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Bilt Announces Partnership with Blade Helicopter Service
Bilt is bringing more perks to its most loyal customers thanks to a new partnership.
About the partnership:
This week, Bilt Rewards revealed a collaboration with Blade. As part of this partnership, not only will Bilt members earn bonus rewards on Blade bookings but elite members will also enjoy special benefits from the helicopter taxi service.
Now, Bilt Platinum elite customers will receive one complimentary Blade flight per year. This is currently valid for flights between the service’s Manhattan lounges and either JFK or Newark airports. Alternatively, starting later this summer, members will be able to use their Blade credit for flights between Monaco and Nice.
On top of that, both Bilt Platinum and Bilt Gold Elite members will enjoy complimentary access to Blade’s New York City lounges, even if they don’t have a flight booked with the service. Meanwhile, Bilt Elite members with Silver status or higher can get a 10% discount on Blade flight bookings made via Bilt. These flights — which can transport passengers between Manhattan and NYC area airports in 5 minutes — start at $195.
Finally, all Bilt members earn 2x bonus points on Blade bookings when they use a linked debit or credit card in their Bilt account. This means that, for Bilt Mastercard customers, the earning rate on Blade bookings would be a total of 3x points — or 4x on Rent Day.
About Bilt’s loyalty tiers:
Last year, Bilt announced a revamping of its loyalty Elite status program. Now, members can achieve status based on how many points they earn during a calendar year or by how much they spend using a Bilt Mastercard. 2024 Bilt Elite status tiers are as follows:
- Silver: 50,000 points or $10,000 (previous: 25,000 points)
- Gold: 125,000 points or $25,000 (previous: 50,000 points)
- Platinum: 200,000 points or $50,000 (previous: 100,000 points)
What they’re saying;
Announcing the partnership, Bilt Rewards CEO and President Ankur Jain said, “New York has one of the greatest skylines in the entire world and now courtesy of Blade, our Members can enjoy the best view of it on their next ride to the airport. This is just another exciting way Bilt Members can get rewarded just by paying their rent and spending in their local neighborhood.”
My thoughts:
As a Bilt member myself, I can’t be mad about a new benefit. Yet, I don’t see myself taking advantage of this perk for a couple of reasons. For one, since I can’t spend more than I make in a year on my Bilt card, I won’t be making Platinum status. Meanwhile, even with a 10% discount, the cost of a flight from Manhattan to the airport still sounds steep.
Something I do want to focus on is the market that Bilt is seemingly targeting. It would appear that the company is serving the type of high-end, luxury customer typically associated with the likes of Amex. Yet, the Bilt Mastercard is a no-annual-fee card. So how does this work? Well, in my view, what Bilt is really doing is making these premium experiences more accessible to those who might not otherwise partake. To me, that’s a pretty interesting strategy that I’ll need to keep an eye on.
Musing aside, it’s cool to see Bilt continue to expand — and I look forward to seeing what they pull out next.
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