Bilt Rewards is the loyalty program of the no annual fee Bilt Mastercard® (review), which is quite lucrative. This is a proper transferable points currency, allowing 1:1 transfers to a variety of partners.
Bilt Rewards has a partnership with Alaska Airlines, and if you ask me, this just became significantly more interesting, thanks to the launch of the new Atmos Rewards premium credit card. It’s having me reconsider my Bilt strategy, so let me explain…
In this post:
Bilt Rewards & Alaska Atmos Rewards partnership basics
For some background, Alaska Atmos Rewards is a 1:1 transfer partner of Bilt Rewards. That’s a great use of those points, given how valuable Atmos Rewards points can be. Furthermore, Atmos Rewards doesn’t partner with any other major transferable points currency.
There’s another interesting aspect to this. Keep in mind that one of the selling points of the Bilt Mastercard is the ability to earn points for paying rent at no additional cost. However, thanks to the exclusive collaboration between the two brands, those with the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Credit Card (review) and Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card (review) can also earn points for paying their rent:
- These cards offer 3x Atmos Rewards points for rent payments through Bilt, on up to $50,000 of spending annually (after that you earn 1x points)
- The way this works, you link your Atmos Rewards card to you Bilt account, and then Bilt will process the rent payment, and in turn, you’ll be awarded points
- The catch is that Bilt charges a 3% fee for third party credit card payments, and that applies here as well
Personally I’ve been on the fence for a long time about the math on this. Essentially, you have the choice of whether you want to earn 1x Bilt Rewards points for paying rent at no cost with the Bilt Mastercard, or 3x Atmos Rewards points for paying rent at a 3% fee with the Atmos Rewards Ascent Card or Atmos Rewards Summit Card.
In other words, would you pay a 3% fee to earn 3x Atmos Rewards points rather than 1x Bilt Rewards points? If you were to value Bilt Rewards and Atmos Rewards points equally (you should probably value Bilt points a bit more), you’d basically be buying Atmos Rewards points for 1.5 cents each.
Is it time to switch from Bilt to Atmos for rent payments?
In the past I’ve generally thought the better option is to use the Bilt Mastercard with 1x points and no fees rather than the Atmos Rewards Summit Credit Card with 3x points and a 3% fee. That’s because I basically viewed the difference in value as being breakeven, so when that’s the case, I’ll go for the option that costs me the least out of pocket.
However, I’m now reconsidering that. Why? Well, there’s a lot more potential upside with Atmos Rewards now, given the incentives for spending money on the Atmos Rewards Summit Card:
- The Atmos Rewards Summit Card offers a 100,000-point Global Companion Award when you spend $60,000 on the card in an anniversary year
- The Atmos Rewards Summit Card offers one status point per $2 spent on the card, with no caps
So lets say, theoretically, that you spent $50,000 per year on rent (that’s more than most spend, but I’d like to keep the numbers easy):
- You could earn 50,000 Bilt Rewards points and pay no fees
- You could pay $1,500 in fees, and earn 150,000 Atmos Rewards points, 25,000 Atmos Rewards status points, and you’d be over 80% of the way to the Global Companion Award
If being able to earn points on rent would change your ability to earn a 100,000-point Global Companion Award or to earn elite status, I think there’s significant merit to going that route.
Of course let me emphasize that everyone should crunch the numbers for themselves, and most people might not want to unnecessarily pay an extra $1,500 in fees annually. If you’re not sure which option makes more sense for you, stick to the one with the lowest out of pocket cost.
But as someone who tries to take a numbers-based approach to doing math on rewards programs, I feel pretty good about that. In the past, I thought 50,000 Bilt Rewards points vs. paying $1,500 for 150,000 Atmos Rewards points was basically a breakeven decision where you couldn’t go wrong either way.
But if you add in the Global Companion Award, and if you’re increasingly invested in earning elite status with Atmos Rewards, then I think there’s a clear winner.
Bottom line
Bilt Rewards and Alaska Atmos Rewards have a partnership. For one, Bilt Rewards points can be moved to Atmos Rewards at a 1:1 ratio, which is a nice redemption option. Beyond that, those with a personal Atmos Rewards credit card can pay a 3% fee to pay their rent by card, and then earn 3x Atmos Rewards points.
I’d say that was potentially compelling in the past, though I think it has just become even more interesting, thanks to the Atmos Rewards Summit Card. Not only will you earn 3x Atmos Rewards points per dollar spent, but you’ll earn one Atmos Rewards status point per $2 spent, and that spending will also count toward the 100,000-point Global Companion Award.
So yeah, given that I applied for this card and got approved, I think it’s time to start pursuing that strategy…
What do you make of this Bilt Rewards & Alaska Atmos Rewards partnership? Are you changing your consumer behavior?
Asking for a friend, couldn’t you do similar things with the AA Exec Card as you are suggesting to do with the Atmos Summit Card?
