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Bilt is back at it with a new way for members to earn rewards. Much like the dining programs offered by airlines and hotel programs, Bilt has now launched its own dining program — fittingly called “Bilt Dining” — where members can earn points for eating at eligible restaurants.
Let's take a look at the details of this new program.
New Bilt Dining and Bilt Wallet Programs
If you're unfamiliar with how dining portals work, the process goes something like this:
- Enroll in the program
- Link your credit or debit card to your membership
- Eat at participating restaurants
- Pay with your linked card
- Earn points on the bill
The process is the same for nearly all dining programs, and Bilt's Dining is just the same. Since it's newly launched, its locations are a little limited; you can only find participating restaurants in New York City, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, and Chicago — though more are meant to come.
Bilt has also introduced Bilt Wallet — which allows anyone with a Bilt account to link their cards and use them for purchases at eligible restaurants.
Earning Bilt Points Through Bilt Dining
The headline is that you can earn up to 11x Bilt points per $1 spent through Bilt Dining. However, there's a serious caveat to this. In order to earn the full 11x, you must have The Bilt Mastercard® (Rates & Fees), use the card to pay for Bilt Dining on Rent Day (the first of the month), and have enough qualifying transactions during the month to earn rewards.
At a minimum, you'll earn 5x Bilt points when using any other card to pay — or 8x if you use a Bilt Mastercard and have enough qualifying activities during the rest of the month.
Earning 5x points on any dining program is a good deal, but the prospect gets much better when you take a look at Bilt's transfer partners.
Why Earning Bilt Points on Dining is a Big Deal
Although it's still a fairly new program, Bilt has some extremely valuable transfer partners, including American Airlines and World of Hyatt. Points transfer over at a 1:1 ratio, which means that 1 Bilt point becomes 1 hotel or airline point.
Having the ability to earn 5x points per $1 spent — plus whatever points you're earning with your credit card — is a pretty compelling option.
As an example, let's say you'd like to transfer your Bilt points over to Hyatt. Hyatt maintains a semi-fixed award chart in which you'll pay a specified amount of points per night based on the hotel's category and whether it's a peak, standard, or off-peak night. A Category 1 hotel at Hyatt starts at just 3,500 points per night on off-peak dates.
Eating and paying with an enrolled card will earn you 5x points for every dollar, which means you'll need to spend just $700 on restaurants before getting yourself a free night at a Hyatt. That's an industry-leading return and more than you'd receive anywhere else.
Bottom Line
The new Bilt Dining program joins many others that aim to reward you for your membership. Although it's limited in scope, you'll want to sign up if you're in an eligible city. After all, it's free and it earns you points. What's there to lose?
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