Manifesto Episode 28: Bilt Rewards with Richard Kerr

Today's Podcast comes to you from Gideon The Freequent Flyer who has a companion piece to this podcast on his site.

Hello and welcome to The Manifesto with Gideon the Free-quent Flyer on the Milenomics Podcast Network. I am Gideon the Free-quent Flyer and I’m joined today by the Director of Travel Rewards at Bilt Rewards, Richard Kerr. Richard, welcome to the Manifesto.

[0:30] Plugs

Social: @KerrPoints everywhere

Bilt Rewards: https://www.biltrewards.com/

[2:35] Background

• What was your path into the rewards industry? Did you start as a travel hacker, as a writer, or on the business side? What was your biggest score/favorite play, on the earnings or redemption side? What do you like most these days in terms of rewards programs?

[8:25] Bilt Rewards - overview

• 3 legged stool: partner rewards, landlords, credit card
• Loyalty programs: 1:1 transfer to American Airlines AAdvantage, Air Canada’s Aeroplan, Emirates Skywards, FlyingBlue, Turkish Miles & Smiles, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, HawaiianMiles, World of Hyatt, IHG Rewards
• Credit card: white label MasterCard issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, earns 2x on rent payments, 1x everywhere else
• Landlords: “Bilt Rewards Alliance,” 24 large residential real estate holding companies, plus option to mail check to any landlord.

[12:10] Bilt Rewards - news

• Annual cap of 50k rent points instead of monthly 4k cap
• 0-1-2-3
• $0 annual fee
• 1x on rent (up to 50k annually)
• 1x on everyday spend
• 2x on travel
• 3x on dining
• Uncapped earning on all non-rent spend
• IHG added 9/21

[18:07] Bilt Rewards - partner rewards

• My understanding was that loyalty programs had pretty exclusive relationships, i.e. Chase will bail out United by buying a billion United miles, American Express will buy a billion Delta miles, Citi and Barclay a billion American miles, then they dribble them out to customers. As a young company, how do you come in and make them an offer that even gets their attention?
• How much do you pay for points? During promotions you can buy Hyatt points for 1.8 cents, maybe a little less using a shopping portal, is that the right order of magnitude for what Bilt is paying? Do you pay more for the first member of an alliance to set a ceiling, or have alliance members bid each other down to participate?
• What do you think your highest value transfer partner is? Hyatt seems the most obvious but do you have a favorite redemption buried in the other award charts?
  • AA: business travel to Europe, South America, web specials
  • Emirates: JFK-Milan, 50k roundtrip in business
  • Hawaiian: west coast to Hawaii / upgrade from economy to first for 25k
  • Aeroplan: stopovers
  • Flying Blue: 11.5k domestic Delta (21+ days out)
  • Turkish: 33,800 business class to Istanbul, 7,500/15,000 to Hawaii on United 
  • Virgin: Delta/ANA/upgrading paid Virgin tickets
  • Hyatt: great value everywhere
  • IHG: Holiday Inn Express
• Do you have any favorite non-travel redemptions, anything Bilt got a killer deal on that you can pass on to members?
  • Bilt Rewards App
  • Champagne Sabre

[32:21] Bilt Rewards - landlords

• What was the process like of selling large landlords on accepting Bilt payments