Only a Few Rent Days Left: Is It Time to Spend Bilt Cash?

Bilt’s September Rent Day is fine. Can we do better?

August 30, 2026

This Tuesday is Bilt Rent Day and Bilt is getting back in the transfer bonus groove with special offers when moving points to Virgin Atlantic, depending on your Bilt status level:

  • Blue members: 25% bonus

  • Silver members: 35% bonus

  • Gold members: 45% bonus

  • Platinum members: 75% bonus

Bilt members can redeem $200 in Bilt Cash to move up to the next level, or up to a 100% bonus for Platinum members, with a maximum redemption of 150,000 Bilt points. 

This is good, not great. Virgin points have their moments, but the high fees, slightly inflexible awards, and occasional booking gymnastics leave me underwhelmed. And it’s fairly common to see 30-40% transfer bonuses to Virgin from other banks, so unless you have Platinum status with Bilt, there’s nothing too special about this offer. 

The harder question is whether to wait for something better.

There are only three Rent Days left this year after September, and then most Bilt Cash will expire, with a maximum of $100 rolling over into the new year. There have been some solid Rent Days over the past few years (TPG has a history here), but there has only been one showstopping bonus this year, and that was in March. Since then, Bilt has capped transfers, raised the amount of Bilt Cash needed to “buy up” to a higher bonus, and largely offered bonuses to loyalty programs that are useful but offer limited baseline value for simple economy travel. 

Whether it’s worth spending Bilt Cash depends heavily on your status. Valuing Virgin points at 1¢ apiece, a Blue or Silver member would have to transfer 100,000 Bilt points just to generate $100 in additional points by spending $200 in Bilt Cash to move up a tier. But a Gold member could transfer around 67k points to get about $200 worth of extra points from redeeming Bilt Cash. 

Lazy Take 🦥

September’s Virgin bonus won’t be too exciting for most Blue or Silver members. The transfer ratios and Bilt Cash opportunities are more appealing for Gold and Platinum members, particularly if they’re sitting on Bilt Cash they’ll need to use before year-end. There could still be a better Rent Day coming—but with only three chances left, waiting is becoming a gamble.

This week on the blog 📝

The Atmos Summit launched a year ago. I wrote about my experience and why it’s still my favorite card a year later, despite some hiccups. 

Quick Points of the Week ⚡

Major News 🚨

U.S. airlines on new-route spree. There’s a race to add interesting new destinations, with American (Porto!), United (Okinawa!), Delta (Paris... from Austin!), and Alaska (Athens!) all announcing splashy new routes. It’s partly (mostly?) a push to attract credit card loyalty. 

Special offers ✨

Big Paze promo ending soon. You can get $10 off a $10+ purchase with digital wallet Paze and the right card and merchant combo, but the offer ends September 10. Katie’s Travel Tricks has a guide to redeeming this offer for $10 Dunkin gift cards. There’s even a way to use the promo to donate to St. Jude’s. 🕊️

Devaluations 📉

Frontier decimates elite benefits. Elite status used to make the flying experience on the ultra-low-cost carrier a bit more bearable, but the airline is slashing most of the key benefits of pursuing elite status—or a credit card—with them. (View From the Wing)

Enter to Win 🎟️ 

Win a million Atmos points with T-Mobile. You don’t need to be a customer to enter. (Dan’s Deals)

New features 🆕

Google Flights adds award pricing to searches. This could be a game changer for finding award flight deals (for free), but the rollout is limited to a few programs for now. (Upgraded Points)

Rove launches app and more. There are some big improvements for Rove users, including the ability to earn miles through dining. (Award Wallet) If you want to give it a try, you can earn 1,500 miles by signing up through the right referral bonus, like the one in this article from Zach Griff. 

Nerdy Points 🤓

Washington residents get football season benefits. Even if you’re not a Seahawks fan, this football promo has perks worth signing up for. (Delta) 

Last chance ⏳

Wells Fargo points pooling ending soon. September 25th is the last day to transfer points to other Wells Fargo accounts, so if you want to combine points, do it while you can. (Frequent Miler)

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. 

This week we saw possibly the highest-ever offers on Delta’s co-branded Amex Cards:

  • 80,000 SkyMiles plus a $250 statement credit on the Gold after spending $3,000 in the first 6 months

  • 90,000 SkyMiles plus a $300 statement credit on the Platinum after spending $4,000 in the first 6 months

  • 50,000 SkyMiles plus two round-trip Delta Comfort Flight Certificates on the Reserve after spending $10,000 in the first 6 months

Keep in mind, though, that these are “as high as” offers, so you might actually be offered less, although if so you should be able to decline the card without a hard credit pull.

I think the Delta Gold card is sneakily one of the best starter cards on the market (that recently got even better), so even though elevated offers come around pretty frequently on this card, I would consider the maximum bonus here to be one of the better offers of the year. 🔥🔥🔥

I love the Platinum, too, but I generally don’t recommend people starting with that card due to Amex’s card-family rules that can bar you from getting a bonus on a lower-tier card once you’ve had the higher-tier version. But this is still about as good an offer as we’ve seen on a very solid mid-tier airline card. 🔥🔥

As for the Reserve, the same card-family rules apply, but the opportunity to receive two free flights, in Delta Comfort, no less, is a fascinating offer. Those flights are limited to the lower 48 states plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and can be used through January 2028, with no blackout dates beyond a requirement to book more than 21 days in advance. If used for peak travel on an expensive route, they could be very valuable, at least if you expect to need some expensive domestic travel over the next year. This deal won’t be right for everyone, but for the right person it could be a truly incredible 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: 🔥🔥)

150k points + $250 on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant (our take: 🔥🔥)

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

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

Lazy Pick ✅ (Sponsored)

Escape the sun with a UV umbrella. I love Japan, but I nearly melted during our recent summer trip to Tokyo. Thankfully, I had this umbrella with UPF 50 protection that made the mid-day strolls tolerable. While I loved the small size for portability, I did find that it was not quite big enough to fully shade two people, so if you want that you might want a larger option like this one. And I hear they’re helpful in the rain, too!

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Enjoy the weekend! 🦥

I’m going to go get some donuts. 🍩

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 🦥