@ Ducky Duck -- You would only earn 1x miles for paying rent through Bilt with an American card. The 3x points with the Alaska card is specifically thanks to the partnership between the two companies.
Might be a stupid question, but does the 3% fee count towards points earned in terms of spend? Like if rent is $1,000, then after the fee you'd pay $1,030 - do you earn points based off of $1,000 or $1,030?
@ Ryan -- Not a stupid question at all. I haven't yet paid this way, so can someone else chime in? If it's charged to the card I would think one earns points based on it, unless it's somehow charged as a non-spending fee.
Per the Bilt/Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® 3X Rent Spend Benefit terms (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.biltrewards.com/terms/alaska&ved=2ahUKEwjQmLeEop-PAxX5FDQIHfUkJ00QFnoECBkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3NxXvmsCa35xlHP9QOZxvb):
Is there a fee for this transaction?
Yes - When you pay rent with your Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® card you’ll be
charged a 3% transaction fee. You will also earn Atmos Points on the amount of
the fee.
Per the Bilt/Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® 3X Rent Spend Benefit terms (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.biltrewards.com/terms/alaska&ved=2ahUKEwjQmLeEop-PAxX5FDQIHfUkJ00QFnoECBkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3NxXvmsCa35xlHP9QOZxvb):
Is there a fee for this transaction?
Yes - When you pay rent with your Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® card you’ll be
charged a 3% transaction fee. You will also earn Atmos Points on the amount of
the fee.
You earn based off $1,030
I use Citi Double Cash Card (paired with my Citi WE Prestige card) to pay my mortgage using Plastiq. Much better flexibility than Atmos/Bilt.
One red flag with AS redemptions on AS/HA flights is the totally inflated rates for business class redemptions. Also, Alaska Airlines needs to fix their booking system for partner redemptions. I don't see any of the partners listed on many of the routes (when will I see Cathay to Asia for...
I use Citi Double Cash Card (paired with my Citi WE Prestige card) to pay my mortgage using Plastiq. Much better flexibility than Atmos/Bilt.
One red flag with AS redemptions on AS/HA flights is the totally inflated rates for business class redemptions. Also, Alaska Airlines needs to fix their booking system for partner redemptions. I don't see any of the partners listed on many of the routes (when will I see Cathay to Asia for example or Iberia to Europe). The redemption rates for business class on Qatar and Aer Lingus are astronomical. Why would anyone book a flight to Europe in business class on Aer Lingus when the product is not even competitive.
An analysis needs to put a value on the 25,000 status points. For some people that will be zero, but for anyone who flying Alaska with some frequency it will be significant.
For me free premium class at booking is quite valuable since I almost always am traveling with my spouse (using a companion award) so saving 4x the upgrade fee on a roundtrip is a hunk of change.
For flights up and down...
An analysis needs to put a value on the 25,000 status points. For some people that will be zero, but for anyone who flying Alaska with some frequency it will be significant.
For me free premium class at booking is quite valuable since I almost always am traveling with my spouse (using a companion award) so saving 4x the upgrade fee on a roundtrip is a hunk of change.
For flights up and down the west coast if you are willing to fly off-peak complimentary upgrades to first class at time of booking are pretty easy to find. Waitlists are a lot more iffy on these routes and rare on transcons and Gold Guest Upgrades have become close to useless.
Being Miami based none of these benefits are probably useful to you but for those of in the NW where Alaska is close to the only way to fly they can drive equation and the 100k award is the icing on the cake rather than the other way around.
If you have a Bank of America checking account, supposedly you get a 10% bonus on points earned. So would this bump the earning rate to 3.3? Could be another factor that tilts the comparison towards the Atmos option.
I have the checking account, and you only get the 10% bonus on the base points earned, so effectively being 3.1x points on rent payments.
Does the waived partner airline fee kick in immediately?
I have some short-haul AA flights to book in the near future and wouldn't mind saving $12.50.
@ Jeff -- It might take a few days after opening the account for this perk to be live, but it shouldn't take long. This isn't something that's only being added next year, or something like that.
Ben, is the 3x on an Alaska card (for 3%) also available to those with a Bilt Rewards account without necessarily being a Bilt cardholder?
@ Jack -- Yep!
Excellent. Thanks.
6 Atmos stories in a day. Wow! Ben I hope at least you are cashing in.
And, CNN has six different stories on about some other subject, each covering a different facet. Or, can you not grasp that? Others can. So, if it burdens you, perhaps find another blog.
Hey, has any airline or credit card launched any new programs recently?
That’s funny, but it’s still more newsworthy than some of the “passenger does whaaat??” rubbish we’ve seen here recently.
Have we confirmed that the new submit card will also earn 3% points by using Bilt to pay rent. The terms still only mention the Alaska signature Visa card in Bilt App.
