Bilt Builds Better: Blade Helicopters, Blacklane Rides, Equinox Credits + August 2026 Updates

Justin Vacula of the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast is joined by returning co-host Darren to discuss the latest August 2026 Bilt Rewards updates, including new ways to redeem Bilt Cash for travel, rides, wellness, dining, and lifestyle benefits.

In this episode, Justin and Darren focus on new Bilt Cash redemption options, including Blade helicopter rides, Blacklane car service credits, and Equinox credits for spa treatments, personal training, and pilates. They also review the Bilt Palladium Card, including earning strategy, Bilt Cash, point accelerators, hotel credits, monthly credits, and rent or mortgage payments.

Justin and Darren discuss how they are using Bilt Cash for Lyft, Walgreens, Grubhub, dining, hotel credits, and other real-world redemptions, as well as their plans to continue spending toward Bilt Platinum status.

The episode also covers a major Bilt card-servicing issue in which some cardholders were mistakenly sent to collections, a problem that was later resolved with 2,500 points. Justin and Darren also discuss a new option to pay rent with Cardless Avios cards for a 3% fee while earning 3X points.

They wrap up by sharing recent travel updates, including Justin’s Savannah trip using Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts credits and Darren’s Southeast Asia trip using points.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:38 Bilt Explained

04:35 Blade Helicopter Redemptions

08:51 Blacklane Chauffeur Credits

12:51 Equinox Wellness Credits

18:03 Support the Show

20:18 Collections Reporting Mistake

25:30 Pay Rent With Avios Cards

29:52 Bilt Spend And Plans

33:53 Recent Trips And Wrap Up

39:30 Closing And Outro

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Rough Transcript:

Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures, tales to be told. Make and save money, the world will unfold

Fight the war on happiness, pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold

You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you make money, save money, and travel the world at low cost. Another month means another round of Bilt Rewards updates, and this time Bilt Cash is getting a lot more interesting. Helicopter rides with Blade and private car service with Blacklane are now in play, finally giving members new ways to redeem Bilt Cash for travel.

You can also use Bilt [00:01:00] Cash with Equinox for spa treatments, personal training sessions, and studio Pilates classes. With Bilt continuing to add new options, how should we be thinking about earning and spending Bilt Cash going forward? How do we use the new options to get great value? Returning co-host Darren joins me today to discuss the latest Bilt updates, along with our own spending plans, point redemptions And strategies for using Bilt Cash.

On with today’s episode, recorded August 27th, 2026. Welcome back to the show, Darren. Glad to be back on the podcast, Justin. It’s been a few weeks, and while I’ve been gone, Bilt has been busy, Justin, very busy. Lots of Bs, now with Blacklane and Blade. We go into the E with Equinox or Equinox, but good to hear about some improvements.

Absolutely. [00:02:00] These are things that we have been talking about for some time now, Justin, and finally they’re here. Some listeners might not be in the Bilt program yet. Maybe they don’t have a Bilt credit card, or they could be unfamiliar, so we’ll do a quick intro to Bilt and then get into the new updates.

Bilt is a loyalty program that has a credit card component. Both Darren and I have the Bilt Palladium credit card. This gives a base two times points on spending, and the option Darren and I chose is 4% back in a second currency, Bilt Cash. You’re getting the 2X points and the 4% Bilt Cash on all spending with the Palladium credit card.

You can use Bilt points to transfer to travel partners, airline programs, including Atmos Rewards for Alaska Airlines booked flights, also sharing with American Airlines. You can also use points for hotel programs, including World of Hyatt. Bilt [00:03:00] Cash can be used with rent and mortgage payments, letting you earn some Bilt points.

Bilt Cash can also be used to boost your 2X spending on the Palladium credit card up to 3X on 25,000 spend per calendar year with the Point Accelerator feature. Great earnings there. You can also redeem Bilt Cash for $100 hotel credits, monthly dining credits, and much more that we’ll talk about in today’s show.

