Bilt Rewards, a loyalty program identified for letting customers earn rewards on lease and its co-branded bank card, retains increasing its listing of switch companions. As of Oct. 10, 2024, Bilt has added two extra switch companions: TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go and Accor Stay Limitless (ALL). Now you can switch Bilt Rewards factors to TAP at a 1:1 ratio and Accor at 3:2 ratio.
These new companions offer you extra flexibility in how you utilize your Bilt factors. TAP Air Portugal, a Star Alliance member, opens up alternatives for reasonably priced flights to Europe and past. In the meantime, Accor Stay Limitless expands your resort choices, particularly in Europe and luxurious markets.
Extra choices are normally a superb factor, however on this case — until you may have a particular sweet-spot award in thoughts — these companions are largely a wash in comparison with others already accessible by means of Bilt Rewards.
Earlier than transferring, make certain to guage your journey plans and think about potential drawbacks, corresponding to award availability and point-transfer ratios. These companions may be useful for European journey particularly, however you must run the numbers to get essentially the most out of your Bilt factors.
TAP Miles&Go overview
TAP Miles&Go has a number of aggressive mileage redemptions for award flights between the U.S. and Europe, Europe and Africa and inside Asia. You possibly can guide one-way business-class flights to Europe for comparatively low level prices in comparison with different airways on sure journey days. That’s an enormous benefit in case your dates are versatile.
TAP can also be a Star Alliance member, which suggests you may guide award flights on over two dozen accomplice airways. That sounds spectacular, however Bilt Rewards members are spoiled for alternative with different Star Alliance airways. Bilt Rewards additionally switch at a 1:1 ratio to:
TAP Miles&Go candy spots
TAP Miles&Go redemption charges range. Should you’re versatile with dates, you could find some offers together with:
One-way in enterprise class between the U.S. and Europe for 100,000 miles with minimal taxes and charges.
One-way in financial system between the U.S. and Europe for 29,000 miles.
One-way in enterprise class between Europe and Africa for 66,000 miles.
TAP Miles&Go drawbacks
There are some main hurdles to utilizing the TAP Miles&Go program. First, TAP’s web site is notoriously buggy and may be troublesome to make use of.
As soon as you’ll be able to run searches, the award costs additionally will not be meaningfully cheaper than what you could find with different airways. Award availability may be restricted, particularly for business-class seats. Some routes might embrace surcharges, which cut back the general worth of your factors.
If you’re flying TAP Air Portugal on miles, the route will nearly all the time require you to attach in Portugal, which may be inconvenient for individuals flying to different locations.
So whereas including TAP Miles&Go as a Bilt switch accomplice is a constructive improvement for a number of particular use circumstances, most Bilt Rewards members must also examine different switch choices.
Full listing of Bilt switch companions
Accor Stay Limitless (ALL) overview
Accor Stay Limitless is one other area of interest, new switch accomplice for Bilt. The Accor portfolio consists of well-known manufacturers like Fairmont, Sofitel and Ibis, providing choices from budget-friendly to luxurious stays. This makes ALL a possible choice for European journey or high-end properties world wide.
ALL award stays
ALL doesn’t have any candy spots. As an alternative, the rewards operate extra like a rebate program — and each 2,000 factors is price 40 euros (or about $44) towards the money worth of your keep.
Should you switch 3,000 Bilt Rewards, you’d get 2,000 ALL factors. So 3,000 Bilt factors could be price round $44, or roughly 1.5 cents every. That’s not a foul redemption contemplating different resort manufacturers like Marriott are solely price about 0.9 cent every when redeemed for award stays — and that is with a 1:1 switch ratio with Bilt.
You may use ALL factors for reasonably priced resort stays in Europe, particularly at mid-range manufacturers like Novotel and Ibis. As a result of this system doesn’t require you to pay for the complete reserving in factors, you might additionally use a mixture of money and factors to offset the excessive value of luxurious accommodations like Fairmont and Sofitel properties.
ALL drawbacks
Contemplating the worth of ALL factors is mounted, you could possibly notice larger worth on an award stick with one other resort program.
Bilt Rewards additionally companions with Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt — all of which have comparatively giant resort collections. It’s a must to be actually dedicated to staying at an Accor resort to redeem your Bilt factors this manner. The three:2 switch ratio may nonetheless cut back the worth of your factors in comparison with different 1:1 resort switch companions.
Accor has a restricted footprint within the U.S., making it much less interesting if most of your journey is home.
Prime picture courtesy of TAP Air Portugal.