@ Alex -- Yep, I've confirmed it with my contacts.
This is nice. I will apply the summit card right away with that 3%
Have you confirmed with them whether the new summit card will also earn 1 mile per $2 spent through bilt?
@ Alex -- I have, yep!
Would't you also earn 0.5 Bilt points as well when you use the Atmos card to pay rent with Bilt? Or does this apply only to ebery other credit card except this one?
@ tolikfox — That doesn’t apply to the Alaska card, sadly.
Ben, have you heard if this is set up already in the Bilt app? It seems like the Atmos Summit isn't being recognized as a "partner" card yet by Bilt and it's only offering 1 Bilt point per $2 along with 3% spend (like any other Visa).
Bilt rent payments don’t earn status points see Alaska website so you have to reweight your proposition
oh darm, yeah that sucks..
@ Jay — I checked with a contact and that’s not the case. The mention of Bilt not earning status points refers specifically to moving points from Bilt to Alaska.
Right you are. The website specifically says "Bilt points transfers are not eligible for status points"
Interesting it sounds like the purchases with the Atmos card on builts website auto transfers to Atmos. So those Max 150k points a year dont earn status but because the spend is on the credit card that $51,500 (50k max plus 3%) spend would give you 25,750 status points.
I was thinking none of it counted towards status.
I've been taking advantage of this with the old Alaska Visa this year (at a much more inferior 1 EQM per $3), but I'll be making MVP Gold by year's end for the first time! Using the Summit instead, with the 100K award and 1:2 ratio is gonna be a no-brainer for me.
Sigh, anything to do with BILT and instantly these comments because let's-trash-Ben.
Anyway, Ben I say go for it. Had I been approved for this Atmos card I would be doing the exact same thing, if only to give a big middle finger to BILT. I'm doing four $2 Dunkin reloads plus rent per month and the 'babysitting' involved still irks me. The thought of barely having to interact with the BILT app other than for making transfers sounds absolutely delightful!!
Remember when Ben used to travel, and wasn't just a shill for Atmos referral cash?
This place is turning into TPG overnight.
That's seriously unfair. As someone who follows Ben maybe 70/30 for general aviation news vs miles/CC, and at least opens nearly every article, I can say his coverage of the Alaska stuff is coming across as very genuine. Some of these perks truly are unheard of -- 3x on international purchases?? Come on.
The only area where I get uncomfortable is the CSP pushing -- a lot has changed in the CC world over...
That's seriously unfair. As someone who follows Ben maybe 70/30 for general aviation news vs miles/CC, and at least opens nearly every article, I can say his coverage of the Alaska stuff is coming across as very genuine. Some of these perks truly are unheard of -- 3x on international purchases?? Come on.
The only area where I get uncomfortable is the CSP pushing -- a lot has changed in the CC world over the past decade, and I don't view that card as anywhere near as compelling/obvious as it was in the past... Ben's enthusiasm for it seems a bit odd to *me*, but whatever.
If you use Alaska miles at all, travel on Alaska/American with any frequency, and value oneworld status, I don't know why you wouldn't be excited about this card and the Alaska/Atmos program.
Could not disagree more
Are Alaska spunking their entire 2025 marketing budget on this blog or what?
What about those of us who own our homes? I think in the past you've said there is some advantage to Bilt for homeowners, but I don't remember what it is.
@ eaci -- Unofficially, Bilt sometimes lets you pay HOAs in the same way that rent can be paid by card. I covered that here:
https://onemileatatime.com/insights/pay-hoa-bilt-mastercard/
Bilt is also eventually planning on offering points for mortgages, but we're not there yet:
https://onemileatatime.com/news/bilt-credit-card-changes/
Bilt officially allows anyone to pay their HOA for the 3x (Mesa as well). And that’s 3.10 with a BOA Relationship Bonus.
Try paying your mortgage with Bilt and you might be pleasantly surprised ;) I've had my mortgage with Wells Fargo (who issues Bilt) and it worked :)
This website is drowning in Atmos stories. Somebody throw a life vest.
I was wondering about this, and I agree that the combination of Bilt + Atmos Summit card could be pretty great. However, has it been confirmed that the Atmos Summit card will receive the same benefits with Bilt as the current Alaska Airlines Visa (e.g. 3 points per rent dollar)? I haven't seen any updates from Bilt yet confirming if the Summit card (or even the Ascent card for that matter) will continue to receive those benefits.
@ Adam -- Yep! I've confirmed it with an Alaska contact, and it's also written on this page:
https://www.alaskaair.com/atmosrewards/content/partners/earn-everyday
"Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® and Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® cardholders earn 3 points for every $1 spent on eligible rent when they pay through Bilt, up to $50,000 per calendar year. Terms apply."
That's huge, thanks!
The actual rent payment integration between Bilt and the Summit doesn't seem to be live yet though.