The Bilt Palladium card also gave us a 50,000 point welcome bonus. It looks like that’s still the case in August of 2026. And you get Bilt Gold status, which gives you various benefits, including bonus points transfers to travel partners on special Rent Day promotions at the start of each month. You also get $300 in Bilt Cash as part of the Palladium credit card welcome bonus and an annual $200 in Bilt Cash, which should post with card approval.

You get [00:04:00] two $200 hotel credits per calendar year, January through June and July through December, that can stack with $100 hotel credits for, America loves math, $300 off two-night or more stays with Bilt. Lots of value to be had, and we’re breaking it down today

Yeah, the BILT bulletin is full this month, Justin. It’s an exciting time to be a BILT card holder and part of the BILT ecosystem. This first item that we’re talking about here is something, again, that we’ve both been excited to see come about. It’s long been teased, and finally, it’s here.

It’s Blade, Justin. Another B. One common complaint about BILT has been that the BILT cash redemptions are limited, that people will have lots of BILT cash left over at the end of the year, save $100 that doesn’t expire. But now BILT has added more options as promised from its launch earlier this year.

First, as we said should have been a highlight of the [00:05:00] program, Blade helicopter rides. Here’s the update directly from a BILT press release. Members can now book Blade flights directly in the BILT travel portal, no app switching and no separate checkout. And for the first time, you can use BILT points and BILT cash to pay for your Blade.

What’s new? Direct booking in the BILT travel portal. You can now search, select, and book a Blade without ever leaving the BILT app. Head to the BILT travel portal to get started. Pay with BILT points. BILT points can now be applied at checkout towards any Blade booking made in the BILT travel portal. Use your points to cover full booking or combine them with cash, your call.

BILT cash towards Blade. BILT members can now redeem BILT cash toward Blade bookings, up to $350 per seat for up to two flights per calendar year, total value up to $700 per year. At checkout, your available BILT cash credit will appear automatically as a payment [00:06:00] option. BILT cash can be combined with BILT points and any link card at checkout.

A few things to keep in mind. Credits reset every January 1, not replenished upon use in the same calendar year. Each credit applies to one seat booking. If your seat costs less than $350, remaining credit cannot be carried over. BILT cash applies to seat bookings only, not incidentals like luggage.

Justin, have you considered a second career as a voiceover reader? I think that was very well read in the style of a terms and conditions type reader. Thanks. We’ll keep it lively for the show. It’s finally an opportunity to book Blade with Bilt, in this case Bilt Cash or it looks like Bilt Points, and yeah I think this has to be near the top of the options for fun factor, for things that, for me at least, will just be fun to use.

Maybe an end of a year, [00:07:00] we go to New York in December and take the flight as we’ve redeemed our Bilt Cash in other ways. This might not be the first option for me, but at the end of the year it could indeed be a fun thing to do, pairing with a Bilt Hotel stay, maybe using the Bilt $25 dining redemption and more.

But we have some other information from the press release. Gold and Platinum members have access to Blade lounges even on days you’re not flying during operating hours, includes up to two drinks per visit. Platinum members can claim one complimentary Blade flight per year from Manhattan to JFK or Newark, plus lounge access.

We can get the Bilt Cash for the Blade flight, and then Platinum status achieved through spending $50,000 on the Bilt credit cards, although you can only have one at a time is my understanding. You can get the complimentary Blade flight, and you can also redeem the Bilt Cash for up to two flights per calendar year.[00:08:00] 

So potentially three Blade flights per calendar year. Darren, will you be flying Blade?

I think maybe, a strong maybe, Justin, as you said. I think it would be f- fun to maybe use some Amtrak points, take the train up to Newark, hop on a Blade helicopter ride into Manhattan, maybe free night certificate at a hotel, maybe class it up with the wife, do the old Waldorf Astoria New York City if that standard night’s available.

