u/Dismal_Aide_7118

I wanted to share a success story that shows diligently utilizing credit card points can make a bucket list item achievable.

I recently signed up for the Bilt Palladium card - to gain points for my mortgages. I used points I accumulated to transfer 100k points to BA during a rent day to get 200k points.

I transferred those points over to Qatar. Qatar was running a special 30% transfer bonus from Citi around that time as well. I transferred over 108k Citi points to get 140k Avios. I booked round trip airfare from DFW to JRO in QSuites for me and my husband.

My husband travels a lot for work and had already amassed 600k Marriott points. Chase was running a 60% transfer bonus to Marriott. I transferred 115k Chase points over to his Marriott account and was able to redeem a 5 night stay, utilizing 5th night free, at Mapito Safari Camp for an all inclusive safari in the Serengeti for early June to see the Great Migration.

Total points spent:

600k Marriott points;
100k Bilt points;
108k Citi points;
115k Chase points.

Cash Value: $32,884
Roundtrip airfare: $16,255
Mapito Safari Camp: $16,629

Looking at flights to JRO or NBO next summer at seat release from multiple airports (DFW, ORD, ATL, IAH), and it doesn’t appear QR is releasing saver seats for business class. Anyone experience the same? It appears saver rates are pretty sparse in general.

I think there is a warped perspective about customer satisfaction regarding the Bilt card offerings. That said, there are undoubtedly situations where Bilt has failed tremendously. I just wanted to say the new affiliation agreements with more fitness clubs/gyms has positively impacted me. Previously, no fitness clubs or gyms were offered within 45 minutes of where I live - making it impossible to redeem Bilt Cash for this offering. Now there are like 6 different options. I’ve booked a 5:30 am hot yoga session for prior to my working day and am very excited about it.

We are travelling to Thailand via Qatar Airlines via a points redemption. We checked in for our flight, but QR did not issue boarding passes due to verifying our passports. We flew to DFW on a separate itinerary due to the awards redemption to connect. At first, Flagship denied our entry due to not having our boarding passes - because QR doesn’t staff their desks until 3-4 hours before flight time. Eventually, after speaking to the manager and showing her our confirmation - she allowed us access. I appreciate her reasonableness after reviewing all of our documentation and acknowledging our situation. Otherwise, we would have to wait 4+ hours before QR staffed their desk.