From what I can tell only to their "elite status" program, which honestly is a joke nobody cares about anyway lol.

I don't understand how the spending on a linked card works. If I put my main spender in the wallet and spend X amount on it, I get the status through Bilt even though they didn't participate at all in those interchange fees?

I don’t think it is any spend on any linked card:

https://www.biltrewards.com/editoria...status-program

Agreed, but: Writing as significant Bilt sustainability skeptic, suffice it to say, it will be interesting to see if this is the first step on the road to ruins or just an insignificant speed bump. Doesn’t change basic Bilt strategy one iota*: Bilt point balance always below 1000, speculatively transfer (anywhere) as soon as Bilt balance goes over 1000.

(* “iota”, i·o·ta, noun, 1. the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet ( Ι, ι ), transliterated as ‘i.’., 2. an extremely small amount.)

Agreed! The real decision is, AA or Hyatt?

Agreed :tu:. Although for us BankDirect/Bask Bank aficionados that decision is a little easier.

I've been transferring to Hyatt myself.

Mhmm, never heard of it. with, say, 50'000 USD, the tradeoff is 125'000 AA Miles / year vs. 2'500 USD, roughly? That's... actually an interesting proposition.

I hope these Milestone Rewards are as good as the Platinum gifts!

Ditto. I'm not overly concerned about the program, but better safe than sorry. I don't think these elite status (lol) changes are an augur of bad news; they're likely intended to drum up spending, which seems perfectly healthy.

Heard of but never looked into enough to dig into the math. I'm not sure it's that interesting but could work out if there's a guaranteed redemption ahead. Note the tax implications here - your marginal rates could have an impact on this: "For tax purposes, miles are considered to have a value of 0.42 cents. At our current rate of 2.5 miles per dollar saved annually, this represents a taxable APY of 1.05%." Just to make my brain feel better at at around a 35% marginal rate with $50k in for a year you'd net 125k miles - $183.75 ($525 * 35% marginal tax rate). A bank account at 5% effective APY for the same tax rate would yield $1625 ($2500 * $875 at 35% marginal tax rate).

Effectively "buying" 125k AA miles for $1808.75 (opportunity cost $1625 + tax cost $183.75) or 1.45 cpm. I'm not too up on AA miles, but possible to buy them more cheaply than that? That said if there's a guaranteed high value redemption then seems easy enough to have a bit more fun with an emergency fund.

To bring things back on topic - but still related to this tangent - is Bilt issuing 1099s for points earned as interest on Bilt points balances?

That's a J RT to Japan, which I'd value way above 1800 USD. But anyway, beside the topic!

Given how tiny the interest is, I doubt it.

Thanks for bringing back on topic - my post definitely belonged in a diff. thread :)

Anything below $10 is generally considered de minimis and I think it would be difficult to get above the points granted in interest to go above that valuation. I'm at 15-20 pts/mo, and have been bad about transferring out my balance. No way my grand total of 240 pts max is valued enough for a 1099.

There have been some financial institutions issuing fantastical valuations of points earned in interest.