I can get from the, from Philly to Newark, I can get from Newark to Manhattan and get a free night at a hotel. If there’s only just in some way for me to get transportation through Bilt from the Blade heliport to the hotel. What do you got for me there, Justin? Any new developments on that?

Yes, we have another B. We can use Bilt Cash for Blacklane. You can combine Blacklane with Blade [00:09:00] if you want. And this is from their press release. Blacklane is now part of the Bilt ecosystem, giving you another premium way to get where you’re going. Book Blacklane’s chauffeured service for airport transfers, city-to-city rides, or hourly bookings.

You can redeem Bilt Cash for a Blacklane credit up to $150 annually for Platinum members, up to $100 for Gold members, and up to $50 for Blue and Silver members. Credits run on a calendar year cycle and reset each year

I think Bilt has done a good job of finally bringing these valuable redemptions to the platform, to their customers. And we know America loves maths, Justin, and people are probably doing the math.

How much more Bilt Cash do I need for the end of the year? Am I gonna get the Platinum? Is it worth it? And now we have that shiny thing in the distance, Justin, to to aim at, to go for, to look forward to maybe.

The Bilt Platinum status would get you an extra [00:10:00] $50 toward Blacklane, an extra complimentary flight, the rent day transfer bonus, and more. So probably worth going for, especially if you’re getting close and you’re doing a lot of spend on the card anyway. I think Blacklane can be appealing.

I have used it in Brisbane, Australia. I think it’s more appealing to use it overseas when you can’t use things like Uber credits, Lyft credits, or you might have a longer ride. Maybe the transit options aren’t so convenient. Brisbane worked for me with Blacklane. How about you? Have you used Blacklane in the past, or where would you want to use it?

Sadly, I missed my chance to use it in Asia. Would’ve been a great option for some airport transfers probably in Singapore or Bangkok. We do have a trip to Frankfurt this Thanksgiving time for some Christmas markets, so I’ll have to check in to see if that’s one of the 60 countries, Germany, that Blacklane operates in.

[00:11:00] I find oftentimes traveling with family we’re actually gonna be traveling with my mother-in-law plus the wife and three kids this time, so a larger group. Having something pre-booked that’s larger and easy to make sure we can all fit with our luggage makes a lot of sense.

How was it in Brisbane? The experience was really easy. The driver met me outside of baggage claim, took my luggage to the parking area, and I went to a Hyatt there, so that worked out really well. And I think if it came to it, if I couldn’t find uses for the international travel or my airport to hotel was pretty close, I could always use it to get to the Philadelphia Airport, maybe Newark, if $150 with Blacklane would get me there.

I’m not sure. I’d have to check on that in the future, but I’m mostly leaving from Philadelphia Airport, or it can be Philadelphia Airport to home. That’s another option.

Yeah, I think that’s a good option. Especially sometimes, Justin, I know you’re the [00:12:00] same. We’re positioning from Philly to a different airport, maybe flying back then it, it doesn’t always line up. Sometimes we leave from Newark and fly back to Philly. Sometimes we leave from Newark and come back to JFK.

All those sorts of fun award redemption puzzles, and something like this can make it a lot easier. And if we don’t have to pay for it, if we already have the credits there with BILT by spending money towards, say, platinum status, then it makes a lot of sense. I’m looking forward to it. I’m not sure I can get to the airport from where I live.

I’m not sure West Grove, Pennsylvania is served by Blacklane, but I guess I could check it out and see what they can do for me We could also check whether West Grove, Pennsylvania has fitness clubs including Equinox or Equinox as Bilt has added even more uses of Bilt Cash. From their press release, Bilt members can now redeem Bilt Cash toward Equinox credits, spa treatments, and personal training sessions and unlock [00:13:00] exclusive welcome offers.

