Bilt Rent Day: May 2025

Tl;dr: Be sure to take advantage of Bilt’s recurring benefits and this month’s transfer benefit if you LUV Southwest; but the points probably aren’t good enough to justify a speculative transfer.

Bilt’s Rent Day is tomorrow, and that means the usual suite of goodies are back: double points on non-rent purchases (up to 1,000 bonus points), a chance to win free rent with the Rent Free game show, various free fitness classes (slots go fast!), and special dining and comedy experiences bookable with cash or Bilt points.

What’s new this month?

Bilt-Southwest transfer bonus

The highlight bonus this month? A transfer bonus to Bilt’s newest partner, Southwest Airlines (SWA):

• 25% for Blue (base) members

• 50% for Silver members

• 75% for Gold members

• 100% for Platinum members

With this bonus, even if you have no status at all, you can turn 50,000 Bilt points into 62,500 Rapid Rewards points. Members with status can earn even more, with Platinum members receiving 100,000 points for the same 50,000 Bilt points.

Bilt Amazon Bonus

Also special this month: a 25% bonus when using Bilt points at Amazon. Normally worth 0.7¢ each towards Amazon purchases, on Rent Day they will be worth 0.88¢.

Is it a good deal?

The Bilt Amazon bonus? No. It’s still way less than you could get redeeming the points for travel via the Bilt portal (1.25¢ each).

For the Southwest Points? Maybe! Southwest points are generally worth 1-1.2¢ each, though with their new dynamic pricing, it’s possible you could get more or less value. Assuming 1.1¢ per point, you could get the following values with the bonus:

• 1.37¢ for Blue (base) members

• 1.65¢ for Silver members

• 1.9¢ for Gold members

• 2.2¢ for Platinum members

There are some pros and cons to transferring points to Southwest. For me, the fact that I would have to fly Southwest—probably domestically, where I don’t do a ton of personal travel—to get that value would be a major con, but if you LUV Southwest or are a loyalist it might be a major pro.

Pros

Southwest has a huge domestic route network, so if you fly domestically at all, you’ll probably have a chance to use those SWA points. Plus, while SWA doesn’t fly too much internationally, there are some opportunities for international travel in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

SWA doesn’t pass on any fuel surcharges or any crazy fees, so you can expect your cash cost to use these Rapid Rewards points to be extremely low.

The new dynamic pricing presents the opportunity to find above-average value, so with the bigger bonuses, you could potentially clear 3¢ per Bilt point with the right redemption.

Cons

The new dynamic pricing (and trend toward devaluations) creates the risk of inefficient redemptions. Plus, you’ll have to run calculations to make sure you’re getting solid value (not lazy-friendly).

There’s no transoceanic or premium options (at least for now) if that’s your thing.

The main con, though, is the opportunity cost. You’ll miss out on the opportunity for more exciting redemptions like flying JAL to Japan. You’ll also be locked into flying SWA. Even if you get slightly more “value,” you would miss the opportunity and flexibility to use your Bilt points on the whole universe of flights, hotels, and rental cars available when booking via Bilt or transferring to other partners. With so many partners, Bilt points give you the opportunity to pounce on outstanding deals when they come along, but it’ll be harder to do so if your points are locked up in Rapid Rewards.

Conclusion

Once again, this month’s transfer bonus could be huge for the right person, but most people will probably want to skip it. I think even the Blue transfer bonus offers solid value—so much so that you’ll probably come out ahead relative to booking travel via the Bilt portal. But you’ll lose a lot of flexibility and miss out on more exciting uses of your points.

Regardless of whether you take advantage of the SWA bonus, though, Rent Day is a great day to make those necessary purchases you’ve been putting off and take advantage of double points on what was already one of the best cards on the market.