Bilt is once again showing that you don’t actually have to be a Bilt credit card holder to earn rewards on rent.
About the Bilt-Qatar Airways Privilege Club Partnership:
Earlier this week, Bilt announced an expansion of its partnership with Qatar Airways and its Privilege Club loyalty program. Now, Bilt members with an eligible Qatar Airways Privilege Club credit card can earn 3 Avios points per $1 spent on rent payments made through Bilt.
This offer applies to up to $50,000 in rent payments made per calendar year. However, a 3% fee does apply to rent payments. Cardholders will earn points on both the rent total and the fee charged.
Currently, Qatar Airways offers two Privilege Club credit cards for the U.S. market: the Signature and the Infinite. The former carries a $99 annual fee and earns 4x Avios on Qatar Airways purchases, 2x on dining, and more. Plus. cardholders enjoy Privilege Club Silver status in their first year. Meanwhile, the Privilege Club Infinite card bumps that up to Gold status in your first year and earns 5x on Qatar Airways purchases as well as 3x on dining. It carries a $499 annual fee. Notably, both cards are powered by Cardless — which is also the firm behind the current Bilt cards.
This is actually only the latest example of Bilt partnering to give airline co-branded credit card customers rewards on rent. In March, a similar offer for Air France KLM Visa Signature cardholders was added. Prior to that, those with the Atmos Rewards Ascent Visa Signature or Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite cards could earn 3x on rent payments.
What They’re Saying:
Discussing this partnership expansion and offer, Bilt founder and CEO Ankur Jain said, “Qatar Airways Privilege Club is one of the most beloved loyalty programs and their cardholders care a lot about where their money goes and what it gets them, just like our Bilt Members. Housing is the biggest expense in most of our members’ lives, and the idea that you can now make it even more rewarding and turn it into your next international destination or even a Qsuite upgrade – that’s the kind of thing we wake up every day working to make happen. We’re thrilled to expand our partnership with Qatar Airways Privilege Club in this way.”
My Thoughts:
As with the Atmos and Flying Blue offers of this nature, whether or not it’s a good deal will come down to how much you value the point currency you’re earning (in this case, Avios). Since you’ll be paying a 3% fee, hopefully you value them higher than 1¢ per point — otherwise you’d just break even — or maybe slightly ahead since you also earn points on the fee.
What I find most interesting about this particular partnership is that both cards come from Cardless. This makes me wonder if we’ll see a broader rollout to other Cardless co-branded products in the future.