You can redeem Bilt Cash for Equinox credits, bringing the authority in high performance luxury lifestyle directly into the Bilt neighborhood. Spa treatments, personal training, and more, your housing payments and everyday spending now work for your health. Maybe Bilt’s neighborhood, Justin, but not my neighborhood

The closest Equinox or Equinox, I can never remember how you pronounce it because there’s none near us. The closest one I found was in Rittenhouse Square, Philly. So I guess if I was working in the city, that would be fine, but turns out I’m a remote employee these days working from the comfort of my basement, Justin, where I’m coming to you from today.

So this is a big meh for me. Doesn’t mean it’s not, it’s a meh for everybody. There’s probably some folks that are already Equinox members. Maybe they’re using other credit cards, which we’ll talk about here in a minute. Maybe it’s a stacking opportunity to offset some of their membership [00:14:00] costs. I don’t know.

What do you think, Justin? What other things with Equinox might you be interested in or find valuable? I found it humorous that they called them the authority in high-performance luxury lifestyle. They’re really trying to put them over with that. But with the press release, they mentioned that we could use them on spa treatments, personal training sessions, and studio Pilates sessions.

You can get $150 twice a year with gold or platinum status, $100 twice a year with silver status, or $75 twice a year with blue status.

Maybe some value there. I guess I, I always thought the Equinox memberships were fairly pricey in the $300 per month per year range. But maybe there’s some other things in there, like you said, spa treatments. One of the things I know has come up in the past [00:15:00] is do you have to be a member to use credits at the spa?

Gemini, our local generative AI says no, but it seems data points, at least that I have heard in the past, are mixed. So Justin, maybe there’s a stacking opportunity here with the good old Amex Platinum. What do you think? Yes, I’m seeing on the Amex personal Platinum cards, you can get up to $300 in statement credits each calendar year after you pay with your Platinum card for an Equinox club membership.

And how much does it cost each year? That could vary from club to club. So I wonder if you could pay that 300 to be a member, stay a member for a short time, and then get the spa treatments, maybe that could be a thing, but this seems really niche. You’d have to have a local club, you have the membership credited, the rate is low, or maybe [00:16:00] you would just outright pay for it.

But I imagine this one isn’t going to be as popular compared to the helicopter rides and the Black Lane rides. Yeah. Although it’s funny, there’s probably more Equinox locations than there are Blade places, right? I, I know we’ve talked about the Blade opportunities in the US. There also are some Blade opportunities in Europe, in Monaco, so maybe, for those folks that like to travel to Europe for the holidays, maybe that would be something else they could add on to their trip for a little more fun.

But yeah I’m not likely going to be using these. I don’t know, Justin, maybe my kids will listen to this podcast, they’ll hear about the spa treatments and sign up for some facials, especially once we get to the Platinum level.

Bilt also says if you’re new to Equinox, Bilt members joining through the Bilt app, Bilt concierge, or directly through Equinox at a club can choose from three exclusive welcome offers, [00:17:00] 10,000 Bilt points redeemable across the Bilt ecosystem, a complimentary personal training session, a complimentary 50-minute spa service.

So a little bit of a welcome bonus there if you were to join through Bilt. I don’t know if you could use the Platinum to pay for it. You’d probably have to charge it to your Bilt card, but I could be mistaken on that

Yeah, that’s probably right. Maybe you do the first month through Bilt, and then subsequently you could switch it to Amex Personal Platinum and get the credit that way. I’m not sure. It seems like this is something that I’m sure folks that are already Equinox members will explore or I guess not the new part, but some of the credits and service opportunities here with redeeming Bilt Cash Good, and we still have more to talk about.

Some of our spending, our BILT cash redemptions, people being sent to collections by mistake, [00:18:00] paying your rent with an Avios credit card, and more. But first we’ll get into some ads. Ads to support the show are included here, just like on many other podcasts. Please support me through links at HurdyGurdyTravel.com, and by becoming a supporter on SubscribeStar.com or YouTube.

