Disclosure: I serve on an advisory board for Bilt and may earn a commission if you use the links below.
Every month, Bilt runs a promo for Rent Day (the first of the month). These promos offer the opportunities to transfers points with a bonus, status match, earn bonus points, and more.
Virgin Voyages Promo
Bilt has partnered with Virgin Voyages to offer some extra benefits on bookings including the ability bring a second guest for no additional cost plus the following:
To take advantage of the offer, you must book by August 1, 2024 at 11:59pm PT.
From Bilt: "In order for a Bilt member to be eligible for the Bilt Exclusive Benefits on their cruise, they must request benefits in the Bilt app after making their Virgin Voyages booking. Members should activate the benefits by entering their name, email, and booking reference number in the Virgin Voyages Travel Experience tab of the Bilt app or website. "
Bilt x BLADE Summer Party
Blade will be hosting this party at their NYC lounges on August 1. You can start at BLADE Lounge West before taking helicopter over Manhattan to BLADE Lounge East. Once there, you'll be able to enjoy music, food, and drinks with other Bilt members.
There are 3 types of tickets:
Your Bilt status determines when you can purchase tickets on July 29, 2024:
Double Bilt Points
On the first of every month, you can earn double points on all non-rent spend up to *10,000 bonus points when you use your Bilt Rewards Card. This includes bonus categories:
Just remember you need to make 5 purchases per billing cycle to earn points.
*The cap on Rent Day bonus points will be reduced to 1,000 bonus points as of October 1, 2024.
Points Wire Note:
If you're interested in applying for the Bilt Rewards card, you can learn more here.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club continues to have trouble booking Air France and KLM flights. There's now a note on the site that indicates they expect this will be an issue until "the start of August."
We'll keep an eye out for an update on this. Hopefully, they actually fix the issue by August!
Skift: "Emirates flies almost a million passengers every week, making it one of the world’s largest international airlines. As part of this, its Skywards program aims to boost loyalty to the brand, converting first-time customers into Emirates devotees."
"The scheme has seen its membership base triple in the last nine years. It currently has around 35 million members, of which five million have made a transaction in the past 12 months."
Points Wire Note:
In the last few years, Emirates Skywards has devalued their award rates significantly, reintroduced carrier-imposed surcharges on award ticket, and then increased carrier-imposed surcharges.
At this point, it's hard to justify using Emirates miles to book award tickets to or connecting in Dubai if other options are available. The only options that I regularly consider are their fifth freedom routes JFK to Milan and Newark to Athens since the rates aren't terrible and they don't tack on surcharges to awards.
Keep in mind that business class on the Newark-Athens route currently has an old 2-3-2 business class cabin layout and angled flat seats.
One Mile At A Time: "Well, British Airways sure found an interesting way to celebrate the July 4th holiday in the United States. The airline has just hugely jacked up redemption rates on both Alaska and American, and this is a painful devaluation. This is the second time we’ve seen such a devaluation on these redemptions in recent months, and at this point there’s almost no value with these awards"
New Economy Award Rates By Flight Distance
Let's take a look at the new award rates and what the rates were prior now. Keep in mind that this is the second devaluation since December 2023. That's two devaluations in about 7 months.
New Business Class Award Rates By Flight Distance
Hilton slowly rolled out a few SLH properties on their platform in the last month or so. However, they've now unveiled 390 SLH properties which are now bookable with Hilton points.
Benefits by Hilton status level:
Generally, the Hilton award rates aren't particularly compelling although a 5th night free award could make it worth using points.
Points Wire Note:
Many SLH properties can be booked with VIP perks via Virtuoso or SLH withIN. With these programs, you can get an upgrade on arrival (if available), daily breakfast for 2, a $100 property credit, etc. at many properties. When you factor in the benefits of booking a cash rate with benefits, the award rates start to be less intriguing in many cases.
You can search for hotels with VIP perks here.
Update: The promo is live.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club will be running a 40% discount on award flights to celebrate its 40th birthday. Here are the details:
Points Wire Note:
Previously, when Virgin Atlantic has run discounted award rates, it's been possible to include a connection on a partner airline from Paris or Amsterdam on Air France or KLM, respectively. While the connection on a partner airline hasn't received the discount, the Virgin Atlantic flight from London to the U.S. has been.
The benefit of adding the connection is to avoid the Air Passenger Duty (APD) fee when starting your journey from the UK. The APD fee on a business class ticket to the U.S. is over $200.
Hilton has announced the benefits that will be available to members at Small Luxury Hotels (SLH) properites:
The first SLH properties available via Hilton include:
Head for Points: "As of this Monday, Virgin Atlantic is selling and putting its own flight numbers on EL AL flights between London and Tel Aviv. This will be reciprocated with EL AL flight numbers on Virgin Atlantic’s flights to Tel Aviv when they relaunch on 5th September."
"Virgin Atlantic has now confirmed that you will be able to use Virgin Points for EL AL flights from 19th June."
Frequent Miler: "We’re not sure how long this has been the case, but awards for travel on American Airlines are now bookable on the Cathay Pacific website. That’s a nice development because you can sometimes score a better deal with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles than via American Airlines themselves."
Nick from Frequent Miler flagged a useful stack for people who use a lot of LifeMiles.
"I tried my best to convince Greg to love Avianca LifeMiles. Just in time to teach him how powerful LifeMiles can be for his last-minute booking needs, Avianca LifeMiles has launched a 15% transfer bonus when transferring from Amex Membership Rewards points to Avianca LifeMiles."
"Those who subscribe to LifeMiles+ (or who got the Elite credit card for its free subscription) will enjoy a 10% rebate when redeeming — so the two can combine to make for a really good deal."
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In August 2018, I started the Straight To The Points flight alerts newsletter with the goal of making it easier to book business and first class flights with points & miles and fare deals.
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