I Have a Bilt Cash Problem

We’re nearly six months into Bilt 2.0, and while my experience has been very positive overall, a recent purchase highlighted both the power and the frustration of the new Bilt ecosystem.

One of our cats needed expensive surgery (don’t worry—she’s recovered, cone-free, and causing trouble like new 🐈‍⬛). Ideally, I would like to use a big expense like that to get a welcome bonus on a new card, but it wasn’t an option for us this time. So I had to choose which card would be best for this purchase—one that would not fall into any bonus category like travel or dining. 

I love my Bilt Palladium because, by keeping the Point Accelerator active, I can earn 3x points on all my purchases. But the purchase came just as I was reaching the end of my $5,000 activation. Even though I still had plenty of room under the $25,000 annual cap, Bilt frustratingly doesn’t allow automatic or rolling reactivation. That meant that virtually the entire vet bill earned only 2x on my Palladium. 

But the thing is, even at 2x, the Palladium was the best option by far. Sure, my Venture X also earns 2x, but Bilt Points are far more valuable. And that’s before factoring in the Bilt Cash. I also got 4% Bilt Cash on the whole purchase. Hundreds of dollars in Bilt Cash is obviously better than nothing—it might even be worth more than the points would have been. But it’s also a new problem: now I have to figure out what to do with all that Bilt Cash. Luckily, I already wrote myself a guide, but now I need to plan around hotel bookings, Lyft trips, and Rent Day bonuses to burn a pile of Bilt Cash I wasn’t planning on having (and before it, also annoyingly, expires at the end of the year). 

Lazy Take 🦥

It’s the quintessential Bilt 2.0 experience: losing points to frustrating technicalities and ending up with a glut of a second rewards currency that pushes you deeper into Bilt’s partnership ecosystem. And yet, I still walked away with more rewards value than any other card could have delivered. I may be lazy, but that is too good to pass up.

This week on the blog 📝

Wondering how valuable the Amex Platinum’s fancy hotel credit is? I wrote about why I’ve never used it—but how you could potentially put it to use, especially if you like to splurge on luxury hotels. 

Quick Points of the Week ⚡

Mark your calendar 📅

Bilt Rent Day is coming. The details for Rent Day on August 1 weren’t available when I queued this newsletter, but keep an eye out for this month’s deal. We’ll have a quick analysis on the blog on Wednesday. 

New features 🆕

Seats.aero adds Google Chrome extension. Now you can use the (paid) award search service to see award options when running Google Flights searches. I prefer Roame’s simpler interface, but I like Seats.aero and I’ll try to test these features myself one of these days. (TPG)

Devaluations 📉

Singapore limits award searches. KrisFlyer is already a niche program, and now if you don’t have points in the program, you can’t search to see if a transfer might make sense. (View From the Wing)

Notable Transfer Bonuses ⬆️

Citi → Flying Blue (20%). Flying Blue points can be useful at times, but award deals can be tricky to find and the fees were already higher than I liked before the latest increase. Personally, I’d stick with AA redemptions for Citi points, but if you are planning travel, it might be worth checking whether this bonus makes a specific Flying Blue redemption worth booking. 

Deals 🏷️

Use Capital One miles for baseball tickets. This is a pretty good recurring deal and a cool option if you’re not aware of it. But I have never actually been able to find these tickets in the wild, so it might take some dedication to take advantage. ⚾ (Thrifty Traveler)

Rumors 👀

Are JAL transfers coming to Citi? Some changes to Citi’s website suggest they might be. Though this might not mean much unless that disappearing award space comes back. (Upgraded Points)

New Amex Green card on the way? The Amex Green Card has desperately needed a refresh for years, and now the card is closed for new applications, with existing cards being rebranded to “Classic Green.” (Frequent Miler)

Hacks 🧑‍💻

Negotiate your Airbnb price. File this under “not lazy,” but Points Path has some tips if you want to haggle your way to savings. 

Sign up bonus of the week 🎯

Links marked with an * are affiliate or referral links, meaning we may earn if you apply via our link. 

It’s the last chance to catch the 100,000-point bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred.* The best-ever offer on this card is ending on July 30th, and I’m looking forward to it! My “promotions” inbox overfloweth with emails singing the praises of the CSP in general and this bonus in particular, and inviting me to apply. 

Honestly, it’s a good card (finally). If you’re just getting into points, it’s definitely one of my top recommendations. And I signed up last year to get the 100k points and had my mom get one too. Sure, I’m mostly underwhelmed by those points, but there’s so many that they can definitely open up some impressive travel opportunities (do a quick Google search and you’ll find no shortage of “oh the places you’ll go” takes). So I have to admit that the hype train is somewhat justified. 

Since we just saw this bonus last year, I’m less inclined to view this as a can’t-miss opportunity, but this is still a truly special bonus on a very solid card. And if the card makes sense for you, there are only a few days left to get it with 25k more points than the standard offer. 🔥🔥🔥 

Other great sign-up bonuses this week

50,000 points+ $300 Bilt Cash + Bilt Gold status on the Bilt Palladium (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)

80k miles on the Citi AA Platinum Select (our take: 🔥🔥)

175k points on the Hilton Aspire (our take: 🔥🔥) ends 7/29

100k points on the JetBlue Premier (our take: 🔥)

125k pts + 1 night on the Marriott Boundless (our take: 🔥)

100k points and $100 on the Hilton Honors (our take: 🔥) ends 7/29

60k points on the Choice Privileges Mastercard (our take: 🔥) 

45-75k points on the World of Hyatt Card (our take: 🔥)

Up to 100/175k on the Amex Gold/Platinum (our take)

How we rate bonus offers. 

Lazy Pick ✅ (Referral)

Pet insurance can save the day. Our cat’s surgery cost over $5,000, but thankfully 90% of the bill was reimbursed by our insurance company, Pets Best. We’ve paid premiums since our cats were kittens, and this was the first year we ever filed a claim. It ended up protecting us from a major financial disruption. We have had a good experience, and if you are interested you can check out our referral link. If you get a quote, Pets Best will donate $25 to a pet-focused charity like American Humane, Canine Companions, or Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary.

Enjoy the weekend! 🦥

Take care of your furry friends if you have them! (If you don’t, you can use points to go to Japan and visit a cat cafe.)

Sometimes we include referral or affiliate links (we’ll mark them clearly). If you use them, we may earn a commission—never at extra cost to you. We do our best to share great offers, but always double-check for the best deal available. Thanks for supporting LazyPoints 🦥