Wanna reach out with questions, tips, show ideas, or support? Email info@HurdyGurdyTravelPodcast.com . Visit meetup.com/PhillyMilesAndPoints to RSVP for monthly Greater Philadelphia Travel Credit Miles and Points meetups I host in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Join us for our next meetups, September 20th, October 25th, 2026.

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Finally, I’m an affiliate with Autopilot, a flight repricing tool that alerts you about price changes. Simply cancel existing flights and rebook when Autopilot emails you about lower fares. Find my link in the show [00:20:00] notes. Returning to the episode with Darren. Thanks again for joining me today to discuss Bilt in August of 2026.

Yeah, you bet, Justin. Excited to talk about all these new developments that Bilt has launched here in the last couple weeks. We’ve heard some positive news for new Bilt cash redemptions, but there were some negatives. Some Bilt credit card members were sent to collections in error.

We were notified that a small number of individuals with a beta Bilt MasterCard issued prior to the launch of the Wells Fargo card in March 2022 were incorrectly reported to the credit bureau TransUnion for a delinquent balance from a third-party card servicer, Tate Kierlin, on Friday, July 31st. After discovering the issue, we promptly contacted Tate Kierlin to [00:21:00] resolve it.

As of Monday, August 3rd, all impacted accounts have been corrected. No action is needed from you. These updates should reflect on your credit report within three business days. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and will deposit 2,500 Bilt points in your account for your patience. Oddly worded press release here.

I emphasize some of those things, like for your patience, beta Bilt MasterCard. What’s going on, Darren? Sent to collections?

Yeah, big flub on Bilt’s part here. It seems for everything they do well, they find a way to mess up some of the easiest stuff, and this is another example of that. Unfortunately, I was one of the folks that received this notice from Tate Curlin, if that is in fact a real name, Justin. I don’t know. It seems too on the nose if you were gonna make something up, wait, what color [00:22:00] is your Bugatti, Darren? So yeah, I I don’t think it was a big deal. I, I think it will lead to speculation if something bad happened. Any time Bilt messes things up like this, especially on something so seemingly easy, it leads to a lot of conspiracy theories, Justin. I’ll throw that out there.

And while there’s this idea that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, geez, it seems like Bilt has been testing that hypothesis pretty strongly here for the last year.

I’ve been along for the Bilt ride from the initial card to the Wells Fargo card, and now the cardless card.

Still seems weird saying that every time I say it, but that’s where we’re at. And certainly with the Wells Fargo card I think we talked about this, I did have a balance that transferred over to the new card. Could that have gotten mixed up somewhere and resulted in that inaccurate delinquent account?

Maybe. [00:23:00] Who knows? I find it hard to apply logic to illogical situations, Justin. Did you get your 2,500 bonus Bilt Points in your account for your patience? I did. Whether I was patient or not, they did show up. Definitely inconvenient. Was there something that popped up on a reporting app or an email notification that alerted you to this collections thing?

Were you aware of it? I read about it, and then I did receive an email about it, and then I… I think the email said almost verbatim what you shared here. And then I, of course, went and checked in my account to see, and there were the 2,500 Bilt Points, which- Sure. I guess they didn’t have to do anything, so it was nice-ish of them.

It would be better if they just don’t mess up anymore. That would be worth more than $25 probably. I was thinking maybe it could have been a scare that you woke up, you’re checking emails, and you see all these notifications of, “You’ve been sent to collections,” and then you see [00:24:00] that your credit score’s dropped something like 100 points, and maybe there’s a certified letter and a warrant out for you.

Did it get that drastic? It did not, Justin, but I rarely wake up in the middle of the night. I don’t know how many superpowers I have, but if I have any, sleeping is one of them. I don’t let things keep me up at night for better or for worse. And certainly whether Bilt reported me to the credit bureaus is not gonna be one of the things that’s gonna change my life one way or the other.

Dave Ramsey frequently talks about how American Express called his wife, spoke to his wife at one point. Did they involve your wife in this? They did not. Oh, okay. They did not involve my wife, no. In fact I’m not sure my wife could tell you what Bilt is, like- Does she know who- … a credit card, a platform.

