A Q&a With Richard Kerr, Vp Of Travel At Bilt Rewards, On Recent Changes — And What The Future May Hold

Editor’s note: TPG founder Brian Kelly is a Bilt adviser and investor.

The Bilt Rewards program has been on a roll for the last few years, launching lucrative promotions and adding new partners, all while enabling its members to earn points on rent (up to 100,000 points in a calendar year) with the no-annual-fee Bilt Mastercard® (see rates and fees).

However, 2024 hasn’t been all positive for the program, as it lost American Airlines as a transfer partner and recently announced a new, lower cap on bonus points during its monthly Rent Day offers. In addition, starting Oct. 1, tax payments on the Bilt Mastercard will no longer earn bonus rewards during promotions.

Has Bilt lost some of its momentum? Or are these minor changes that set the program up for the future?

To help uncover the answers to these questions, we arranged a Q&A with Richard Kerr, vice president of travel at Bilt Rewards. And he shared some fascinating insight into the program, including a peek behind the curtain at how Bilt uses data to inform its strategy.

This interview was conducted via email. Answers have been lightly edited for clarity and compliance with TPG’s style guide.

Nick: First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, as we have a lot of readers who are loyal Bilt members.

Richard: It’s unbelievable to think it’s already been over three years since I had the opportunity to join the team starting Bilt Rewards. As everyone here at TPG knows, I spent years studying loyalty programs and writing incredibly nerdy pieces for TPG, and I hope some of that knowledge is evident in the program we’ve designed.

Bilt has made some significant positive announcements in recent months, but it’s also lost American as a transfer partner and now implemented a cap on bonus points for Rent Day. Was the program simply too rewarding to be sustainable? Are we entering a new era of tightening perks?

Absolutely not; in fact, it’s the opposite. Remember, Bilt today is a loyalty platform for the home and neighborhood, and we are scaling to a more mass market customer. While many early adopters were very points-savvy (and trust me, I love all our gamers), we must invest and expand to benefits that appeal to as many members as possible — which means rethinking how and where we invest dollars.

This kind of adaptability and the willingness to change have been core to our identity since the start. There’s a story I like to tell about my first 30 days of Bilt. We changed the original value proposition of our beta cobranded card from what was perceived as confusing into what has become one of the most popular, no-annual-fee cards on the market (see rates and fees), offering earning rates and benefits that outperform many premium cards. We always have and will continue to iterate and make changes based on what we learn and what members engage with most.

Earlier this year, we began analyzing two-plus years of member behavior data and, true to form, found opportunities to adapt the product and reinvest resources in areas members care most about. For example, only 15% of Bilt Rewards members also carry our cobranded Bilt credit card, and we found an incredibly small percentage of them were consuming a disproportionate amount of resources, taking away from what we could offer to the broader base.

Reinvesting in what members engage in most has allowed us to add, not decrease, perks and benefits. We’ve recently added Marriott, Hilton and Alaska Airlines as transfer partners. We just executed up to a 100% transfer bonus to Alaska Mileage Plan on July 1 — that would have been unfathomable during my tenure at TPG. Those with the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card can earn 3 miles per dollar spent on their rent by paying with their card (for a 3% fee), and Rent Days are now ensured to continue yielding incredible value and reach more members.

Can you shed some light on why the decision was made to lower the cap on bonus points for Rent Day?

For the Rent Day cap, we saw that less than 2% of cardmembers (or 0.3% of our total members) ever earned more than 1,000 bonus points during the Rent Day double points campaigns. By capping these bonuses at 1,000 points (effective Oct. 1), the outsize money that funded less than 2% of cardmembers could be better spent to make Rent Day bigger — like the transfer bonus to Alaska Mileage Plan and transfer bonuses of up to 150% to Aeroplan (February 2024).

Cardmembers must use the card five times each statement period to earn points (see rewards and benefits).

Was similar information used in the decision to remove bonus points on tax payments as of Oct. 1?

We discovered that bonus points on tax payments during promotions accounted for 20% of our bonus category costs, yet only 0.8% of cardmembers (or 0.12% of our total members) use the card for taxes. That’s why as part of the above Oct. 1 Rent Day update, tax payments will be excluded from bonus point promotions. This allows us to reinvest in benefits that all members can enjoy.

The initial change was buried in the terms and conditions linked in an email. Is this indicative of how you plan to share program updates moving forward?

This was a mistake on our part, and we sincerely apologize. In the three years of Bilt’s history, I don’t think we’ve gone longer than a month without giving a press briefing because of the constant iterations on both the Bilt platform and partnerships. We had always briefed changes upfront and communicated as transparently as possible to members before this misstep — and will continue to do so in the future.

More broadly, what other data are you using to inform the value proposition of both Bilt Rewards and the Bilt Mastercard?

I wish everyone could see the amount of intentional data monitoring different teams at Bilt are studying every day to understand member behavior and engagement. I have eight dashboards alone bookmarked on my toolbar that are critical to monitoring member engagement in different aspects of our very large travel program.

Twice a week, once in team product reviews and once in a standing all-company meeting, different teams share data to help inform decisions not only by Bilt leadership but also by the most junior employee who might be on another team than the one presenting but has a fresh perspective.

How do you take members’ direct feedback into account?

Our members are passionate. Whether through social media (all of our Instagram DMs and X mentions are busy), direct emails to our CEO or customer service tickets, we hear constantly from members. We make program changes directly from their feedback and requests:

• After launching our early Bilt Neighborhood Dining program, which allows members to receive points from any card linked to their Bilt account plus bonus points, we quickly expanded to 22,000 more restaurants around the U.S. earlier this summer.
• After selling out our Rent Day Dining Experiences in mere minutes each month, we expanded to 27 different restaurants for Aug. 1 Rent Day — starting at only 6,000 points.
• We’ve learned many members enjoy exclusive benefits and unique experiences as much as points and have expanded benefits like status matches, free Blade flights, exclusive SoulCycle benefits with every class and more.

Along those lines, what would you say to a cardholder who would be affected by these new caps and is considering canceling his/her/their card?

As a points and miles community leader for eight years before joining Bilt, I understand these disproportionately affect gamers like myself. However, it is the right move for the majority of our members. There is an unbelievable amount of value in the free Bilt platform that didn’t exist anywhere three years ago. There will continue to be more benefits and rewards added that the most members can use. If you are passionate about a benefit, help shape the program by engaging in what matters most to you.

Can you shed any light on future announcements or developments in the pipeline that may not have been possible without these changes?

We have more partnerships on the horizon that will continue to make Bilt a comprehensive loyalty platform that rewards you at home, in your neighborhood and on travel. Not only are there more travel partners lined up, but more nationwide neighborhood partners as well. Again, we are expanding benefits by reallocating our investments.

You’ll also see Rent Days with multiple offers allowing even more members to engage on the first of every month. This creates sustainable value for the greatest number of members. Every change, every iteration is aimed at making Bilt the best program it can be — not just for the savviest point maximizers. Our philosophy is simple: constant evolution driven by member engagement and feedback.

See Bilt Mastercard rates and fees here.
See Bilt Mastercard rewards and benefits here.