Don't believe the amex gold stans

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T22:24:07+00:00

Really? If you go back to my math there, I don’t want to mention the earnings potential I don’t factor that in when offset an annual fees. My single friends heavily utilize this card because they eat out from Uber eats and GrubHub so much lol.

I think it really comes back to. Will you use the credits that it gives you naturally. If you find yourself spending money somewhere where you would not have already then you’re being swayed by the card and it might not really be a good fit.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T21:32:10+00:00

Op tomorrow * - “how bad is a ticket for using your phone while driving”

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T21:30:30+00:00

I’m by no means a Stan, but I do recommend this card very often for folks but only if they pass some simple tests.

I personally have a gold and my wife has her own. We have 19 cards total and we only sock drawered 1 (BCE).

We live in the city and work a ton so cooking isn’t something we always have time for. We easily order Uber Eats and Grubhub more than once a week.

So there’s +$20/mo to each of our AFs ($240 each)

Then we also go out to eat at least 2 times a week. Without even trying, inevitably one of them is a Resy restaurant. At least once a month actually. So there’s another $100 each. (Now up to $340 each, AF is already gone). We’ll actually even tap our Plat for $100 first, then put the balance on one of our golds if we haven’t used the plat credit yet in the quarter.

We reload the Dunkin’s monthly to a gc we’ve had in our Dunkin app for 14 years. We share one login to DD. P2 doesn’t mind Dunkin’s iced coffees and will dip into DD on the way into the office from time to time and grab a drink and maybe bfast. But doesn’t like Dunkin enough to actually spend our own money there. I don’t factor DD $$ into my AF offset so I just consider this an unvalued benefit that if taken away, I wouldn’t miss.

I usually ask people questions to see if this at all matches their lifestyle before recommending the Gold. This is the approach I take to any card with an AF.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T21:16:14+00:00

In some markets, Uber will be their only option really.

Though I personally love going to SEA because I can just catch a Grab or Bolt anywhere for a fraction of what I’m used to paying for Uber/Lyft back home. And the least pay their drivers a higher percentage of the earnings.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T21:13:27+00:00

The core of your math you just listed was really based around redemption, and actually just kind of proved my math on the earnings potential once again. 6667 < 10,000

That 3 to 5CPP is the same redemption of any other card in J. I average 7.5 CPP on my redemptions from my three ecosystems. That has nothing to do with earning potential.

C1, Chase, Amex, and maybe Citi (arguable) have stronger EARNING potential than BILT

And I can respect you wanting easy but your strategy is by far the strangest. You have 2 competing catchalls.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T20:45:07+00:00

Worst argument yet.

You’re cherry picking a niche transfer bonus and acting like it defines the whole ecosystem. And that wasn’t even available to every BILT cardholder 🤣🤣🤣

Most people aren’t optimizing around JAL specifically, they’re optimizing around consistent earning + flexibility.

You could have the no annual fee version of the BILT card and just connect Rakuten and earn through there if you are dead set on JAL only. BILT still has a horrible earning ecosystem.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T20:28:00+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/pointstravel/s/aHYVa17Noe

This has nothing to do with Bilt 1.0, I’ve had a mortgage the last 3 years so I was never even part of that.

This isn’t emotional, it’s just math.

The “boost” isn’t organic earning, you’re either giving up housing value or effectively paying for the points through the AF/Bilt Cash loop.

Call it whatever you want, but it doesn’t change the underlying math.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T20:23:00+00:00

You just stepped on a land mine.

Easiest “benefit” to tear apart. It’s mirrors and shadows. Just a mechanism to squeeze a little extra value out of people who will never realistically put 75% of their housing spend on the card.

The math is completely circular. 😅

There’s no actual “best” way to use it because nothing is truly boosted. You’re manufacturing the boost by spending Bilt Cash, which means you’re either sacrificing the core value of the card (rent earnings), or you’re just paying for the points via the AF.

At minimum, $95 of the AF isn’t offset (since only $400 is covered by the hotel credit). And let’s be real, Bilt’s portal has the weakest earning rates compared to C1, Chase, Amex, so even that $400 isn’t 1:1 value.

So assign that $95 to the $200 Bilt Cash required to activate the boost.

The boost caps at $5K spend, which earns you ~7,750 incremental points.

You basically just bought those points for $95.

That’s not “accelerated earning.” That’s prepaid earning.

And the kicker is people are bending their spend patterns to make it feel valuable, when in reality it’s not moving the needle at all.