I, yeah, no, it’s not her wheelhouse. Does she know who Tate Curlin is? 100% no, not a [00:25:00] chance. Do you know who Tate Curlin is? I do not. Again, I… If someone said, “Is Tate Curlin this person’s real name?” 60/40 no, not a chance. Maybe it’s two names, two last names? Maybe. You wanna, you, you wanna put some odds on that, Justin?

You interested? Maybe we can we can fire up Polymarket, see who’s got what. We’ll get Bryce Harper involved somehow. Yeah, let’s see. Maybe we can get Richard Kerr on to do a cameo. All right, very good. We’ll move on to a different topic. You can now pay your rent directly with a credit card.

This time, Avios credit cards, also from Cardless. If you have Qatar credit cards, these Avios credit cards, you can pay a 3% fee to pay rent, and then you’ll earn 3X points on your rent. You can use this with a credit card rather than what people were usually doing, a direct debit to your checking account to earn some Bilt points on your rent payment.

[00:26:00] With credit, you get more time to pay, but there’s that 3% fee when you’re getting 3X points. I believe the spend should also qualify towards earning status with Qatar as other spend counts towards status earning. I could be wrong on that, but I would think it qualifies. Alternatively, you can use the existing direct debit option with BILT, pay no fee, and use BILT Cash to earn 1X points on your rent payment.

I know there are other credit cards that also allow you to do this, 3% fee, but you’re earning the 3X points with that credit card. What do you think? Will you be using a cardless credit card to pay rent with a 3% fee to get 3X points with credit? No. Did you want more than that? No. Preferably for the listeners.

Oh, sorry. Sorry, Justin. Yes, for the show. Essentially you’re buying points [00:27:00] here at Avios at a cent per point. It’s not terrible. And if you were trying to top something off, if you just needed a few more points, and you were gonna pay rent, sure, maybe that makes sense.

But I’ll continue to use my Bilt card or the Bilt platform I guess, not my Bilt card, since it goes through the Bilt platform to my checking account. That’s your wife’s confusion, right? That’s my wife’s confusion. That’s probably… probably to be fair, not just my wife’s. While I don’t find this particularly valuable now, could there be a time in the future where 3X points for 3% fee makes a lot of sense?

Yeah, absolutely. Maybe it’ll work for somebody. It’s not gonna work for me.

I’ll take my Bilt points, thank you very much.

Probably the biggest negative is that 3% fee. If they said, “Oh, maybe there’s a 1% fee and you’ll get the 3x points,” maybe more appealing. Or if you’re a Cardless card holder, you’re working on the sign-up bonus, your spending options are limited, then maybe [00:28:00] you can get the Avios card, pay your rent with it.

You’re paying the 3% fee, but you’re getting progress toward the sign-up bonus and the 3x points. Maybe that’s a thing. I did have the Visa Infinite credit card, as I got a generous welcome bonus on that, and it gave me access to American Airlines lounges, Flagship Lounges, and the regular Admirals Club lounges.

And you need to spend on that card to maintain status for future years. If you were to be the Avios advocate, maybe that would be the argument, but I imagine most listeners will just continue to pay their rent with Bilt. I also know that there were some lamentations when it changed from Wells Fargo to Cardless because people liked the extra payment time.

Say their credit card statement closes on the 27th, for example, they pay rent on the 28th, and then they get more time to pay rather than that direct debit [00:29:00] from the checking account. So that could be the case for the Avios card. If you could time it correctly, you want that extra time to pay, maybe that 3% fee earning the 3x points can be okay.

It’s an option, but I think a hard sell. As you indicated, Justin I think you’d have to be a strong Avios advocate, and you may come up with some good points there with the Qatar card or Cutter card and maybe some high spending opportunities there, and maybe the status that goes along with that. Especially if you’re in a situation where you’re not able to accrue a lot of American Airlines miles for, whatever reason related to Citi shutdowns, for example.

