Rewards Bilt and Point.me are two helpful programs that have entered the award travel space over the past few years. Bilt Rewards is the rewards program of Bill Mastercard®, which allows you to earn points for paying rent. While, Point.me aggregates search for prizes from multiple airline loyalty programs into one list of results.
You can sync your loyalty account with Point.me to get recommendations to use your existing points and miles to book reward flights. Point.me has long supported major transferable currencies such as Chase the ultimate reward and American Express Membership Rewardsbut not Bilt Rewards — until this year.
Earlier this month, Point.me added search support for Bilt Rewards and its transfer partners. And Wednesday, Bilt announced a new integration with Point.me. Here’s what you need to know.
Related: Should you use a Bilt Mastercard? Why it is a game changer for renters
Using Point.me in the Bilt . App
Bilt members can now enjoy what Bilt calls a “Bilt Remittance Partner experience” using the Point.me-powered search within the Bilt app. You can now see real-time rewards availability for all airline programs you can Transfer Points Bilt. In particular, you’ll see availability for:
To search for reward flights with these partners, log into your Bilt Rewards app and navigate to the “Rewards” screen. Select the “Travel” tab, tap “Flights,” then tap “Transfer Partner.” You will see a screen on which you can enter your departure point, destination, departure date, return date (if desired), number of passengers and desired class of seats.
After tapping “Search”, you’ll see a screen with results.
If you find a rewards flight that you want to book, you can transfer your Bilt points to a rewards program of your choice from within the Bilt app.
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Bilt members can continue to use the Point.me website as usual (with the addition of Bilt Rewards as a transfer partner) after signing up for a Point.me plan or purchasing a day pass. And the benefit of doing so is that you will also see results from programs that are not a Bilt transfer partner. But now, Bilt members don’t need to pay for a Point.me day pass or sign up if they just want to search on airline loyalty programs that partner with Bilt Rewards.
Only active Bilt members can use the Point.me rewards search feature built into the Bilt Rewards app. I’m not an active member, because I don’t pay rent and see no reason to add payment Mastercard into my wallet. So I can’t see any results after downloading the Bilt Rewards app, creating an account and doing a search query.
Related: How long does it take for Bilt Rewards points to be transferred?
Since this post is about Bilt, I should mention that some Bilt members have recently been fraudulently charged on their Bilt Mastercard. Credit card fraud It’s not uncommon, but one TPG employee reported, “Everybody I know with the card has had problems, both in and out of the world of prize travel.” In a statement to Regular MillerBilt Rewards notes that this is the result of “BIN attacks”, where randomly generated card numbers are used to make fraudulent purchases.
I won’t let this credit card fraud prevent me from signing up for the Bilt Mastercard if I feel it’s the right card for me. Again, fraudulent charges are relatively common, although we’re not sure how common the Bilt attack is. As long as you keep track of your account transactions and bring a lot of cardsRecent cheating issues would be a minor inconvenience.
Regardless, if you have a Bilt Mastercard in your wallet, keep a close eye on your account and report any fraudulent transactions as soon as you see them.
Related: Credit card fraud vs identity theft — how to tell the difference
bottom line
It’s great to see this new Point.me and Bilt Rewards integration. Point.me is a great resource for award-winning travelers, as it makes finding and booking award-winning travel easier regardless of your points and miles knowledge. .
Of course, you’ll want to check all your redemption options before transferring your Bilt Rewards points to an airline partner. In some cases, you may find that redeem Bilt reward points for travel through Travel portal Bilt . Rewards offer better value. When booking travel through the portal, you will receive a redemption value of 1.25 cents per point. It’s also worth considering the value of non-airline Bilt Rewards transfer partners, such as Hyatt’s Worldwhere usually get 2 cents or more per value point for staying at the hotel.
