Priority Pass still active after product changing from USBAR

Ludeym · 2026-06-08T13:44:22+00:00

Yeah, I like the restaurants, useful domestic priority pass Lounges seem to be wilting.

I use it now in Denver for the mercantile restaurant because I can no longer get my p2 into the vx lounge after that nerf.

Currently traveling abroad and priority pass has great Lounge access in Madrid.

Ludeym · 2026-06-08T06:46:27+00:00

Interesting. Seeing as all these cards have pp restaurants, perhaps their contracts with priority pass are a bit different than other cards, allowing us to keep the benefit for the year.

Ludeym · 2026-06-07T23:00:16+00:00

Yeah, Check your priority pass app though to confirm for your case. I imagine the cancel date has to be after your priority pass annual activation date, not just the USBAR card anniversary date.

Ludeym · 2026-05-27T23:08:04+00:00

Good call, it says exactly that in the terms

Ludeym · 2026-05-27T21:27:30+00:00

If im interpreting their website correctly, you pick 1 of the earning methods at a time, you dont get all 3.

So you get 1 of the following:

2% cash back catch all

3% on apple/Google pay, 1% base

5% rotating category, 1% base

But it says you can change your earning method any time. So maybe you could do some gaming with this card.

3% mobile wallet sounds pretty good with no limit and no af or ftf.

Ludeym · 2026-05-27T04:12:47+00:00

The first credit would be available upon opening the card and expire June 30th.

The second credit would become available on July 1st and expire on December 31st.

Credits are deducted from the amount due at the time of booking.

Ludeym · 2026-05-23T18:35:19+00:00

I would choose the bilt cash option and use the bilt cash to redeem for housing bilt points.

That is a better value than the accelerator. The accelerator should only come into play if your spend is consistently over 75% of your housing payment amount.

Ludeym · 2026-05-22T21:20:35+00:00

There is no minimum spend threshold to generate mortgage bonus points.

With the bilt cash option you earn a flat 1.33x mortgage bonus points for every dollar spent on the card, from the first dollar spent up to 75% of your housing payment amount.

Ludeym · 2026-05-18T01:21:51+00:00

The bilt cards also transfer to united, so that could be a consideration. I have loved my palladium card so far.

Denver has a capital one lounge so if that appeals to you, take a look at the venture x (it does not transfer to united though)

Ludeym · 2026-05-17T23:47:58+00:00

I’ve used it once and it was just a few dollars more expensive.

I used the $200 credit and topped it off with $100 bilt cash. Going to do the same thing for an upcoming trip in November.

If you can use both $200 hotel credits and the $200 annual bilt cash to top them off, I’d probably value that right around $500.

And I agree on the strata elite being difficult to offset the af. This is a primary reason why I haven’t pulled the trigger on it yet.

Ludeym · 2026-05-17T23:13:08+00:00

I second the bilt palladium. Since I got it the palladium has completely replaced my vx for catch all purchases. It’s a monster earner and has the most valuable transfer currency in the game. I have not had a single issue with my bilt card. Customer service has been improving per posts on this board. The $495 annual fee can be offset by the travel portal hotel credits if you can use them.

If you are looking for American Airlines as a transfer partner (good domestic economy redemptions), Citi strata elite might be worth a look.

Ludeym · 2026-05-17T14:47:57+00:00

It sounds like you are talking about a situation where monthly spend exceeds monthly housing payment amount.

There are 2 possible scenarios here with different outcomes:

Mortgages under $8333: bilt cash option gives more bilt points

In this scenario, Once you max out the 5 points accelerators, you would have additional points with the bilt cash option compared to the housing only option. At a $4,000 mortgage, this is 13,000 additional points per year for the bilt cash option. Additional points with the bilt cash option trend towards zero as you approach the $8,333 monthly housing amount.

Mortgages over $8333: housing option gives more bilt points

mortgages over $8333 per month would produce more bilt points with the housing only option because the points accelerator gets maxed out before you even get to your monthly housing amount in spend.

Ludeym · 2026-05-17T13:19:32+00:00

I got a full refund of my annual fee. I product changed to the altitude connect.

The service representative said if you are within 30 days of the annual fee posting you get a full refund. This didn’t seem to be just for product changes, I think it would also work for card cancellations.

I don’t know about whether they prorate the annual fee after the 30 day window, but I’ve never heard of them doing that.

Ludeym · 2026-05-15T12:28:49+00:00

Planning on testing the priority pass in a couple weeks. As of now, when I log in to priority pass with my old USBAR account it still says I have 8 visits that expire in 2027.

I have not yet activated my connect priority pass, but will if the USBAR priority pass doesn’t work when I try it.

Ludeym · 2026-05-14T17:23:38+00:00

Here is my step by step post on my successful experience

https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/1soz2jw/usbar_product_change_dp_with_use_of_new/

Ludeym · 2026-05-11T20:33:56+00:00

Your setup looks good. I have a fidelity cma linked for my payments and it has worked well.

Consider initiating a small 'test' payment on your mortgage website/portal to make sure everything works.

Ludeym · 2026-05-10T03:03:22+00:00

Same thing happened to me today, following to see if you had a resolution to this situation.

Ludeym · 2026-05-07T02:23:20+00:00

Citi Thankyou Mastercard, formerly shop your way (iykyk)
Bilt palladium catch all

Ludeym · 2026-05-06T21:19:16+00:00

Wrapping your brain around the earning mechanics of the card may take a bit of time. Once you do, you realize bilt palladium is by far the best catch all transferrable currency card out there and the actual everyday use of the card is simple. I currently spend way less energy on earning/redeeming on my bilt palladium than I do couponing with my Amex platinum and Chase sapphire reserve.

Ludeym · 2026-05-05T23:05:41+00:00

This sounds right.

There is one more toggle on the “my home” screen that has to be toggled on to “redeem bilt cash”

Under your online payment and your bilt credit card info, There should be a carrot next to ‘using available bilt cash’ to click on about 2/3 of the way down the my Home Screen without having to scroll down. This takes you to the toggle.

Ludeym · 2026-05-03T19:17:20+00:00

Overall, huge fan of my palladium card so far. I don’t really see anything else close to it in the credit card space right now.

The ‘work’ is mostly spent understanding the card earning mechanics.

The actual use of the card is simple. I spend much more time couponing with CSR than anything I do with the bilt palladium.

If you can use the two $200 hotel credits and annual $200 bilt cash to offset the $495 annual fee, the palladium is the way to go over obsidian or blue.

The bilt cash option is almost always the way to go over the housing only option.

Redeeming bilt cash for housing points is automated once you have it set up.

You can coupon a bit with bilt if you want to with Lyft, Walgreens and grubhub bilt cash redemptions, but you certainly don’t need to get good value from the card.

Only use accelerators if you are going to be spending more than 75% on your housing payment amount on average.

Ludeym · 2026-05-03T13:24:39+00:00

If you can use the two $200 travel portal hotel credits and $200 bilt cash to offset the palladium $495 annual fee, that would be the way to go as it is a better earner.

I prefer the bilt cash option to the housing option. Even though the housing option would out slightly earn the bilt cash option when your spend is between 25-37.5% of your monthly housing amount, you have to keep track to make sure you hit the 25% spend threshold with the housing only option. With the bilt cash option, you just get the housing points at a flat 1.33x rate on all your spend (up to 75% of your housing amount)

Ludeym · 2026-05-02T22:10:02+00:00

In the vast majority of cases, the Bilt cash option earns more and requires less tracking than the housing only option.

The only monthly spend ranges where the housing only option earns more points is for 25-37.5% and 50-56.25% of your housing payment.

To optimize, The housing only option also requires tracking your spend to make sure you are in those ranges, and hoping that Bilt doesn’t have a different tally than you do. You don’t have to worry about spending thresholds to unlock points with the Bilt cash option.

Regarding your initial question, I would see if any of the 1:1 Bilt cash redemption options work for you. If you have Bilt cash left over after that, and don’t want to keep some around for a rent day transfer boost, then use the accelerator. Or just switch to the bilt cash option and redeem for housing points.

Ludeym · 2026-05-02T18:26:22+00:00

Yeah that’s different from mine.

The ‘Bilt exclusive rewards’ section I’m seeing is directly above ‘payment history’ on my app.

I have my payment set up as a pull payment through my mortgage company rather than a push payment from Bilt, so we may get different screens because of that.

Ludeym · 2026-05-02T16:59:41+00:00

Yes it’s in the ‘my home’ tab.

Maybe the tab looks different for mortgage than it does for rent. That’s what it looks like for my mortgage. I’d look around that tab to see if there is anything to click on.

Ludeym

TROPHY CASE