I could see how that lounge access might be useful to some folks, and that would be a fairly inexpensive way to go about it. Very good. We’ll move on to the next segment, our current spending with Bilt cash redemptions, and uses of Bilt points. This is [00:30:00] common question, how are you using your Bilt cash?

What are some ways to use the points for maximum value? Near the end of August 2026, now about six months with the Bilt Palladium credit card, I’m around $44,000 in spending, aiming for the 50,000 spending to earn Bilt Platinum status. Now more valuable with the August updates with Blacklane and Blade. For Bilt cash uses, I use the $10 Lyft credit stacking with Chase Sapphire Reserve Lyft credit, $10 Walgreens credit got me a $10 Walgreens gift card.

I use $10 Grubhub credit stacking with $10 from the Amex Personal Gold Card. And in a few days, I’m flying to Vegas on Sunday, I’ll be using the $25 Bilt dining credit at the Mediterranean restaurant Zatinya, and then I’ll be able to use it again in September, [00:31:00] $50 in dining thanks to Bilt. Another strike on people saying that Las Vegas is expensive because of course it’s not if you’re finding plays like this.

I also maxed out my five available point accelerators and paid my rent using Bilt cash. A very active Bilt month for me. 44,000 out of 50,000 in spending. I’m not rushing it. I have the rest of the year, and there are still some rent days coming up where you’re earning bonus points, and sometimes Bilt will have the bonus categories as well, 3X drugstore bonus points on mobile wallet and so on.

How are you doing with your Bilt stats and redemptions? I may be catching up here a little bit with you, Justin. Just finished my fifth accelerator.

I’m at 37K for the year, so 13 to go to get to platinum like we’d talked about. About $300 in Bilt bucks or Bilt [00:32:00] cash right now. I don’t think I’m gonna wanna go over much over 50K. I think getting to platinum will be the goal. Bilt cash that’s accrued along the way will likely be of some use, but I anticipate maybe, Justin, maybe there’ll be a blade ride in my future.

I don’t know. What do you think? More hotel stays in the future too to use the $100 in Bilt cash and the $200 Palladium credit. That’s definitely a thing, and I have over $800 in Bilt cash remaining. I’m over stacked, let’s say, on that one, but I will have more redemptions coming. Yeah. I think one thing I’m gonna try to do, and I guess I don’t think that there would be a problem with this, but is try to squeeze in a fifth.

So September, October, November, December, it should be four months of mortgage. I might try to squeeze in a fifth one at the end of [00:33:00] December. Justin, what do you think about that to burn up some Bilt cash? I like it. If you know the Bilt cash is going to be expiring at the end of the year, then make your payment towards the end of December rather than January 1st.

Yeah. Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking too.

Otherwise, I of course have used my $10 Walgreens gift card. That’s an easy redemption for me. I still need to work on my Bilt dining credit. I have not had as much success there. You mentioned the hotel credit it’s getting to be gymnastics season for my daughter, and oftentimes we’re staying a night or two, depending on where we’re going, and certainly I’ll be looking for some hotel options for the $100 hotel credit that I can redeem $100 in Bilt Cash for, and stack that up with the $200 twice annual Palladium credit, Justin.

We’ll wrap up with our recent trips. I’m just back from Savannah, Georgia. I had a good [00:34:00] stay, the Andaz with Hyatt. There was a waterfront area, downtown, and

I went to a wildlife area, the Oatland Island Wildlife Reserve. I have various videos I’m going to put up on my Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast YouTube channel. You can see a room tour of the Hyatt Andaz where I received an upgrade to a suite, and you can see the things to do in Savannah, Georgia. This was nice as Andaz was part of the hotel collection.