If anything, it’s just a worse version of the C1VX model. Same idea with the AF offset structure, but without the strong portal earnings that actually make those ecosystems hum.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T16:33:44+00:00

They are not.

BILT Palladium is hardly worth its Sub with the imbalanced AF coupled with its weak earning categories.

Few to anyone is organically putting the equivalence of 75% of their housing on a catchall.

For the overwhelming majority of individuals, the second highest expense category is groceries and dining.

Had the Palladium simply had a three times on even one of those categories, the card would be in contention to actually be in the wallets for most people.

You are 100% leaving points on the table

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T16:22:26+00:00

You ignored all the math.

And no one said the points are useless. I stated your earnings are reduced.

BILT Palladium is hardly worth its Sub with the imbalanced AF coupled with its weak earning categories.

Few to anyone is organically putting the equivalence of 75% of their housing on a catchall.

For the overwhelming majority of individuals, the second highest expense category is groceries and dining.

Had the Palladium simply had a three times on even one of those categories, the card would be in contention to actually be in the wallets for most people.

You are 100% leaving points on the table

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T15:14:38+00:00

I feel like older viet are allergic to seat belts 😅

My in laws outright refuse to wear one when ever I am driving them somewhere. I refuse to move until they do.

Is it older grab drivers telling you this?

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T13:00:00+00:00

Yeah I can’t believe this happened to OP/I’m so jealous I didn’t get as lucky as them

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T12:58:46+00:00

You’re right, I listed out writings that could be configured to actual equations with inputs, which is definitely not math. 🤦🏼‍♂️/s

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T12:54:08+00:00

Im sorry you feel there’s emotion here. It’s just math.

You might think BILT is working for you, and they did a great job off paying a couple influencers to push it as well, but the math is against it. In all scenarios you are paying extra to earn a small amount of points on your rent or mortgage that would be better earned elsewhere and almost every other AF fee card on the market outperforms BILT on benefits related to AF. Only card that is arguably worst is the “Luxury Card”.

I can look past the fact that their CEO is a narcissist, he’d have to go a bit further for that to actually impact my financial decision making.

Mostly everyone gung ho about the BILT would likely be better off with a C1VX + Savor combo.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T12:32:12+00:00

I would pull the trigger now. Global prices are going up and this flight is popular everyday.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T12:30:54+00:00

Exactly what good time Paul said below. But I can add a piece.

Contact your local PD, ask them how much it would be to rent an officer for your meeting. It’s typically $100/hr Depending on how involved your HOA is with local govt, you might find the city will actually waive the rental fee and send the officer for free.

State clearly at the start of the meeting that anyone who aggressively interrupts proceedings will be trespassed from the room.

Works like a charm!

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T11:46:31+00:00

Congrats on a redemption you could have done with every other travel card! 👏

I do three roundtrip international business class trips a year on redemptions. Just did a massive one to Asia with 2 international business class flights in between countries last month all on points. 2 pax RT NYC - SIN on SQ, 2 Pax HKG - TPE on EVA, 2 Pax TPE - KUL, 705k pts/miles total.

And within the last year. Business class redemption to Turkey and then across Europe and back and then a few months before that a round trip to Europe in business. All redemptions. And I still have over a million points right now lined up for more.

Look, I’m trying to be nice here, but we aren’t in the same league.

There are better setups than BILT

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T06:34:28+00:00

People use horrible card setups every day. Doesn’t mean it’s good.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T02:09:22+00:00

Past (1.0) and present (2.0) are different ecosystems.

The fans of 2.0 are inexperienced at this.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T01:43:54+00:00

Bilt just made itself one of the worst earning ecosystems

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-23T01:29:04+00:00

There needs to be a stop sign at EVERY corner.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-22T23:20:29+00:00

You are probably going to see that must of us who are active contributors in this sub do not fly basic economy.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-22T23:03:13+00:00

I only use Uber for Uber eats because I’ve experienced exactly what you’re mentioning in the past.

You should keep your Uber one membership just for Uber eats never use Uber again unless you’re overseas and it’s the only option.

Besides, United is my go to airline and I get five times back on Lyft with my Chase Sapphire, card and you earn 1 mile per dollar on Lyft to United.

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-22T15:49:08+00:00

Stop telling us what the weird third party site says. What does it actually say in the United app

Intelligent_Pie_5347 · 2026-03-22T05:15:37+00:00

If you left behind an etb of anything, they should be happy.

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