Bilt Drops Hawaiian Airlines As Transfer Partner
Bilt Rewards has quickly become a valuable program thanks to its many transfer partners, especially World of Hyatt and Alaska Airlines.
However, Bilt has now quietly dropped one of these partners, Hawaiian Airlines. This was probably not one of the most favored transfer partners for Bilt members, but it is always better to have more options.
The news comes just as Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines cleared a major hurdle with DOJ, which could mean that the $1.9 billion acquisition will go through. And that’s exactly what Bilt’s Vice President of Travel Richard Kerr pointed to when explaining the reason for dropping Hawaiian Airlines.
As our original 3-year agreement came to a close with HA, we were confident as reported this morning that the merger with AS would be approved. Given we are the only transfer partner Alaska has at a 1:1 ratio, the ability to book Hawaiian with Bilt points should return shortly. The legal and manpower overhead required to create a new agreement with HA didn’t make sense for either of us when we were confident the partnership would return shortly.
As of today, Hawaiian Airlines is no longer listed as a transfer partner option in the Bilt Rewards app, or on the website. And while that might not be a big issue for most people, Bilt could have done a better job at announcing this upcoming change while they knew that the 3-year agreement would end.
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I would like to point out Bill dropped HA before the DOJ gave the ok. This Bill is not to be trusted.
Bilt did not “drop” Hawaiian. It’s not in Bilt’s financial interest to “drop” any transfer partner. The transfer contract with Hawaiian ended and I’d guess that it was Hawaiian that chose not to renew the agreement. Same with AA. The contracts ended at the same time. Think about it . . . Bilt was AA’s ONLY transfer partner. Why would Bilt want to “drop” AA as a transfer partner and lose that status?
Bilt’s sin is its failure to notify its card holders. It knew all along the contract was ending. It was known for some time that the contract was not renewing — perhaps, before the AK-HI merger was even announced. But, Bilt chose not to notify its card holders. Technically, its terms and conditions state Bilt does not have to provide notice of changes. Fair dealing suggests otherwise.
This incident comes on the heels of other non-notices or subdued notices. It is on this pattern of behavior — as opposed to Hawaiian being dropped — that I agree Bilt is not to be trusted going forward. Earn points on rent and nothing else and transfer those points monthly. I sense there will be a slow removal of transfer bonuses.