I found rates around $150 per night, so using the $300 Fine Hotels and Resorts credit took it down to close to zero, and they were also very generous with the breakfast credits, $60 a day for breakfast and a $100 property credit that was used for lunch and dinner. Tons of food. And then I went to the Thompson as [00:35:00] that was around $200 a night. I used another Fine Hotels and Resorts credit for that, and they also gave the $60 breakfast, the $100 food credit, and another room upgrade.

Going during the week got me the low rates and I was pretty happy with Savannah and a quick transfer between both hotels

Sounds like a great trip, Justin. Our most recent trip took us a little further away. We were on a three-country trip to Southeast Asia, starting in Singapore and then Cambodia and finally in Thailand. Got to fly Singapore business on the way over redeemed some Amex miles for that, and flew on Condor using Alaska or Atmos points on the way back. So fantastic redemptions both ways.

Really enjoyed our trip and burned a lot of FHR credits staying at pretty nice hotels [00:36:00] throughout Southeast Asia. If anyone has a chance to specifically stay at the Park Hyatt Siem Reap. I would highly recommend it. Cambodia was probably our favorite stop along the way, in part because of the fantastic service and support received at the hotel.

Family of five traveling. One of our daughters was recovering from a knee injury, so she was somewhat on crutches, somewhat mobile, somewhat in some sort of wheelchair or actually at the elephant nature park, Justin, where we went to see elephants, of course, in Thailand they drove her around on a golf cart, which was perfect for her.

So yeah, great trip. Not on an elephant? Not on an elephant, no. No riding of elephants. That is discouraged. Had a great time and enjoyed flying Singapore so much that when we go back to Frankfurt for the Christmas markets here over Thanksgiving, we’ll be flying Singapore again.[00:37:00] 

So looking forward to that. One thing we talked about with the Fine Hotels and Resorts was added terms that if you did back-to-back stays, you don’t get all the food credits. Did you do back-to-back stays with the Fine Hotels and Resorts credits at the same hotel, and did you get double food credits? We did do a bunch of back-to-back stays.

My wife and I both had or have Amex Platinum personal or business cards that have the credits. One room would be in her name, one room would be my name, and then in fact, a couple of the nights we had three rooms, and so we would usually end up with three $100 credits for the rooms and able to split things up that way.

So that worked out pretty well and yeah we were happy with the credits. They don’t go as far as you might think they would or at least as I thought they would in Southeast Asia. The FHR hotels are they’re nice, but they are a little pricier especially when [00:38:00] you can usually go out to the street markets and eat for about five bucks a person.

War on happiness there with the pricey hotel food, but getting free food basically with the hotel nights is always a bonus. For sure, the hotels were fantastic really a- above and beyond as far as our ability to get the service we were looking for and support we needed for a family of five and some mobility challenges and so forth.

The kids were really excited about the quality of rooms we were staying in. It’s a little higher than we often do. If anyone’s interested hit me up. I’d be happy to talk to you about it. Very good.

You can comment on YouTube if you have any questions about that, and I’ll alert Darren to your comments. Anything else before we close? I don’t think so, Justin. It’s good to catch up again. I know both of us have been traveling here a little bit, so good to get back on the podcast here and talk about points and miles.

It’s one of [00:39:00] my favorite things to do. The travel hacker’s dilemma strikes again. So many opportunities, but we’re able to record here closer to the end of the month. We had to wait a little bit. I strive for the best audio quality recording at home with my home setup rather than recording out of a hotel with an on-the-go microphone.

So hopefully we’re living up to expectations today. Absolutely. Best audio quality in the business, for sure. I hope so. And it’s not easy making me sound good, Justin. You do it every month. Thank you. Very good. Thanks everyone for listening, and stay tuned for future episodes. And thanks again to Darren for coming on the show today.

My pleasure. For more content between shows, follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and X. Follow Justin Vacula, V-A-C-U-L-A, on Instagram. Subscribe to Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on YouTube for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips, and posts.

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Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures, tales to be told. Make and save money, the world will unfold[00:41:00] 

Fight the war on happiness, pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold