
I’m curious as to how much incentive these elite categories provided for folks beforehand.
Anyone in the points game should have a card that gives better rewards everywhere (dining 3x is easily matched by Chase), so I don’t think there’s much reason to spend on the Bilt card outside the 5x minimum to get points..
I only use this card for a college rent payment, I’m finding little other value. But as long as it’s no annual fee I’ll hang onto it
Yeah, for folks who rent this has always seemed like a no brainer to me.
Bilt is fine, but Bank of America Platinum Honors can open up better options, so not necessarily a no-brainer.
I suppose that’s true. If you rent and have the $100K in assets that you can move to get Platinum Honors, that could end up as a better option, depending on the payment processor you use.