TODAY ONLY: Up to 125% Japan Airlines (JAL) transfer bonus with Bilt Rent Day!

I wrote about this a few days ago, when this promotion was first announced. I wanted to post a reminder, just because it’s a pretty rare thing that could be pretty valuable for those planning trip to Japan or elsewhere in Asia. My husband and I have already transferred points from Bilt to JAL, and also temporarily upgraded our status tier to get more points.

We made use of this promotion already: what did we do?

Much of the content below is just a duplication from the previous post, from a few days ago, and I kept it for your convenience. So, I wanted to add some notes on what it is that we did with this promotion, and why we did it like that.

First of all, we upgraded our Bilt status tier temporarily for the cost of 135 Bilt Cash. Our tier was blue, meaning we got 25% transfer bonus, and we temporarily upgraded to silver, to get a 50% transfer bonus. We calculated that this would be a good deal, given the amount of points we planned to transfer:

You receive Bilt Cash from non-housing purchases at a rate of 4%. As such, 135 Bilt cash corresponds to $3375 of ‘actual’ non-housing’ spending.
Consider the equivalent value that we could extract from housing: 4500 points, since you get 1000 points for every 30 Bilt Cash.
So, I conservatively value points at 1 cent per point and then seek to get 2 cent per point value out of it. To get that, I’d probably want to get at least 9000 points out of this.
To get 9000 points bonus, I’d need to transfer 36000 points.
Since we planned to transfer enough to get at least 2 business class tickets with JAL, at 55k-75k a piece, we would need to transfer 88k-120k points if we only got a 25% boost, while we’d need to transfer only 74k-100k points with a 50% boost (and gain 36-50k points for free!).
At these amounts, the status boost is absolutely worth it!

Hence, we boosted our tier from Blue to Silver for today only, allowing us to extract exceedingly good value. Then, we simply transferred the points at the amounts needed to book the flights down the line.

What is Bilt?

For those not familiar, Bilt is a credit card that allows you to pay your rent or mortgage. it’s been a popular card for renters for a long time given how easy it’s been to earn points on rent for a few years now. Ultimately it was perhaps too good to be true and earning points on rent has been made quite a bit harder since early February, since there are particular spending requirements now for earning points on rent. However, as part of those changes, points on mortgages have now been enabled, so that’s nice. For all the details on how to earn points with Bikt on rent, see my full analysis.

Part of the Bilt ecosystem are also three credit card, from a basic no annual fee card, to the premium Palladium card with a $495 annual fee. Each have their pros and cons, but I have argued that the Palladium card is the most notifying and should allow to recoup the annual fee while also earning Bilt points at a good rate.

In the end, I think that the major point of interest with Bilt is in its Bilt Rewards points currency and specifically the transfer partners that it offers. That brings us to Bilt Rent Day, and the Rent Day promotion for March.

*Since Bilt 2.0 the full credit card portfolio includes three credit cards.*

What is Bilt Rent Day?

‘Bilt Rent Day’ is a monthly promo that runs on the first day of every month. Here ‘Rent Day’ refers to the first of the month, since that’s typically when rent is due. The Rent Day promotion usually has a standing component, namely 2x on points earning on top of your card’s usually earning rates on all the non-rent purchases you do on the first of the month, and a revolving component.

In the past, these revolving components of the Rent Day promotions have included all sorts of perks, from transfer bonuses and increased points earning rates to credits at select merchants. Typically, the bonuses are tiered, such that those with higher Bilt status will be able to reap greater benefits from these promotions. Importantly, whatever the promotion is, it’s only for the first of the month! So, make use of it while it’s live if it’s something you’re interested in!

Bilt Rent Day Promotion for March: up to 125% Transfer Bonus

For the March Bilt Rent Day promotion, live on March 1st (and only March 1st!) Bilt is offering a transfer bonus to Japan Airlines (JAL). The bonus is tiered:

Those with Bilt Blue get a 25% bonus.
Those with Bilt Silver get a 50% bonus.
Those with Bilt Gold get a 75% bonus.
Those with Bilt Platinum get a 100% bonus.

Note that you can use Bilt Cash to upgrade your status by one tier temporarily, for a 135$ Bilt Cash. Those with Bilt Platinum can use the same amount of Bilt Cash to ‘upgrade’ their transfer bonus to 125%. See my calculation on its worth at the start of this post.

Normally you can transfer Bilt points to JAL at a 1:1 rate, so temporarily you could get up to a 1:2 transfer rate (that’s if you are platinum and don’t choose to upgrade your bonus). I don’t think we have ever seen a bonus like this on points strangers to JAL Mileage Bank, so if you have any plans to book JAL award tickets, this could be a very valuable opportunity.

Keep in mind that booking your award tickets for JAL through JAL Mileage Bank can be more expensive (in terms of points needed) than through programs like Alaska Atmos and American AAdvantage. However, JAL’s schedule opens up 360 days in advance, which can be a major benefit as I found that by the time Alaska and American calendars open, JAL award tickets are essentially booked up. And the prices aren’t so bad either: get a business class ticket from Chicago to Tokyo on the older business class seat in JAL’s 777 starting at 55.000 points, while I’ve generally seen tickets on JAL’s A350 with a newer, and highly coveted, business class seat, from DFW to Tokyo for 75.000 points and from New York from 110.000 points. But, it can be lower than that too – that’s just what I’ve seen recently.

*JAL A350 business class is highly coveted…*

Be aware of JAL’s terms

Before you transfer any points, you should absolutely familiarize yourself with some of JAL’s terms:

You cannot redeem any points from JAL Mileage Bank within the first 60 days of opening your Mileage Bank account. If you’re opening your account just now, you should still be able to transfer the points and cash in on the bonus’s but you won’t be able to redeem just yet.
JAL Mileage Bank miles have a strict 36 month expiration date. You can book seats tickets that are past expiration, but there is no way to extend the validity of the miles. As such, don’t transfer if you don’t have a clear purpose in mind.
You can only redeem Mileage Bank miles for blood relatives or somebody like a spouse. So, a girlfriend or other friends is not allowed. I have read stories, however of people doing just that and not having any issues, but it’s a risk you may not want to take.

*You can’t redeem JAL Mileage Bank award tickets for just anybody.*

Don’t forget about Capital One’s JAL transfer bonus!

Note: this ended yesterday!

Note that Bilt isn’t the only JAL transfer partner out there. There is also Capital One, but ordinarily their transfer ratio is an unfortunate 1:0.75, so less than ideal. However, until February 28 Capital One is running a 30% transfer bonus that allows transfers at a very near 1:1 ratio. Personally I find Bilt points more valuable than Capital One points, due to the respective transfer partners of each currency. As such I have already made use of this transfer bonus. I will also transfer some Bilt points to JAL, as I have a clear goal in mind for a vacation next year, but will only transfer the minimum required. This leaves a stash of Bilt points for another time.

Summary

Bilt announced the March 1st Rent Day Promotion, which will be an awesome transfer bonus to Japan airlines! You can get up to 125% transfer bonus, and if you have any plan of booking a JAL award ticket, I think this is a great opportunity to get some extra JAL Mileage Bank miles.